COCKFIGHTING

From our vantage point in time, we in the West now think of cockfighting as a cruel sport, though it is still popular in some areas of the globe. Even here in times past it was acceptable:

Cockfighting took place in the city of Glasgow in past centuries. By the mid-seventeenth century it had become the sport of schoolboys, and when the sons of the third Duke of Hamilton were at school in Glasgow, money was paid on their behalf when they 'set their cocks down to fight.' (see Rosalind Marshall: The Days of Duchess Anne (1973), Collins, London, p. 116.)

Cock-Fighting in Glasgow

(as described in 'the Statistical Account of Lanarkshire' published in 1841.)

In former times cock-fighting was so prevalent in this part of the country, that on certain holidays, school-boys provided cocks, and the fight was superintended by the master. But as civilization advanced, this practice gradually disappeared, and at length the amusement in the estimation of many came under the denomination of cruelty to animals. During the latter part of the last and the beginning of the present century, cock-fighting in this city was conducted in a clandestine manner. In 1807, our cock-fighting amateurs, finding a vacant temporary building in Queen Street, made preparations for fighting a main, but when the sport had just commenced, a portion of the city and county magistrates made their appearance and dismissed the meeting. Since that period mains have occasionally been fought here without the interference of the authorities. Of late, however, the desire for this amusement has so much increased, that in this year (1835) a spacious building has been erected for a cock-pit in Hope Street, on the joint stock principle. This building, which is seated for about 280 persons, has suitable accommodation for the judges, handlers, and feeders, and is inferior in nothing to the Westminster pit, but in its dimensions. The company who frequent the Glasgow cock-pit do not belong to the "exclusives;" for here we have all grades from the senator to the journeyman butcher.