During the first year after being hatched, they are called individually CHICKEN; from twelve months to two years old, they are termed STAGS, and from that period called COCKS, being then thought in their prime; but they are probably more so AT THREE, if properly walked. Cock chickens should never be permitted to run too long together, but be separated as soon as they begin fighting with each other; and this ought to be the more strictly attended to, because it frequently happens, that out of a whole clutch, by neglect or inattention, what with scalped heads, loss of eyes, broken beaks, or deformed feet, not one has ever been brought to the scale.
Cock chicken, when first removed, at three or four months old, are placed where they continue to walk under an OLD COCK, and will continue obedient and submissive till nine and ten, or sometimes TWELVE MONTHS old; the experiment is nevertheless too hazardous to be made; they had much better be taken to a MASTER-WALK in proper time, to avoid the probability of either one or both being SPOILED. The most eminent BREEDERS, as well as the most enthusiastic BETTERS, have one mode of endeavouring to fix a criterion, how far they can depend upon the heel, the fight, and the blood, of any particular BREED or CROSS they may have been induced to adopt. This experiment (dreadfully cruel as it is) is termed "CUTTING OUT," and consists in pitting such CHICKEN of seven, eight, or nine months old, unarmed, against their own brothers, or others of superior age, weight, and strength, having SILVER SPURS; if the chicken, so unarmed, and without the least chance of success, continues the combat till completely deprived of life, without displaying the least tendency to cowardice, or consciousness of defeat, more of his brothers have the same severe and "fiery ordeal" to undergo, when, if the result is just the same, the cross is admitted to be good, and the BREED is persevered in, till, from circumstances, the blood is thought to degenerate, when new crosses are adopted, and new experiments made. See Cocking, Cock-match, and Cockpit.
GAMING
—is that destructive vice which has annihilated some of the most princely fortunes in this, and, perhaps, in every other kingdom: it is a whirlwind of devastating infatuation, which destroys every thing before it: like the effect of unrestrained fire, it continues its ravages so long as there is a single combustible to feed the flame. The most MAGNIFICENT MANSIONS, the most LORDLY POSSESSIONS, the most MAJESTIC "towering woods," and the most extensive FERTILE VALES, have been in one night swept away by this infernal and definitive propensity. Thousands, educated in AFFLUENCE, and left in a state of the most flourishing INDEPENDENCE, have been reduced to the greatest want, and died miserable repentants within the dreary CONFINES of a PRISON, by the certain effect of an attachment to this most dreadful of all vices, which the united WISDOM of the Legislature has so strenuously endeavoured to suppress. Laws have been framed, and are rigidly enforced, for its prevention; heavy STAMP DUTIES have been laid upon CARDS and DICE, that those who use them may voluntarily contribute to the support of the State, by which both person and property are protected; and, as a farther proportional prohibition, no GAMING DEBT is recoverable BY LAW where the sum sued for shall exceed TEN POUNDS. See Betting.
GAMING-HOUSES
—are those infamous NOCTURNAL RECEPTACLES of the most abandoned iniquity, where such scenes of villainy are in perpetual practice, that the most fertile pen must be inadequate to even a tolerable representation. These houses in the Metropolis, are, by the SPORTING WORLD, denominated "Hells;" and so truly are they entitled to that sublime distinction, that the whole FORCE of MAGISTRACY has been most laudably and successfully exerted against them without exception. Houses of this description are appropriated only to the purposes of play, and that of the most unfair description. They are kept by SYSTEMATIC DEPREDATORS, "who shun the light;" men who have no credit to support, no reputation to lose; and who are as completely lost to every sense of shame, as they are completely banished from the respectable classes of society. Here it is where the young, the inexperienced, the injudicious, and the inconsiderate, sacrifice not only their OWN, and often the property of OTHERS, but prostitute also that most invaluable GEM their INTEGRITY, and with it a PEACE of MIND never to be restored.
From the first moment of entering such an iniquitous sink of POLLUTION, such a complication of VILLAINY, and such a combination of the most desperate and abandoned THIEVES, every infatuated adventurer may date the origin of future misery. Whether it be CARDS, DICE, E. O. or whatever GAME or NAME the speculative sport may be, the credulous, unsuspecting dupe has no one CHANCE TO WIN, but inevitably every chance to lose, under the certainty of their systematic depredation. Thus far in explanation of those Hells, legally considered nuisances to society, as being prejudicial to the morals, and destructive to the property, of such individuals as unhappily fall within the vortex of so fashionable an influence; but there are other GAMING HOUSES of a superior order, and of the most magnificent description, supported in all the style of EASTERN SPLENDOR, by annual contribution from the first characters in the kingdom, and called "SUBSCRIPTION HOUSES," to which none but their own INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS are admitted under any plea whatever; and these, as private houses, being ABOVE THE LAW, any member possesses, of course, the privilege of ruining himself, and reducing his family to beggary, without transgressing the LAWS of HIS COUNTRY, or incurring the censure of his best and most fashionable friends.
GAME-KEEPERS
—are persons delegated by legal prescription, to provide GAME for the purposes of those by whom they are appointed, to PRESERVE and PROTECT it against a class of adventurers (denominated poachers) by night, as well as an unfair or improper destruction of it by day. Every LORD or LADY of a MANOR are authorized, by writing under their hands and seals, to empower a GAME-KEEPER to kill within the said manor, any HARE, PHEASANT, PARTRIDGE, or other game. If, however, such game-keeper shall sell or dispose of the game he shall so kill, without the knowledge or consent of the said LORD or LADY, and shall be convicted, upon the oath of one witness, before a Justice of Peace, he shall be committed to the house of correction, and kept to hard labour for three months.
One GAME-KEEPER only can be appointed to kill game within one manor; in which he is authorized and empowered, by his DEPUTATION, to take and seize all guns, bows, greyhounds, setting-dogs, lurchers, ferrets, trammels, low-bells, hays, or other nets, hare-pipes, snares, or other engines, for the taking and killing of HARES, PHEASANTS, PARTRIDGES, or other game, within the precincts of such manor, in the possession of any person not qualified to keep the same. It does not appear by this act (23d Charles Second, c. xxv. s. 2) that a GAME-KEEPER is empowered to seize THE GAME, although he is authorized to take all instruments in use for the destruction of it.