Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/115

 A woman haymaker                     7d. "     and 3d.     "

A mower                             15d. "     and 9d.     "

A man shearer                       12d. "     and 6d.     "

A woman shearer                     10d. "     and 6d.     "

Hedgers, Ditchers, Threshers, and persons employed in task work     10d. "     and 6d.     "

Masons, Joiners, Plumbers, Tilers, Slaters, Coopers, and Turners     12d. "     and 6d.     "

Master workman, acting as foreman   14d. without board.

From 1660 to 1690, the average price of mutton was 2d. per pound; from 1706 to 1730, 2-1/2d.; and from 1730 to 1760, 3d. per pound. The prices of beef, veal, and lamb in 1710, were respectively 1-1/10d., 2-3/5d., and 2-9/10d., per pound.

During the eighteenth and earlier part of the nineteenth centuries there was perhaps no pastime more popular amongst the adult members of all classes than the callous sport of cock-*fighting; every village and hamlet in the Fylde had its pit, where mains were held at all times and seasons. The following were the rules pretty generally adopted in this neighbourhood for the regulation of the contests:—

"1.—To begin the main by fighting the lighter pair of cocks which fall in match first, proceeding upwards towards the end, that every lighter pair may fight earlier than those that are heavier.

"2.—In matching, with relation to the battles, after the cocks of the main are weighed, the match bills are to be compared.

"3.—That every pair of equal weight are separated, and fight against others; provided it appears that the main can be enlarged by adding thereto."

Skippool was one of the favourite resorts for the gentry of our district when wishful to indulge in their favourite amusement, and frequent allusions to the cockpit there are to be found in the journal of Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, as—"June 9, 1714, of gentlemen. Gave Ned My 1s. for his expenses; spent 1s., and won 2s. 6d. of Dr. Hesketh's cockes." In 1790 a notice appeared in Liverpool that "The great main of cocks between John Clifton, Esq., of Lytham, and Thomas Townley Parker, Esq., of Cuerden, would be fought on Easter Monday, the 5th of April, and the three following days, at the new cockpit in Cockspur Street—to show forty-one cocks each. Ten guineas each battle, and two hundred guineas the main." The great-grandfather of the present Lord Derby compelled each of his tenants to maintain a game-cock for his benefit, and many were the birds supplied
 * * * thence to Skipall, where at a cockin I meet with a deal