Playlist: Sport of Kings
BLOODLINE episodes that explore the rise and fall of cockfighting in England. The British embraced the…
No. 6: The Society for Prevention
Today, almost 200 years after the formation of the SPCA in London, there are satellite organizations in countries all over the globe and in many major cities. 16 years after Broome’s meeting, the crown will grant it a royal commission, and its members will dominate the politics and business of animal law in the country, and elsewhere in the world, for at least the next two centuries.
No. 4: Royal Pastime, Rabble Darling, Part II
At the end of the 1600s, cockfighting was about as prevalent among the British as it…
No. 3: Royal Pastime, Rabble Darling
At its height in the 17th and 18th centuries, cocking permeated British culture without exclusion, occupying crown, court, church and countryman for centuries. Called the “Pleasure of Princes” or the “Royal Pasttime” in books from that time, it was at the same time a rabble darling, a people’s diversion.