For the Dieting, and Ordering of your Cock for Battle, observe these Rules.  Let your Cock be full two years Old, then in the latter end of August, take up and Pen him, (it being now Cocking-time till the end of May) and see that he be sound, hard feather’d, and full summed.

The first four days after Penning, Feed him with the Crumb of Old Manchet cut into square bits, thrice a day, and with the Coldest, and Sweetest Spring-water that can be had.  And after you think by this time he is throughly purged of his Corn, Worms, Gravel, and other course Feeding, take him in the Morning out of the Pen, and let him Sparr with another Cock some time to heat and chafe their Bodies, break Fat and Glut, and fit them for Purgation; first having covered their Spurs with Hots of Leather, to hinder their Wounding and drawing Blood of one another.

After they have sufficiently Sparred, that they pant again, take them up, and remove their Hots, and prepare them for a Sweating Bout thus:  Take Butter, and Rosemary, finely chopt, and White-sugar-candy, mixt together; and give them the quantity of a Wallnut; which will Scower, strengthen, and prolong Breath:  Then having (purposely) deep Straw Baskets, fill them half way with Straw, put in your Cock, and cover him with Straw to the top; lay the lid close, and let him stove till the Evening.  At Five a Clock take him out, and lick his Head and Eyes with your Tongue, then Pen him, and fill his Trough with Manchet and hot Urine.

After this, take a Gallon of Wheat, and Oatmeal-flower, and with Ale, half a score Whites of Eggs, and Butter, work it into a stiff Past; bake it into broad Cakes, and when four days Old, cut it into square Bits.

The Second day after Sparring, bring your Cock into a Green-close, and shew him in your Arms a Dung-hill-cock, then run from him, and allure him thus to follow, suffering him now and then to strike the Dung-hill-Cock, and so Chase him up and down for half an Hour, till he pants again; and thus Heated, carry him home, and scour him with half a Pound of Fresh-butter, beaten with the Leaves of the Herb of Grace, Hysop, and Rosemary, to the consistence of a Salve, and give him the quantity of a Wallnut; then Stove, and Feed him as above.  And thus for the first Fortnight, Spar or Chase him every other day.

The second Fortnight, twice a Week will be enough to Chase or Spar your Cock:  Observing that you Stove and Scour him, proportionable to his Heating.

The third and last Fortnight (for six Weeks is long enough) feed him as before, but do not Spar him, but Chase him moderately twice, or thrice, as before; then roll his aforesaid scouring in Brown-sugar-candy, to prevent his being Sick; rest him four days, and then to the Pit.