Chapter III: , p. 77 (6)

“Fewterel, when stripped, appeared very corpulent, and by no means in
the condition in which he fought Jackson. The Highlander was by far
the finer and stronger man, and was reported to possess wonderful
readiness and courage. They set-to at about eight o’clock in the
morning, and the first knock-down blow was given by Fewterel, who sent
his antagonist a surprising distance, there being no roped enclosure.
The next round he also brought down the Scot by a severe blow in the
chest. In the next round the Highlander got in a well-hit stroke under
Fewterel’s right eye, which cut him severely. He, however, stood firm,
and kept cool. The next blow Fewterel got in, he again brought him
down, and this so enraged the Highlander, that during the remainder of
the contest he never recovered his temper. This gave Fewterel a
decided advantage, and though he afterwards received many severe
blows, he constantly reduced the strength of his antagonist. At length
he put in a hit under the Highlander’s jaw that laid him senseless on
the grass. Thus terminated the contest, after thirty-five minutes. The
Scot soon, however, recovered, but was unable to walk home. The match
was 50 guineas to 30 guineas. The odds were given to Fewterel, who
generously gave the man he had beaten 10 guineas, the sum he
(Fewterel) was promised if he won the battle.”—“Pancratia,” pp. 111,
112.

Footnote 62:

“The second boxing match was between Elisha Crabbe, the Jew, who beat
Death (see _ante_) and Watson of Bristol; won by the latter. The third
between two outsiders.”

Footnote 63:

That the everyday use and familiar handling of deadly weapons lead to
their reckless use, we may quote a few recent instances from the
history of our descendants in America. The horrible assassination of
the great and good President Abraham Lincoln, and the ferocious use of
a “billy” and a bowie-knife upon the helpless and prostrate Mr.
Secretary Seward, his son, Major Frederick Seward, and an attendant,
are offsprings of a familiarity with daily outrages by lethal weapons,
and the general resort to them to redress injury or resent insult. The
death of the assassin Booth is the culmination.

Footnote 64:

_Eheu fugaces anni_—not only have the men departed, but their local
habitations have vanished. The spacious hotel, once Wallace’s, now the
Alexandra, and palatial mansions, cover the ground extending from Hyde
Park Corner (on the side of St. George’s Hospital), towards St. Paul’s
new Puseyite pinnacles at Knightsbridge. Even “the Corner” itself—the
world-famed “Tattersall’s” has migrated. It will be known only to the
remainder of the present, and the next rising generation, as the
splendid club-room and spacious horse-mart at the junction of the
Brompton and Kensington Roads.

Footnote 65:

About 1790, Lord Barrymore was in the hey-day of his riot and
“larkery” at Brighton, where the Prince of Wales had just finished
that grotesque kiosk known as the Pavilion, once the scene of royal
orgies, now a cockney show-shop of London super mare. The Lord
Barrymore, who was Hooper’s patron, was the head of the family firm
nicknamed Newgate, Hellgate, and Cripplegate, from colloquial,
acquired, or personal peculiarities. On hearing these elegant
sobriquets, the Prince is said to have objected to the omission of the
lady sister of the trio from this nomenclature, and ungallantly
suggested the name of “Billingsgate,” as a fourth of the family.

One anecdote is too characteristic of the actors to be lost. “In one
of his wild freaks, his Lordship, from his lofty phaeton, struck with
his driving whip a Mr. Donadieu, a respectable perfumer of Brighton,
who was driving in his gig, for not getting quickly enough out of his
impetuous Lordship’s way. Mr. Donadieu drove after him, but his
lordship’s terrible high-bred cattle soon distanced him. The next
morning Mr. D., perceiving Lord Barrymore upon the Steyne, in company
with several sporting men, went up to him and remonstrated upon the
ungentlemanly usage he had experienced the previous day. His Lordship
replied insultingly, and struck the perfumer. The tradesman was an
Englishman, and at once returned the blow. A smart rally convinced the
eccentric peer that his credit as a boxer was at stake, for his
resolute opponent drove him before his attack. Lord Barrymore tried to
take an unfair advantage, when the Prince of Wales, who had witnessed
the whole fracas from a window of the Pavilion, called out in a loud
voice, ‘D——e, Barrymore, _fight like a man_!’” In the Hon. Grantley F.
Berkeley’s volumes, “My Life and Recollections” (London, Hurst and
Blackett, 1865), vol. i., pp. 49‒78, is a curious sketch of Brighton
at the close of the 18th century, with anecdotes of Colonel Hanger,
Lord Barrymore, John Jackson, etc., and the ladies whom the heir
apparent delighted to honour. The specimen of the Prince’s style, in
the anecdote of the Royal Harriers, pp. 70, 71, will show that the
“first gentleman of Europe” was _facile princeps_ in the then
fashionable accomplishment of swearing. Grantley Berkeley makes a slip
in the closing lines of his notice of Lord Barrymore, which it may be
worth while to correct. He says: “A rapid career of reckless
extravagance was brought to a sudden close whilst marching with a
detachment towards Dover: _the musket of one of his men went off,
eventually causing his_ (Lord Barrymore’s) _death_.” We must acquit
the Berkshire militia of this charge of clumsy or intentional
homicide. We extract from the memoir of a contemporary: “Lord
Barrymore was a lieutenant of the Berkshire militia stationed at Rye,
and was marching a party of French prisoners to Deal. They marched
through Folkestone to the top of the succeeding hill, and halted at a
small public-house to refresh his men and the prisoners. Admiral
Macbride and General Smith met his lordship there; he was in high
spirits, and accepted an invitation to dine with them at Deal. Lord
Barrymore had marched at the head of his party from Rye; he now
ordered his _valet-de-chambre_, who drove his curricle in the rear, to
procure him a pipe of tobacco, saying, ‘I’ll ride and smoke while you
drive.’ He was in high glee, counted up the score with chalk on a
slate, _à la_ Boniface; imitated Hob, from ‘Hob in the Well,’ a farce
he was very partial to; treated all about him; gave the landlady a
kiss, and leaped into the curricle. He gave the fusil to his servant,
who placed it carelessly between his legs and drove off. They had
scarcely proceeded fifty yards when the piece went off. The contents
entered his lordship’s right cheek, forced out the eye, and lodged in
the brain: he was pointing to the coast of France at the moment. He
lived forty minutes, groaning heavily, but never spoke again. The
fusil was loaded with swan shot; he had been killing gulls and rabbits
on his way from Rye to Folkestone. An inquest was held on the 8th of
March, the verdict ‘Accidental Death.’ He was interred on Sunday,
March 17, 1793, in the chancel of the church at Wargrave.”

Footnote 66:

In “Fistiana,” Wright is, by a slip, called “Lord Barrymore’s man.”
Cotterel’s fight is also omitted under HOOPER.

Footnote 67:

This battle does not appear under Hooper’s name in “Fistiana.”

Footnote 68:

There not being time for the second contest between Stanyard, of
Birmingham, and Andrew Gamble, the Irish champion, it was postponed to
the next day. See GAMBLE, in Appendix to Period II.

Footnote 69:

Maddox will find his place under CRIBB’S period. His first fight was
in 1792, his last with Bill Richmond in 1809.

Footnote 70:

See Wood’s memoir, Appendix to Period II., _post_.

Footnote 71:

“Fistiana” misprints it _sixteen_ minutes.

Footnote 72:

A memoir of this well-known boniface, whose memory yet lives with old
ring-goers, (he died at his house at Plumstead, Kent, in 1843), will
be found in its chronological order.

Footnote 73:

“The Historian” inflicts a second thrashing by his hero and pal “Ould
Tom Owen” on poor Hooper, ten weeks afterwards, at the same place,
under similar circumstances. We suspect “Ould Tom,” as Pierce Egan
calls him, who had a lively imagination, to say the least, must have
narrated a dream to his “philosopher and friend.”

Footnote 74:

These exceptional events are out of ring chronology, properly
speaking. Owen and his opponent, old Dan Mendoza, belonged, as
pugilists, to a previous generation.

Footnote 75:

There was a boxer at this period, Bill Jones, who fought Dunn, Tom
Tyne, and Bob Watson, who has been confounded with Paddington Jones.

Footnote 76:

See Life of JEM BELCHER in Period III.

Footnote 77:

“Boxiana” and “Fistiana” date this fight in June. January is the
correct date; see “Pancratia,” p. 123, and the _Daily Advertiser_ of
the date.

Footnote 78:

“Boxiana” confounds him with Tom (Paddington) Jones.

Footnote 79:

Though Anderson was not, or pretended not to be, good enough for
Watson, Lord Barrymore, who saw the fight, matched him for 50 guineas
against Tom Tight, an Oxford bargee. They fought on Wargner Green,
Berks, January 4, 1790, when Anderson knocked the bargeman almost out
of time in the third round, six minutes only having elapsed.

Footnote 80:

See Life of GULLY, _post_.

Footnote 81:

Cullington was a sporting publican, landlord of the Black Bull, in
Tottenham Court Road, a personal friend and backer of Jem Belcher,
then called “The Bristol Youth.”

Footnote 82:

Pierce Egan says, “a man of the name of Bourke, a butcher.” Much
confusion has been occasioned by the absurd penchant of “the
historian” (as Pierce was wont to style himself) to Hibernicise and
appropriate to Ireland the names and deeds of fistic heroes. Teste his
twist of “the Streatham Youth” into O’Neale, his ludicrous
magniloquence in the case of several Irish roughs in “Boxiana,” on
whom he has expended his slang panegyric (see CORCORAN, GAMBLE,
HATTON, O’DONNELL, etc.), and his thousand and one claims of “Irish
descent” for most of his heroes. Joe Berks (spelt Bourke or Burke in
“Boxiana” and “Fistiana”) was a native of Wem, in Shropshire. He was a
powerful heavy made man, a little short of six feet high, and weighing
fourteen stone. His career was unfortunate, from being pitted against
such phenomena of skill as Jem Belcher and Henry Pearce, for his game
and strength were unimpeachable. From “Pancratia,” p. 126, under date
of September, 18, 1797, we learn that Joe Berks was a cooper, and that
at that date he fought one Christian, a shoemaker, and much fancied as
a boxer by the sons of Crispin, a severe battle in Hyde Park. The
contest lasted fifty-five minutes, during which there were twenty-two
rounds of hard boxing. Berks, despite a wrangle for a “foul,” was
declared the conqueror. Berks’ subsequent pugilistic career will be
read in the memoirs of his conqueror. His successive defeats by
Belcher, Pearce, and Deplige, and his violent temper, lost his
patrons, and he sunk into poverty. A dishonest act, under the
influence, as it was urged in his defence, of liquor, led to his
imprisonment. Here one firm friend of the unfortunate stepped forward,
John Jackson, who, by petition, procured his liberation. Berks
enlisted, and when his kind benefactor last heard of him he held the
position of non-commissioned officer in the Grenadier company of a
regiment serving under the Duke of Wellington (Sir Arthur Wellesley)
in Spain.

Footnote 83:

Alluding to the treaty of Amiens with Napoleon I., the preliminaries
of which were signed October 1, 1801.

Footnote 84:

The old city house of detention and correction was so called; its
successor, the “Giltspur Street Compter,” is now also demolished, and
its prisoners sent to Holloway.

Footnote 85:

These are the exact words of the original report.

Footnote 86:

Another of the _hors d’œuvres_ of a casual turn-up. Tom’s last battle,
properly speaking, was in 1813, with Dogherty, see _post_, p. 160.

Footnote 87:

A silly exaggeration of the “Aquila non gignunt columbæ.” We know
eagles don’t beget doves, or the reverse; but though a healthy or
unhealthy constitution may be transmitted, neither poets,
philosophers, preachers, or pugilists, are begotten hereditarily.

Footnote 88:

“Son of the _renowned_ Michael Ryan,” says Pierce Egan, who devotes to
him a biography. Michael’s “renown” consisted in being twice beaten by
Tom Johnson, which was no disgrace, and then by Mike Brady, an Irish
rough, in twenty minutes, which was. Bill, who was a drunken Irish
braggadocio, after winning his first fight with Belcher, wrangled a
battle with Caleb Baldwin (see BALDWIN), and beat Clarke, June 17,
1806.

Footnote 89:

See Appendix to Period IV.

Footnote 90:

Pearce was in his twenty-sixth year, and the senior of Belcher by
nearly five years; but his constitution was undebauched, and his fame
matured. Belcher began his fighting career at seventeen years with
Britton, two or three years too early.

Footnote 91:

Isaac Bittoon had beaten Tom Jones, and made a draw with George
Maddox, and at this time was in good repute as a boxer. See APPENDIX.

Footnote 92:

It may be as well here to note that wherever practicable, the best
contemporary report has been used of these earlier fights, which will
account for discrepancies between some of them and the embellished
accounts in “Boxiana.”

Footnote 93:

He was born August 21, 1783, at Bristol.

Footnote 94:

A bit of slang for the King’s Bench Prison, afterwards called Abbott’s
Priory, Tenterden Park, Denman’s Priory, etc., from successive C. J.’s
of the K. B. It is now abolished, and its site a barrack.

Footnote 95:

This would now lose the fight.—ED.

Footnote 96:

Gin. The name of a celebrated distiller (Sir John Liptrap) at
Whitechapel. As “Hodges” is now sometimes used for the same spirituous
“blue ruin.”

Footnote 97:

Successively in the occupation of Ned Baldwin, Young Dutch Sam, Johnny
Hannan, and the late Ben Caunt.

Footnote 98:

This is the contemporary report. That in “Boxiana,” and copied into
“Fights for the Championship,” is a re-written version.

Footnote 99:

From the contemporary report. A perusal of merely the first round in
“Boxiana,” or its copyists, will show the unfaithfulness of the
_vamped_ reproduction in these cases.

Footnote 100:

_Bell’s Weekly Dispatch_, May 14, 1808.

Footnote 101:

See CROPLEY, Appendix to Period III.

Footnote 102:

There is some obscurity about this, as to whether the fight with Tom
Jones, July 13, 1801, is attributable to Dutch Sam, or to Isaac
Bittoon. (See BITTOON.) “Boxiana,” “Fistiana,” etc., give it to
Bittoon, we suspect erroneously; for we find in a contemporary
newspaper the following:—“Monday, July 13, 1801.—A boxing match was
fought on Wimbledon Common, between Elias, a Jew, and Tom Jones. In
the first twenty minutes Tom evidently had the advantage, and during
this time great sport was afforded to the amateurs by the science
displayed. Elias, however, put in a hit so forcibly behind Tom’s ear,
that Tom immediately fell, and gave up the contest.” And see
“Pancratia,” p. 136, where the battle is given in chronological order
under this date.

Footnote 103:

See BALDWIN (Caleb), Appendix to Period III.

Footnote 104:

This is the first distinct notice we find of administering the
“upper-cut;” the most effective blow in a rally, most difficult to
guard against, yet so generally missed by the less-skilled boxer.
The “chopper,” or downward blow, of which our forefathers talked,
can only be administered to an incapable off his guard, or a
“chopping-block.”—ED.

Footnote 105:

“Pancratia,” p. 237.

Footnote 106:

“Boxiana” (vol. i., p. 323), and the Chronologies, say at “Moulsey
Hurst.” This is from the contemporary account.

Footnote 107:

As in the interval between these two battles, Mr. Fletcher Reid, a
great patron and backer of the Belchers, paid the “debt of nature,”
this seems the right place for a brief obituary notice which we find
in the journals:—“On Thursday morning, January the 24th (1807), died,
at Shepperton, Surrey, where he had resided for the last two years,
Mr. Fletcher Reid, well-known in the sporting world, particularly as
one of the greatest patrons of gymnastic genius. The evening preceding
he had spent jovially amongst some select companions, and retired to
rest at rather a late hour. In the morning his servant found him dead.
Mr. Fletcher Reid was a native of Dundee, in Scotland, near to which
he had succeeded to estates, by the death of his mother, which
afflicting intelligence he had received only two days previous to his
decease. He left a wife and two children, who for some time past had
resided with his mother.” The following lines, rather questionable in
taste, appeared in a monthly publication some time afterwards:—

“In the still of the night, Death to Shepperton went,
And there catching poor Fletcher asleep,
He into his wind such a finisher sent,
That no longer ‘the time’ could he keep.

“Thus forced to give in, we his fate must lament,
While the coward, grim Death, we must blame,
For if in the morn he to Shepperton went,
He feared Fletcher’s true science and game.

“Then repose to his ashes, soft rest to his soul,
For harmless was he through life’s span,
With the friend of his bosom, enjoying the bowl,
And wishing no evil to man.”

“_February, 1807._”

Footnote 108:

“Recollections of an Octogenarian,” 8vo., London, 1812.

Footnote 109:

Pierce Egan says, “Seabrook was so completely frightened out of all
his conceit, that he _almost bolted_ from the spot.” What that may
mean we cannot explain.

Footnote 110:

Coady’s other exploit was being beaten by Bill Treadway, in
twenty-seven minutes March 16, 1798, in Hyde Park.

Footnote 111:

This is what modern reporters would call “forcing the fighting.”

Footnote 112:

This decision is utterly at variance with the rules of the ring. The
cool _non-sequitur_ of the reporter that, as Coady _refused_ to
appear, the battle was declared a drawn one, is not the least amusing
incident. Mr. Vincent Dowling has booked it as a victory to Maddox,
which it undoubtedly was. See “Fistiana,” _voce_, MADDOX.

Footnote 113:

The memoir of Caleb Baldwin in “Boxiana,” vol. i., pp. 301‒314, omits
all mention of this fight.

Footnote 114:

Copied in “Pancratia,” p. 136, from the _Oracle_ newspaper. This
battle is also overlooked by “the historian,” in his life of Caleb.

Footnote 115:

Jack Lee was then thought a rising pugilist; his previous battle was a
draw with Solly Sodicky, a Jew. He must not be confounded with Harry
Lee, who was beaten by Mendoza.

Footnote 116:

In the travels of Pallas in Tartary, he describes himself, after a
weary sledge journey through snowy steppes, as coming in sight of the
corpse of a malefactor swinging on a gaunt black gibbet as a warning
to “land pirates.” He congratulates himself on this mark of having
arrived on the “confines of civilization.”

Footnote 117:

Blows in the short ribs are so called by the older ring reporters.—ED.

Footnote 118:

Stephenson had been beaten by Jack Carter. (See CARTER, Period IV.)
Robinson was an old stager, fourteen stone weight; his fights, not
worth detailing, are chronicled in “Fistiana.”

Footnote 119:

Massa Bristow seems here to have fought his best fight; despite the
tuition of Richmond and his Fives Court practice, he merely beat an
unknown (Little Tom) for 20 guineas in a clumsy fight at Holloway,
July 19, 1817, and was then thrashed by a fourth-rate pugilist, Pug
M’Gee, at Shepperton Range, September 30, 1817, in sixty-five minutes,
40 rounds.

Footnote 120:

This proved to be the afterwards renowned Jack Randall.

Footnote 121:

Ben Stanyard, who is stated to have been the victor in seventeen
battles in the midland and western counties, does not figure in the
chronologies; this draw and his defeat by Bill Warr (see WARR),
October 26, 1792, are all that appear to his name.

Footnote 122:

Noah James, a discharged trooper, appears to have been a bruiser of
Gamble’s own stamp. He is stated in “Fistiana” to have beaten Smith at
Navestock, December 31, 1788, and Solly Sodicky, the Jew (a cross), at
Hornchurch, Essex, February 13, 1793; but these battles were fought by
one James, a waterman. See “Pancratia,” pp. 82 and 111. There was also
a Joe James, beaten by Faulkner, the cricketer. (See FAULKNER,
_ante_.)

Footnote 123:

In “Fistiana,” under O’Donnell, Harry Holt is stated to have defeated
him in 1817. It was another boxer of the same name, said to be a
relative of the subject of our sketch.

Footnote 124:

The account in “Boxiana” deserves transferring, as a model of accuracy
and diction:—

“_O’Donnell_, the celebrated Irish hero, fought TOM BELCHER for a
subscription purse of 20 guineas, at Shepperton Common, Surrey.
Considerable _science_ was displayed by BELCHER upon this occasion;
and _O’Donnell_ showed himself also entitled to respectable attention;
but who was completely _satisfied_ in fifteen rounds, when BELCHER was
proclaimed the conqueror.”

Footnote 125:

The paragraph runs thus in the papers of the day:—“July 13 (1801). A
boxing match was fought on Wimbledon Common, between Elias, a Jew, and
Tom Jones. For the first twenty minutes Tom evidently had the
advantage, and during this time great sport had been afforded by the
excellent science displayed on both sides. Elias, however, put in a
hit so forcibly behind Tom’s ear, that he immediately fell and gave up
the contest.” And see “Pancratia,” p. 144., where the paragraph is
reprinted. The Elias was, doubtless, Dutch Sam.

Footnote 126:

Bittoon’s name is spelt with a P (Pittoon) in the contemporary
reports.

Footnote 127:

See TOM TOUGH (Blake), in this Appendix.

Footnote 128:

The battle would have been over, and Bittoon the victor, with a modern
referee.—ED.

Footnote 129:

The site of the present Harley Street, Oxford Street. The report
states the spot differently. “On Tuesday morning, February the 18th
[1794], a battle was fought between Jack Holmes, the hackney coachman,
and a manufacturer of _à-la-mode_ beef, in a field behind Gower
Street, Bedford Square. After four or five tolerably good rounds, the
contest was put an end to by the cry of a foul blow. The seconds chose
an umpire, Captain Hamilton, who, greatly to the disappointment of the
kiddies who lacked more fun, decided it in favour of the beef-eater.
This very much discomfited the son of Jehu, who certainly had held the
whip-hand over his antagonist the whole time, and he voluntarily
offered to renew the battle for another guinea, but his opponent
declined.”

Footnote 130:

As “Boxiana” is scarce and out of print, a specimen of the inflated
bombast of its author may be amusing. The memoir of Gregson (who
occupies six lines in the Chronologies), _all his recorded fights
having been defeats_, is thus headed and introduced, with a profusion
of capital letters:—

“BOB GREGSON, P.P.,
_One of the most distinguished Champions of Lancashire_,

and

POET LAUREATE
TO THE HEROIC RACE OF PUGILISTS.

I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dare do more, is none.

“In recording the most prominent traits of the celebrated pugilists,
from the earliest professors of the gymnastic art down to the present
milling æra, when passing in review, ‘Boxiana’ has found none more
entitled to peculiar attention than the hero of the present sketch.”
Said sketch then starts off from Fig, glances at Broughton, George
Taylor, Slack, the ‘prodigies of valour performed by Corcoran as a
bruiser;’ and refers to Humphries, Mendoza, Bill Warr, Hooper,
Jackson, Pearce, the Belchers, and Berks. Gully, Cribb, and Molineaux
too are dragged in as foils to Bob Gregson! The proëmium thus
concludes:—“But, notwithstanding the above variety of qualifications,
it has been reserved for Bob Gregson alone, from his union of pugilism
and poetry, to recount the deeds of his brethren of the fist in heroic
verse (like the bards of old, in sounding the praises of their warlike
champions), whose pretensions to the former are beyond all dispute,
and respecting the latter, one of the most distinguished works of
sporting celebrity has given place to the poetic effusions of his
muse.”

Footnote 131:

To many who have not the opportunity of perusing the writings of “the
author of Boxiana,” as he was wont to call himself, this criticism may
appear unduly harsh: this imputation we should be sorry to lie under.
While writing these pages, two well filled volumes have been published
by the Hon. Grantley Berkeley, entitled “My Life and Recollections,”
embracing reminiscences of the first half of the present century, and
of persons and events in society. The writer is happy to have so
thoroughly competent a confirmation of his condemnation. He may
premise also, that the very argot of which Pierce Egan proclaimed
himself a professor was not radically English, but the low slang of
Irish ruffianism. Mr. Grantley Berkeley says (vol. i., pp. 107,
108):—“The extravagances and absurdities of ‘Tom and Jerry’ were
brought into vogue by a low-caste Irishman, known as Pierce Egan,
sometimes a newspaper reporter [only in his later day] of fights,
etc., and sometimes a low comedian in third-rate Dublin and London
theatres. [He was a compositor in Smeeton’s printing office in St.
Martin’s Lane.] His ‘Life in London’ was very popular, and he
dramatised it at the Adelphi [this was done by Billy Moncrieff] with
marked success. He brought out a similar play in the Irish capital,
called ‘Life in Dublin,’ and a third in the flourishing commercial
port on the Mersey, called ‘Life in Liverpool.’ His ‘Boxiana’ was
considered as a text-book on fights and fighting men; and his
elaborate and exaggerated descriptions of ‘a mill,’ as prize-fights
were designated, were stuffed full of slang, the delight of a large
circle of male readers. He assisted in starting a sporting newspaper,
the still flourishing _Bell’s Life in London_ [this is totally wrong],
and subsequently an opposition one, with a similar title. It failed,
and he long outlived his reputation as an author, for he was totally
destitute of literary invention: the characters in his stories were
thoroughly conventional, and his style never rose above that of an
ordinary penny-a-liner. He was a coarse-looking man, who seemed only
to have associated with the very lowest society in England and
Ireland. Indeed, he used to make boast of his familiarity with the
riff-raff of both capitals. The intense vulgarity of his writings grew
distasteful; and though he produced several works of imagination, all
have sunk into oblivion. Indeed they predeceased their author a good
many years. He died totally forgotten by his once innumerable patrons,
and the literature of the ring died with him.” The last phrase rounds
a period; but a second thought would have told Mr. Berkeley that the
really good ring reports which, from about 1824 to a late period, at
intervals filled the columns of the _Morning Chronicle_, _Bell’s Life
in London_, _the Weekly Dispatch_, and other papers, were none of them
from the coarse and illiterate pen of “the historian,” but from those
of George Kent, Mr. G. Daniels; and principally from those of Mr.
Smith, Mr. V. G. Dowling, the writer of this work, and other qualified
reporters. Whether the ring itself is dead is another question, which
we may now answer in the affirmative with Mr. Grantley Berkeley.

Footnote 132:

In Tom Moore’s satirical squib, entitled “Tom Cribb’s Memorial to
Congress” (p. 38), he thus ironically glances at Gregson’s pugilistic
laureateship:—

“A pause ensued—till cries of ‘Gregson’
Brought Bob, the poet, on his legs soon—
(My eyes, how prettily Bob writes!
Talk of your Camels, Hogs, and Crabs,
And twenty more such Pidcock frights—
Bob’s worth a hundred of these dabs:
For a short turn-up at a sonnet,
A round of odes, or pastoral bout,
All Lombard Street to nine-pence on it,
Bobby’s the boy would clean them out!)”

Footnote 133:

The accounts in “Boxiana” and “Fights for the Championship,” are
verbal reprints of each other. The above is the contemporary report.

Footnote 134:

This would by the modern rules be illegal.

Footnote 135:

The unreported rounds in this and other places, are supplied in
“Boxiana” and its copyists; as well as a great quantity of vamping up,
the details of which Pierce Egan must have imagined.

Footnote 136:

See Life of “MOLINEAUX, _post_, Chapter II.”

Footnote 137:

These, as in several other instances, are _resumés_ of the principal
reports of writers who witnessed the fight itself. Where worth
preservation we have preferred the _ipsissimis verbis_ of the
reporter.

Footnote 138:

Shakespere tells us “losers have leave to rail.” Among other things
Molineaux declared he was “sold.” A weekly print had the following
“impromptu,” of course “_fait à loisir_”:—

AN IMPROMPTU,

_On its being said, in allusion to the late battle, that Molineaux had
been “sold.”_

The Black, to say at least, is bold,
That in the battle he was sold:
If so—by _Auction_—for ’tis known,
When he was sold, Cribb _knocked him down_!

Footnote 139:

See note A., Appendix to Period IV. Captain BARCLAY, Allardyce of Ury.

Footnote 140:

In “Boxiana,” this house is elegantly metamorphosed into “The Prad and
Swimmer,” the original name not being thought sufficiently
incongruous.

Footnote 141:

“_On the Champion’s quitting his trade of coal-merchant for that of
victualler, at the sign of the King’s Arms._

“Black Diamonds adieu! Tom’s now took to the bar,
The fancy to serve with new charms—
For a ‘chop’ or a glass, to mill or to spar,
They’ll be at home to a peg at the Arms!
The lovers of truth, without crime, may here fib,
On the pleasures of sporting can sing;
Then ye swells give a turn to gallant TOM CRIBB,
That he may ne’er quit the ‘Arms of his King.’”

Footnote 142:

This speech was thus poetically paraphrased in a weekly journal, from
which we quote a few of the lines:—

“THE CHAMPION’S RETIREMENT.

“‘Every puny whipster gets my sword.’—SHAKSPEARE.

“No so with our champion of Britain’s proud throng,
He still rears his crest for the fight or the song;
‘Bout friendship or fighting he can’t make a speech,
O’ the latter he’d much rather practise than preach.
A lapse of ten years or more soon roll’d away,
Since Afric’s brave bully proclaim’d it Tom’s day;
He then, like a game cock, retired with his pickings,
In peace to provide for his old hen and chickens;
When, lo! a cock crow’d on his walk in the west,
Supposing ‘Old Tom’ of Old Tom had the best;
But Tom left his ‘Hodges,’ gout, crutches, behind,
Reducing his belly, increasing his wind:—
The fight was proclaim’d, and some money put down,
To see who’d best claim to their country’s renown.
Cribb came to the scratch, like a hero, to meet
His man, but he back’d out;—now wasn’t that NEAT?
“AN OLD MILLER.”

Footnote 143:

This has since been done, as is shown in our engraving.

Footnote 144:

This fight is omitted from “Fistiana,” and the name of Burrows given
as Molineaux’s first opponent.

Footnote 145:

Pierce Egan makes it “Sturton” Island in this and other places.

Footnote 146:

This is the newspaper report. Pierce Egan, in his diffuse life of
Richmond, passes it over entirely, until he comes to Richmond’s
victory (in August, 1809) over Maddox, when he alludes to it as
“turn-up five years previously.”

Footnote 147:

Jack Holmes was for many years a well known public character. In
“Fistiana” he is described as beaten by Tom (Paddington) Jones in
1786. This was another Holmes, not “the Coachman.” The latter’s only
recorded battles are, that with Tom Tough (Blake), and that with
Richmond reported above.

Footnote 148:

“Boxiana” says, in an undated and unplaced line and a half, “Richmond
now entered into an unequal contest with Tom Cribb.”

Footnote 149:

This is a blunder in “Boxiana” (if ever the battle did take place),
for 1808, and is so corrected in “Fistiana.”

Footnote 150:

See Tom Moore’s Poem, “Tom Cribb’s Memorial to Congress.”

Footnote 151:

“The Fancy,” a selection from the Poetical Remains of the late Peter
Corcoran, of Gray’s Inn, Student at Law.—Pseudonymous.

Footnote 152:

The term “navvy” or “navigator,” now applied to the labourers who do
the earthworks, embankments, and excavations of our railways, seems
anomalous; it, however, was derived from the fact that the early
canals, which these men dug, were called “navigations,” not only in
common speech, but in legal documents and Acts or Parliament. Those
who worked on the “navigation” were called “navigators.” The name has
remained, though a viaduct has taken the place of an aqueduct.

Footnote 153:

This is Pierce Egan’s report. Shelton was 5 feet 10 inches; Burn (who
is always by him called Burns) 6 feet 1 inch. Johnson was a trifle
under 5 feet 9 inches, Perrins 6 feet inches in his stocking feet.
See _ante_, p. 61.

Footnote 154:

He was a backer of pugilists, and kept the Goat, in Lower Grosvenor
Street.

Footnote 155:

This term perhaps may not be generally understood. To “hocus” a man is
to put something into his drink of a narcotic quality, that renders
him unfit for action. On the morning alluded to, Randall, in company
with some “friends,” partook of a bottle of red wine mulled, into
which, he asserted, the sleepy potion must have been introduced by
some scoundrel of the company.

Footnote 156:

He vanquished the great black, Molineaux, and a wonderful old man,
Richmond, who was a fighter at the age of nearly 60.

Footnote 157:

See “Boxiana,” vol. ii., 135.

Footnote 158:

This may serve to settle a disputed point as to the colour of “the
Belcher,” which has been wrongly said, in a reply to a correspondent
in a leading sporting journal, to have been “a blue bird’s-eye.”
Principal and seconds were here Bristol men.

Footnote 159:

Death’s Doings.

Footnote 160:

Another of the too-late battles. Martin closed his real ring career,
in 1824, by a drawn battle with Jem Burn.

Footnote 161:

Mr. John Jackson.

Footnote 162:

Now the Victoria, in the Waterloo Road.

Footnote 163:

Poet Laureate to the Fancy.—ED.

Footnote 164:

See Note A, p. 258.

Footnote 165:

Egan says, “Pentikin, a Scotch baker.” Certainly Scotchmen have almost
a monopoly of London baking, but the reporter of the day makes
Pentikin a Cornish man.

“By Pol, Tre, and Pen,
Ye shall know the Cornish men.”

Footnote 166:

This is set down in “Fistiana” as a victory to Nosworthy.

Footnote 167:

Since the above lines were penned, Alfred Henry Holt, after several
years’ service on the _Morning Advertiser_, _Bell’s Life in London_,
and latterly on the _Sportsman_, has fallen in the struggle of an
exciting and laborious profession, at the early age of thirty-nine
years. He died of heart disease somewhat suddenly on the 20th of
November, 1865, and lies buried in Nunhead Cemetery, leaving a widow
and a son (Henry), who follows the profession of his father and
grandfather, and now holds the trustworthy position of Secretary and
Scorer to the International Gun Clubs of Brighton, London, and
Mentone, or Nice.

Footnote 168:

Tom Reynolds, born at Middleton, county Armagh, Ireland, 1792, was
brought up in Covent Garden Market, where, in after years, he was a
potato merchant. “Boxiana,” vol. ii., pp. 429-441; vol. iii., pp.
458-462, gives the usual number of victories to the youthful “Tight
Irish Boy,” over “big” unknown men, and a turn-up in the Fleet Prison
with George Head, (in which Reynolds was defeated in nine minutes,
says “Fistiana,” while Pierce Egan says he was victorious). Tom’s
greatest exploit, however, was his conquest of Aby Belasco in one hour
and twenty minutes, at Moulsey, July 23, 1817. It was a game battle on
both sides. His next battle was with Church, in September of the same
year, at the same place, which he also won in half an hour. His
subsequent affairs were a draw with Johnson (the broom-dasher), at
Canterbury, November 11, 1817; beat J. Dunn, fifty-four minutes,
twelve rounds, Kildare, July 4, 1820; beat Simmonds, seven rounds,
Macclesfield, August 21, 1820; fought a draw with Dick Davis, £200
a-side, Manchester, July 18, 1825. Reynolds died in Dublin, May 15,
1832, in his forty-first year.

Footnote 169:

Mr. John Jackson.

Footnote 170:

Dick Curtis, his brother.

Footnote 171:

Afterwards the renowned cavalry officer under the Iron Duke in the
Peninsula, and slain at Waterloo.—ED.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. P. vi, changed “un grande punizone del naso” to “un grande punzone del naso”. 2. P. viii, changed “ourselves the Homeric description” to “ourselves to the Homeric description.” 3. P. xiii, changed “Bronzi dei Museo Kircheriano” to “Bronzi del Museo Kircheriano”. 4. P. 66, changed “convinced the spectators of quality” to “convinced the spectators of his quality”. 5. P. 90, changed “ars puginandi” to “ars pugnandi”. 6. P. 101, inserted missing anchor for the first footnote on that page. 7. P. 155, changed “A chip of the old block.” to “A chip off the old block”. 8. P. 170, changed “désagrémen” to “désagrément”. 9. P. 186, changed “posse commitatus” to “posse comitatus”. 10. P. 501, added missing “A.” subheading. 11. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 12. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 13. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 14. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.

End of Project Gutenberg's Pugilistica, Volume 1 (of 3), by Henry Downes Miles