Chapter I (4)

This time Bendy kept his word, and thenceforward confined his eccentricities to occasional outbursts at Nottingham elections and other occasions of public holidays and festivities. In some of these escapades he afforded considerable amusement to the public, and employment to the pens of provincial reporters, by the mother wit of his defence, or the ludicrous aspect he imparted to the results of his fistic or gymnastic evolutions. After some solemn promises of amendment made to their worships, and a pledge to Father Mathew (he was never a sot), we heard of Bendy’s “conversion,” and of his appearance in the white choker (he always wore the straight hair) of a dissenting preacher. On the occasion of a visit to London, in which he was introduced to a congregation of the faithful at the Holborn Circus (turned for the nonce into a conventicle), a good story is told of “a keen encounter of the wits” between the ex-pugilist and a noble lord who met the preacher in a West-end thoroughfare. After a mutual stare of surprised recognition, his lordship inquired, glancing at Bendy’s parsonic “get-up,” what might be his “little game” now. As befitted his new vocation, the solemn reply was, “Truly, my lord, I am now fighting Satan――and behold the victory shall be mine.” “I hope so, Bendy,” rejoined his lordship, “but pray fight Beelzebub more fairly than you did Ben Caunt, or I may change my side.”

A final word on the much-disputed nickname of Bendigo. Of course, as people generally invent some plausible meaning or derivation for a word they do not comprehend, we were told (first, I believe, by an Australian paper) that “Bendigo was the name given to an English prizefighter from his _bending as he went in to fight_. Hence called Bend-I-go.” Prodigious etymologist! We never saw any such _bend_ in Bend-i-go, or any other pugilist, though we have heard of “a Grecian bend” in a lady.

William Thompson was, as we have already noted, one of three boys at a birth, and these, among people irreverently familiar with the use of Scripture names, were called (though not at the baptismal font), Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. A curious confirmation of this is now before us in our hero’s first challenge, in _Bell’s Life_, in 1835, wherein he styles himself “Abednego, of Nottingham.” Yet ever afterwards that journal prints the popular vernacular corruption of “Bendigo.” In this matter of Abednego do we not find――

The breath of chance, the bubbles of the present,
Fraught with no meaning to the duller sense,
Foreshow and shape our dark and unknown future?

The Abednego of Nottingham, who nearly half a century ago was “ready to meet any 12st. man,” is now, in 1880, “articled” to floor the “Prince of Darkness” himself, who――we have Shakespeare’s word for it――is every inch “a gentleman.”

Thus far had we penned our memoir of the eccentric pugilistic preacher, when an _annonce_ in the London journals informed the public, that on Monday, the 23rd of August, William Thompson (alias Bendigo) had died at Beeston, near Nottingham, in the 69th year of his age. His death was the result of an accident, he having fallen downstairs at his own house, and fractured three of his ribs, a bony splinter perforating the lung. Poor Bendy, as we have already stated, was always fond of acrobatic tricks. A severe accident some years since while playing at quoits, a broken knee-cap, which permanently shortened his right leg, and, subsequently, a serious injury to his head, while in pursuit of “the contemplative man’s recreation,” bear witness that his talent for knocking a man about extended to his own person. In all probability, but for these untoward mischances, “the Bold Bendigo” might have added another to the many Champions of the P.R. who have exceeded the Psalmist’s limit of “three score years and ten.”

[2] Ponderous Parliamentary blue-books, election petitions,
“Reports” of Committees of the House, bear abundant
testimony to the frays and feuds of the “Nottingham Lambs,”
from the sacking of Clumber and the burning of Nottingham
Castle to the street and faction fights of this turbulent
town.

[3] “Natura tenacissimi sumus eorum quæ pueri percipimus, ut
sapor, quo nova vasa imbuuntur, durat,” says the old heathen
tutor of Nero.

[4] If Burton, of Leicester, is meant, he was then 11 years
old. His first fight was with a native of Swindon, in May,
1845.

[5] Burke’s performance of “The Venetian Statues” was highly
popular in America and England.

[6] This is a gratuitous and unjust imputation on a most
honourable sportsman. The writer on this eventful day sat on
a small form, immediately by the side of the Squire,
throughout the whole fight. Caunt was, unless a chance hit
or fall had turned the tide, a beaten man thus far.――ED.
“Pugilistica.”

[7] We saw this, but believe it was meant for the man who
was hit.――ED. “Pugilistica.”

[8] There was great confusion, but the referee rose from his
seat and went to Bendigo’s corner of his own accord, and
without obstruction. The partisans of the men were equally
violent.――ED. “Pugilistica.”

[9] As we made a full note of every round of the fight, the
perusal of this in the following Sunday’s paper astounded
us.――ED. “Pugilistica.”

[10] We firmly believe, from his position near the centre
stake, on the grass, that the editor of _Bell’s Life_ was
unable to see clearly what passed, that he was compelled to
trust to others for the actual incidents of these later
rounds, and that he was designedly misled.――ED.