“Hail to thee, Tom of Bedford.... Hail to thee, six-foot Englishman of the brown eye, worthy to have carried a six-foot bow at Flodden, where England’s yeomen triumphed over Scotland’s king, his clans and chivalry. Hail to thee, last of England’s bruisers, after all the many victories which thou hast achieved--true English victories, unbought by yellow gold....” Borrow wrote of the Prize-Ring in its decline and of its best days from a greater distance than did Egan, and his perspective is therefore truer. Still we do learn a great deal from _Boxiana_ of the old giants; whilst contemporary engravings, some of which will be found here, give us, more or less faithfully, the attitudes of the fighters. Whether the artists observed the same fidelity in regard to the muscular development of the principals we must decide from our own experience. It is often said that if men were to train themselves to this herculean scale they would be so muscle-bound as to be almost immobile. At the beginning of Volume III. of _Boxiana_, Egan tells us of the extraordinary physique of the fighter. “The frames, in general, of the boxers are materially different, in point of appearance, from most other men; and they are also formed to endure _punishment_ in a very severe degree.... The _eyes_ of the pugilists are always small; but their _necks_ are very fine and large; their _arms_ are also muscular and athletic, with strong, well-turned shoulders. In general, the _chests_ of the _Boxers_ are expanded; and some of their _backs_ and _loins_ not only exhibit an unusual degree of strength, but a great portion of anatomical beauty. The _hips_, _thighs_, and _legs_ of a few of the pugilists are very much to be admired for their symmetry, and there is likewise a peculiar ‘_sort of a something_’ about the head of a boxer, which tends to give him character.” And he adds a footnote: “The _old Fanciers_, or ‘good judges,’ prefer those of a _snipe_ appearance.”--(An appearance which obviously could not long have been maintained!) * * * * * Of scientific boxing, as we understand it, there was comparatively little; though in the hey-day of the Prize-Ring (roughly speaking, the first quarter of the nineteenth century) the foundations of the exact science were well laid. However, the chief qualifications for a good pugilist were strength and courage, even as they are to-day. But, besides hitting, the fighters might close and wrestle, and many a hard battle was lost by a good boxer whose strength was worn out by repeated falls, falls made the more damaging when a hulking opponent threw himself, as at one time he was allowed to do, on top of him.