Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 2 (of 3): Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists; Full Reports of Their Battles from Contemporary Newspapers, With Authentic Portraits, Personal Anecdotes, and Sketches of the Principal Patrons of the Prize Ring, Forming a Complete History of the Ring from Fig and Broughton, 1719-1740, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863Miles, Henry Downes
History
Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 2 (of 3): Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists; Full Reports of Their Battles from Contemporary Newspapers, With Authentic Portraits, Personal Anecdotes, and Sketches of the Principal Patrons of the Prize Ring, Forming a Complete History of the Ring from Fig and Broughton, 1719-1740, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863
Miles, Henry Downes
Boxing
of a dream: he appeared in a state of confusion, and did not know
where he had been hit. A gentleman came forward and offered to back
Cooper for £50 to fight the Gas Man immediately, and Cooper, with
the utmost game, appeared in the ring; but Hickman had left the
ground. The Gas Man was most punished.
REMARKS.—Instead of making any remarks upon the above fight, it
might be more proper to say, that the Phenomenon (Dutch Sam), the
Nonpareil (Jack Randall), the Champion of England, Tom Johnson, Big
Ben, Jem Belcher, the Chicken, Gully, Tom Cribb, etc.—without
offering the least disparagement to their courage and
abilities—never accomplished anything like the following:—Hickman
won three prize battles in thirty-one minutes.
He defeated Crawley in 13½ minutes.
〃 Cooper 〃 14½ 〃
〃 Ditto 〃 3 〃
——
31
The preliminaries of Hickman’s match with Tom Oliver are given in that
boxer’s life, we shall therefore merely detail the doings of the day of
battle.
On Tuesday, June 12, 1821, at an early hour, the road was covered with
vehicles of every description, and numerous barouches and four were
filled with swells of the first quality to witness the Gas again exhibit
his extraordinary pugilistic powers. The Greyhound, at Croydon, was the
rallying point for the swells. The fight was a good turn for the road;
the lively groups in rapid motion, the blunt dropping like waste paper,
and no questions asked, made all parties pleasant and happy. The fun on
the road to a mill is one of the merry things of the days that are gone;
more character was to be seen there than ever assembled at a masquerade.
View the swell handle his ribands and push his tits along with as much
ease as he would trifle with a lady’s necklace, the “bit of blood”
thinking it no sin to hurl the dirt in people’s eyes; the drags full of
merry coves; the puffers and blowers; the dennets; the tandems; the
out-riggers; the wooden coachmen, complete dummies as to “getting out of
the way;” the Corinthian fours; the Bermondsey tumblers; the high and
low life—the genteel, middling, respectable, and tidy sort of chaps, all
eager in one pursuit; with here and there a fancy man’s pretty little
toy giving the “go-by” in rare style, form altogether a rich scene—the
blues are left behind, and laughter is the order of the day. Such is a
print sketch of what going to a mill was in days of yore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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