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
In short, poor Dan was a creature of the moment. He was most excellent
company, creating mirth and laughter all around him. His sayings were
droll in the extreme, and his behaviour was always decorous. Forethought
was no ingredient in his composition; “to-morrow,” with him, might or
might not be provided for: that never created any uneasiness in his
mind, and was left entirely to chance, or, as Dan would express it,
“Divil may care!” Such was the character of Donnelly. He was an Irishman
every inch of him—generous, good-natured, and highly grateful. As a
pugilist, it is true, he did not raise himself in the estimation of the
English amateurs by his battle with Oliver; nor did the Irish fancy in
London think so much of his capabilities as they had anticipated;
indeed, those gentlemen who came from Ireland to witness the battle
expressed themselves surprised at the deficiency of boxing talent
displayed by their favourite. This, however, will astonish no one who
has perused the few preceding paragraphs of his heedless conduct and
neglect of training. He was declared to be unlike the same man who
defeated Cooper. The fact is, that our Hibernian friends either
undervalue or thoughtlessly neglect those precautions, without which
strength, pluck, and skill must succumb to more ordinary physical
qualifications, if backed by temperance. In fact, the fight was won by
Donnelly by his wrestling superiority, rather than his hitting.
We now quit the living Sir Dan to note the public and literary honours
bestowed upon his decease. Foremost amongst these comes _Blackwood’s
Magazine_, for May, 1820, wherein twenty closely printed pages are
devoted to a most amusing collection of “solemn dirges,” letters of
condolence, lamentations, plaintive ballads, odes and songs, an eloquent
funeral oration, etc., and scraps of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin poems in
honour of the heroic deceased. The scholar will be delighted, and the
general reader amused, by the genuine humour and erudite pleasantry
therein displayed. Our space forbids us more than a selection of a few
of these serio-comic effusions of Christopher North and his coadjutors.
“Recollections of Sir Daniel Donnelly, Knt., P.C.I.[26]
“When green Erin laments for her hero, removed
From the isle where he flourished, the isle that he loved,
Where he entered so often the twenty-foot lists,
And, twinkling like meteors, he flourished his fists,
And gave to his foes more set-downs and toss-overs,
Than ever was done by the great philosophers,
In folio, in twelves, or in quarto.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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