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
The sight at Worcester on Wednesday, January 7, 1824, was beyond all
former example. Upwards of thirty thousand persons were present; nay,
several calculators declared, to the best of their belief, that not less
than fifty thousand people were assembled. Proprietors of splendid parks
and demesnes; inmates from proud and lofty mansions; groups from the
most respectable dwellings; thousands from the peaceful cot; and myriads
from no houses at all—in a word, it was a conglomeration of the fancy.
Peers, M.P.s, yokels of every cast, cockneys, and sheenies throwing
“away their propertish” without a sigh that it cost so much “monish” to
witness the grand mill. The roads in every direction round Worcester
beggared description. The adventures at the inns would furnish subjects
for twenty farces, and the company in the city of Worcester was of so
masquerading a character as to defy the pen; even the pencil of a George
Cruikshank would be at fault to give it effect. The grand stand was
filled to an overflow in every part, with two additional wings or
scaffolds erected for the occasion. Ten shillings were paid for the
admission of each person. The masts of the vessels in the river Severn,
which flowed close behind, moored on each side of the stand, were
overloaded with persons; and even temporary scaffolds, about two stories
high, outside of the wagons, were filled by anxious spectators,
regardless of danger, so great was the public curiosity excited by this
event. Let the reader picture to himself a spacious amphitheatre,
encircled by wagons, an outer roped ring within for the many-headed, who
stood up to their knees in mud. What is termed the P. C. Ring was raised
about two feet from the ground, covered with dry turf, with a cart-load
of sawdust sprinkled over it. The race-course was so intolerably bad and
full of slush that all the scavengers and mudlarks from the metropolis
could not have cleansed it in a week. Outside the wagons the ground
displayed one complete sheet of water; and several lads, who were jolly
enough to save a few yards of ground by jumping over ditches, measured
their lengths in the water, receiving a complete ducking, to the no
small amusement of the yokels. What will not curiosity do? Here swells
were seen sitting down in the mud more coolly than if lolling on a sofa.
Not a place could be obtained in the stand after ten o’clock. The city
of Worcester was full of gaiety early in the day; the streets were
filled by the arrival of coaches and four, post-chaises, mails, and
vehicles of every description, blowing of horns, and the bells ringing.
A Roman carnival is not half so hearty a thing as a prize-fight used to
be when the people’s hearts were in it.
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