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
visitors now retired, and left Langan to repose.
Spring left his bed early in the evening; and his first visit he paid to
Langan, at the Dolphin; they met like brave men, and on taking his
departure he shook Langan by the hand, leaving ten pounds in it.
The Champion left Chichester at eight o’clock on Wednesday morning, in
an open barouche, accompanied by Mr. Sant. He was cheered out of the
town by the populace; and, on his entrance into the metropolis, he was
also greeted with loud marks of approbation.
We here close the unstained and untarnished career of Tom Spring, as a
pugilist; if we wished to point a moral to his brother professors, a
better proof that “honesty is the best policy,” than the esteem which
Spring earned and held throughout his long career, could not be desired.
This respect has exhibited itself in several public testimonials, to say
nothing of innumerable private marks of respect. Spring, who had been
keeping a house, the Booth Hall, in the city of Hereford, on the
retirement of Tom Belcher became landlord of the Castle, in Holborn;
and, as the present seems the most fitting opportunity for a brief
sketch of this headquarters of sporting, we shall make no apology for
here introducing a brief history of this once noted sporting resort.
The Castle Tavern was first opened as a sporting house about seventy
years ago, by the well-known Bob Gregson; and designated, at that
period, “Bob’s Chop House.” (See GREGSON, _ante_.)
The Castle Tavern was viewed as a “finger-post” by his countrymen, as
the “Lancashire House;” and considered by them a most eligible situation
to give their Champion a call on their visits to the metropolis. It is
rather singular that Bob Gregson rose, in the estimation of the sporting
world, from defeat; he fought only four battles in the P.R., and lost
them all. Indeed, Bob’s character as a boxer reminds us of the simile
used in the House of Commons, by Charles James Fox, who observed of the
fighting Austrian General, Clairfait, who had been engaged in
one-and-twenty battles in the cause of his country, that he might be
compared to a drum, for he was never heard of but when he was beaten.
Just so with Gregson. Nevertheless, the Castle Tavern rose rapidly into
note, soon after Bob showed himself the landlord of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account