Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 3 (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, 1719-40, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863Miles, Henry Downes
History
Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 3 (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, 1719-40, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863
Miles, Henry Downes
Boxing
“The amateurs of the Ring have been on the ‘ki wivy’
(according to a notorious ex-justice of police) since the
arrival of the English Champion, Caunt. He has just
concluded a successful engagement at one of the Philadelphia
theatres, after having appeared several nights here at the
Bowery, in ‘Life in London.’ Caunt has put on the gloves for
a friendly set-to with most of our amateurs at Hudson’s
‘Sparring Rooms and Pistol Gallery,’ corner of Broadway and
Chambers Street; he hits hard, and is as active as a bottle
imp. But ‘a baby’ has at length been found who promises to
show both fun and fight, in the shape of a young New Yorker,
standing seven feet in his stockings, and whose weight is
three hundred and fifteen pounds. His name is Charles
Freeman, and he is about the tallest specimen of our city
boys that ever came under the notice of the ‘Tall Son of
York.’ He has immense muscular developments, and is well put
together, with arms and legs strong enough for the
working-beam or piston-rod of a Mississippi steamboat.
Freeman has lately returned from a visit through the British
Provinces, where he was sufficiently successful to lay claim
to Cæsar’s motto, ‘_Veni, vidi, vici_.’ At Halifax,
recently, some one sent him a challenge, which was accepted,
but upon seeing the ‘New York Baby,’ waived the honour of
meeting him, except with the muffles on. It is, we believe,
arranged that our specimen youth shall accompany the English
Champion back to the Old World, where, we’ll lay a pile,
they’ll be gravelled to match him.”
These pilot balloons were soon followed by the return of the doughty
Ben with his Giant _protégé_, in the month of March, 1842. The
“sparring tours” were carried out by Ben and his Giant partner,
including appearances at provincial theatres, &c., with an
undercurrent of pugilistic challenges and “correspondence” kept up in
the sporting papers, in which the Tipton Slasher challenged the
American Giant, and Bendigo now and then offered terms to Ben himself.
These do not belong to a history of pugilism, and we pass them by,
with a mere reference to our notice of Freeman’s fiasco with the
clumsy Tipton Slasher in another place. (See Life of WILLIAM PERRY,
Chapter IV.)
We may here interject a paragraph to say that the cup which Ben was
wont to exhibit to visitors to St. Martin’s Lane, as the “Champion of
England’s Cup,” was a handsome piece of plate, subscribed for by a
number of Ben’s admirers and friends in Newcastle, Gateshead,
Nottingham, &c., and presented to him at a “spread” at Izzy Lazarus’s,
“Cross Keys,” Gateshead, on the date given in the inscription, which
was as follows: “Presented to Benjamin Caunt, Champion of England, by
his Newcastle friends, as a token of respect for his abilities as a
pugilist and his conduct as a man, July 6th, 1842.”
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