“Dogherty turned out to be too stale for active operations; added to which he is slow and awkward in his style of setting to. Perry is a scientific hard hitter, but with such a man as Alec Reed, in his day, he would not have had a chance. Still, in the present state of the Fancy, he is not to be sneezed at. It was expected a second fight would have taken place between Middlesex Ben and the Winchester Pet, but the former was ‘shopped.’ Perry can be backed with anybody who may envy his honours, and the money will be ready at the ‘Lowndes Arms,’ King’s Road, on Tuesday evening, where Alec Reed gives sparring lectures for the benefit of the rising generation.” Such is the account of “The Slasher’s” _coup d’essai_, after which he seems to have found no candidate for his favours for a twelvemonth, and to have worked his way towards his native place. Here his fame as a fistic practitioner was pretty generally acknowledged, and a party of Birmingham boxers, having among their number Ben Spilsbury (not Charley, who fought Johnny Broome), being in the town of Tipton exhibiting the art, young Perry put on the mufflers with that professional. Though the Tipton lad was not so clever as the Brum, he displayed such determination, and got so well “on” to his man, that an observation that, “if in earnest,” Mr. Ben would have to play second fiddle, led to an offer on the part of a Brum to post a “tenner” upon the experiment. “A friend to sport,” at the request of Perry, covered the two sovereigns deposited; and as the Christmas holidays were approaching, December 27th, 1836, was named as the day of battle. After taking some little liberties with the Tipton in the opening rounds, for which he occasionally caught a fearful right-handed visitation, and was rallied down, Spilsbury kept so completely _à la distance_ as to deprive the contest of all interest, and finally, at the end of the 19th round, “cut it,” leaving “The Slasher” in possession of the field and the stakes. [Illustration: WILLIAM PERRY (“THE TIPTON SLASHER”)]