Early in 1840 Bendigo was in London, with his head-quarters at Burn’s, where Nick Ward exhibited with him with the gloves in friendly emulation. The brother of the ex-champion, however, was averse to any closer engagement. Bendigo returned to the provinces, and the next week the public was informed that “Caunt’s money, to be made into a stake of £200, was lying at Tom Spring’s, but nothing has been heard from Bendigo!” The conjunction of circumstances is curious, for in the same week the subjoined paragraph appeared, which records an accident which certainly crippled Bendigo for the rest of his life. Indeed the author, who at this period saw him occasionally, did not consider him well enough to contend in the ring up to the time of his crowning struggle with the gigantic Caunt. “ACCIDENT TO BENDIGO.――William Thompson, better known by his cognomen of ‘Bendigo,’ has met with an accident which is likely to cripple him for life. On Monday he had been to see the military officers’ steeplechase, near Nottingham, and on his return home he and his companions were cracking their jokes about having a steeplechase among themselves. Having duly arrived nearly opposite the Pindar’s House, on the London Road, about a mile from Nottingham, Bendigo exclaimed, ‘Now, my boys, I’ll show you how to run a steeplechase in a new style, without falling,’ and immediately threw a somersault; he felt, whilst throwing it, that he had hurt his knee, and on alighting be attempted in vain three times to rise from the ground; his companions, thinking for the moment he was joking, laughed heartily, but discovering it was no joke went to his assistance and raised him up, but the poor fellow had no use of his left leg. A gig was sent for immediately, in which he was conveyed to the house of his brother, and Messrs. Wright and Thompson, surgeons, were immediately called in. On examination of the knee we understand they pronounced the injury to the cap to be of so serious a nature that he is likely to be lame for life. This serious mishap, which befell him on the 23rd of March, 1840, was the result of those “larking” propensities for which Bendy was notorious. It shelved our hero most effectually, leaving the field open to Caunt, Nick Ward, Brassey, Deaf Burke, Tass Parker, and Co., whose several doings will be found in the proper place.