Brassey did not make a deposit, and Caunt, who was now settled at the “Coach and Horses,” St. Martin’s Lane, seemed rather given to benefits and bounce than boxing. The rest of the year was consumed in correspondence, in which Bendigo demanded the odds offered and then retracted by Caunt, the latter having, _ad interim_, a row, and ridiculous challenge from Jem Burn, and an equally absurd cartel from a burly publican named Kingston, whose eccentric antics will be noticed in the memoir of CAUNT. The year 1845 was, however, destined to see the eccentric Bendigo and the ponderous Caunt brought together. All doubts and surmises were silenced when articles were signed to the effect that on the 9th of September, 1845, the men were to meet, Bendigo having closed, after innumerable difficulties, with Caunt’s terms of £200 a side and the belt. At the final deposit, on August 26th, at Tom Spring’s, the Castle Tavern, Holborn, it was officially announced that both men were in splendid condition. Bendigo had trained at Crosby, near Liverpool, under the care of Jem Ward, and Caunt near Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, where he was looked after by his uncle, Ben Butler, and by Jem Turner, the D’Orsay of the Ring, besides being constantly visited by his great friend and patron, the gallant Tom Spring. Caunt, who was now thirty-three years of age, had scaled over 17st. when he went into training, but on the day of the fight was reduced to a pound under 14st., the lightest weight he ever reached in any of his fights. Bendigo, who was three years older, weighed 12st. 1lb., and was also in the pink of condition. When articles were originally signed, on April 17th, it was arranged that the fight should take place half-way between London and Nottingham, but at the final supper this was altered by mutual consent to Newport Pagnel, in Bucks. On the Sunday Bendigo, Merryman, and Jem Ward arrived at Newport Pagnel, which led to an immediate issue of a warrant, and Bendigo’s friends took him out of the town to a neighbouring farmhouse. Caunt turned up in London, at Spring’s, with his uncle, Ben Butler, on the Monday afternoon, in high spirits, though remarkably thin. He had got rid of every ounce of superfluous flesh, and was nothing but bone and sinew. Two hundred of his handkerchiefs were sold, at a guinea each if he won, nothing if he lost. He left by the four o’clock train for Wolverton, from whence he proceeded, with Spring and other friends, to the “Cock” at Stony Stratford. Newport Pagnel was full of the Nottingham division. The “Swan” (Tom Westley’s) and all the other inns were filled to excess. In the evening Spring went to the “Swan” to meet Bendigo’s friends to settle the place. Bendigo wished to fight in Bucks; Spring had seen constables with warrants, and wanted to take them to Oxfordshire, to Lillingston Level, where Deaf Burke and Nick Ward fought in 1840. There was a long disputation, but at last they agreed to toss. Jem