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
He lost no time in returning with Caunt to the
Cock, at Stony Stratford, and the great event of the
day having been concluded, the immense multitude
followed suit. The scenes exhibited on the road home
were of the most extraordinary description. Every house
of entertainment was besieged, and the call for swizzle
so continuous that many of the best-filled cellars were
exhausted, and even water at last became an acceptable
luxury to those who never pretended to be patrons of
the hydropathic system. We have neither time nor space
however to dwell on these vicissitudes, and shall
proceed at once to offer such general observations as
the events of the day seem to warrant.
REMARKS.――Upon the character of “the Great Fight for
the Championship of England,” we have no doubt our
readers have formed their own opinions. During the last
thirty years it has been our fate to witness almost
every important battle in the P.R., but we confess,
although we have occasionally had to record
transactions of the most discreditable description, and
to administer castigation to wrong-doers in no measured
terms, the proceedings on Tuesday far exceed in
enormity anything we had before witnessed.
With regard to the pretensions of the two men who took
so prominent a part in the day’s proceedings, few
remarks are necessary. Caunt, although a big man, and
possessed of great physical strength, does not possess
the attributes of an accomplished boxer. He is
deficient in science, and wants the art of using the
gifts of nature with that tact and precision which are
calculated to ensure success. There was a wildness and
indecision in his deliveries which prevented his doing
execution, and the major part of his blows either flew
over Bendigo’s head or were short or wide of their
destination. Had he been steady and self-possessed, and
hitting at points, this would not have been the case,
and did he understand the perfect art of self-defence,
four-fifths of the punishment he received might have
been avoided; but he left himself open to attack, and
thus his opponent was enabled to plant on him with
stinging severity. With a man of his own bulk the case
might have been different; and perhaps there are few if
any of the present day who would prove superior to him
in fair fighting.
Our own opinion of the fight may be gathered from the few brief notes
we have bracketed in the report. The immense amount of assertion and
rejoinder which filled the sporting papers for weeks was “flat, stale
and unprofitable.” The stakeholder being served with legal notice to
return the stakes, the referee (George Osbaldiston, Esq.) wrote thus
to that gentleman:――
“_To the Editor of_ ‘BELL’S LIFE IN LONDON.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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