May no base beak, or trap with aspect rude, Upon a comfortable mill intrude―― A mill between not enemies, but friends, And upon which a lot of blunt depends; A mill, I trust, which, as in days of yore, Will honest fighting to the ring restore; A mill which, whosoe’er may win the same, Will show the British boxer’s genuine game, Unkind aspersions on the Fancy crush, And put accurs’d knife-practice to the blush―― A practice which, with bold and fearless face, In bloody letters stamps our land’s disgrace! But let that pass, while we, like boxers bold, Shall manly contest in the ring uphold, And settle matters, not with slaughtering knives, But well-braced muscles and a bunch of fives. What tho’ in battle with some Fancy lad An ogle should in mourning suit be clad? What tho’ profusion of straightforward knocks Should for a while confuse the knowledge box? Why, these are trifles which a cur may scare, But teach good men hard punishment to bear; And as they pass this earthly region thro’, All men will have a clumsy thump or two, And there’s no doubt ’twill lessen their complaining To meet hard knocks to get them into training; But Time, my worthy, warns me to desist, So for awhile farewell, my man of fist; Of your conceit on Tuesday I will strip ye―― On Tuesday next “I meet you at Philippi;” Till then believe me resolute and saucy, A foe without one hostile feeling―― “BRASSEY.” Six Mile Bottom, Cambridgeshire, distinguished in former times by the contests of dons of the olden school, under the patronage of men of the highest rank in the kingdom, was named. Although inferior in stamp and action to bygone heroes, the present competitors were not less great in their own estimation, and certainly quite as great in bulk――for Caunt stood 6ft. 2in., and weighed 14st. 7lb., and Brassey, two inches shorter, weighed 12st. 1lb. (a standard which, according to the best judges, is sufficient for all useful purposes in the P. R., all beyond that being deemed surplusage). In point of age they were pretty much upon a par, and in the prime of life, Caunt having been born in March, 1815, and Brassey in the month of January in the same year.