Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 2 (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, 1719-1740, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863

Phil Sampson, who was to the full as ready at chaffing and writing as at fighting, occupied at one period an undue share of newspaper space and of the public time. His milling c...

A new era in boxing arose about the period of Spring’s appearance and Tom Cribb’s later battles, of which Thomas Winter (Spring) was the exponent, and of which school Jem Ward (...

Among the town celebrities of the second quarter of the nineteenth century the subject of this memoir held a prominent place. His immediate and personal intimacy as boon compani...

The reputation of Jack Carter as a pugilist suffered unduly from two causes. First, from ridiculously exaggerated press flourishes about his prowess, skill, and formidable quali...

In the memoir of the redoubtable Tom Sayers, in our third volume, will be found a few remarks on the persistency with which Hibernian reporters and newspaper scribes, old and ne...

Albeit this period does not mark any change in the “school,” or style, nor in the rules which govern the practice of public boxing, there are reasons to be found for a division,...

Among the names which a pugilistic Plutarch might find difficult to parallel for lion-hearted, fearless, and indomitable pluck, that of Josh. Hudson may be fairly cited. “The Jo...

This renowned “knight of the knuckle,” whose fistic exploits and capabilities, though indisputable, are rather matter of oral tradition than of written record (like the glorious...

Ned Baldwin, whose sobriquet was suggested from the profusion of his pale flaxen hair, was born at Munslow, near Ludlow, in Herefordshire, on the 6th May, 1803. His youth was sp...

John Langan, one of the bravest of pugilists—and whose fortune it was to find his ambition foiled when struggling to the topmost round of the ladder, by the superior skill of To...

A second Hotspur, had the sword been his weapon—fiery, hardy, daring, impetuous, laughing to scorn all fear, and refusing to calculate odds in weight, length, or strength, “the...

The pedigree of Alec Reid showed that he came of a “fighting family.” His father was a Chelsea veteran, for many years in a snug berth on Nell Gwynne’s glorious foundation, and...

parade of newspaper letter-writing, or the sporting-crib “chaff” too prevalent in those days. Articles were entered into at the “Ship,” in Great Turnstile, Lincoln’s Inn Fields,...

For a short time the name of the hardy Tom Cannon was a word of strength in the annals of the ring. Tom, however, came out too late in life as a public exhibitor of the art pugi...

The “ponderous Peter,” who in the year ’65, passed quietly, and with the fame of a fair, courageous, and honest man, from the scene of “the battle of life,” made his first publi...

At one period this weighty and hard-hitting specimen of the Bristol school bid fair to attain the topmost round of the ladder to pugilistic fame. Neat was born on the 11th of Ma...

It was said of Marshal Clairfait that, like a drum, he was only heard of when he was beaten. Tom Gaynor, in somewhat like fashion, takes his place among the celebrities of the R...

For a purse of 50 guineas, without training, Painter entered the lists with Shaw, the life-guardsman, at Hounslow Heath, on April 18, 1815. Nothing but true courage could have i...

The sobriquet “My Nevvy” with old ring-goers long survived the sponsor (Uncle Ben), who first bestowed it upon his _protégé_ on introducing Jem Burn to the P. R., an event which...

Bishop Sharpe, once a seaman in His Majesty’s navy, and subsequently known as a “long-shore man” in the neighbourhood of Woolwich, was as tough a specimen of the material of whi...

April 20, 1819, Oliver challenged Donnelly for 100 guineas a-side, when Randall declared he was authorised to accept it. That day six weeks was named as the time of battle, the...

Tom Oliver, originally a member of the most ancient of callings—a gardener—lives in the memory of hundreds of modern ring-goers as the civil, active, diligent, and respectable _...

Edward Painter was known to the past and to not a few of the present generation, as a worthy specimen of the English boxer—a race of men, we fear, well-nigh extinct. To the firs...

On the 13th of November in the same year (1827) Jem a second time met Ned Neale, but after a hard battle of forty-three rounds, occupying forty-six minutes, had again to succumb...

The favour with which the first volume of PUGILISTICA has been received gives the author encouraging hope that the present instalment of his history will prove yet more interest...

Big Brown of Bridgnorth, as he was appropriately styled, for a short period attracted the attention of the pugilistic world by his bold claim to the title of “Champion of Englan...