PUGILISTICA
THE HISTORY
OF
BRITISH BOXING
PUGILISTICA
THE HISTORY
OF
BRITISH BOXING
CONTAINING
LIVES OF THE MOST CELEBRATED PUGILISTS; FULL REPORTS OF THEIR BATTLESFROM CONTEMPORARY NEWSPAPERS, WITH AUTHENTIC PORTRAITS, PERSONALANECDOTES, AND SKETCHES OF THE PRINCIPAL PATRONS OF THE PRIZERING, FORMING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE RING FROM FIGAND BROUGHTON, 1719–40, TO THE LAST CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLEBETWEEN KING AND HEENAN, IN DECEMBER 1863
BY HENRY DOWNES MILES
EDITOR OF “THE SPORTSMAN’S MAGAZINE.” AUTHOR OF “THE BOOK OF FIELD SPORTS,”“ENGLISH COUNTRY LIFE,” ETC., ETC.
VOLUME THREE
Edinburgh
JOHN GRANT
1906
TO
LEAR JAMES DREW, ESQ.,
A PATRON OF SPORT, AND A
SUPPORTER OF THE RECREATIONS OF THE PEOPLE,
THIS VOLUME OF LIVES OF THE
MODERN BOXERS IS DEDICATED, AS A
TOKEN OF FRIENDSHIP, RESPECT, AND ESTEEM,
BY
THE AUTHOR.
Wood Green.
PREFACE TO VOL. III.
The Reader who has attentively accompanied us through the biographieswhich form the contents of our first and second volumes will not find thememoirs in this third and concluding volume of less interest and variety ofincident than the former.
The period comprised herein extends from the year 1835 (the first appearanceof Bendigo), and contains the battles of Caunt, Nick Ward, Deaf Burke,William Perry (the “Tipton”), Harry Broome, Tom Paddock, Harry Orme,Aaron Jones, Nat Langham, Tom Sayers, and Jem Mace, closing with the lastChampionship fight between Tom King and John Camel Heenan, on the 10th ofDecember, 1863.
In these chapters of the “Decline and Fall” of Pugilism it has been the aim ofthe author to “write his annals true,” “nothing extenuate nor set down aught inmalice;” leaving the deeds of each of the Champions to be judged by the “testof time, which proveth all things.”
In these pages will be found all the battles of the actual Champions, and ofthose who contended with them for that once-coveted distinction. It must beevident, however, that the space of three volumes thrice multiplied would notsuffice to record the numerous battles of the middle and light weight men ofthis period; indeed, they do not come within the scope of this work. As theseinclude some of the best battles of the later days of the P. R., and for