Читать книгу Pugilistica - Henry Downes Miles - Страница 11

“Strength too—​thou surly and less gentle boast

Of those that loud laugh round the village ring—

A fit of common sickness pulls thee down

With greater ease than e’er thou didst the stripling

That rashly dared thee to th’ unequal fight.”

Blair’s “Grave.”

[11] Caunt’s last battle, as closing his Ring career, may be properly considered to have been that with Bendigo, September 9th, 1845; the silly exhibition with Nat Langham in 1857 being a mere hors d’œuvre.

[12] John Gully, Esq., of Ackworth Hall. Elected M.P. for Pontefract, 1832.

[13] “Brother Bob,” a lumpy, civil, but uncouth-mannered rustic, weighing 12 stone, and 5ft. 1O½in. in height, may be dismissed in half-a-dozen lines. He was beaten in his first battle by Nobby Clarke, a clever but chicken-hearted big ’un, in 7 rounds, occupying a short quarter of an hour, October 22nd, 1844, in the Kentish Marshes. He next, after five years’ interval, met Burton, of Leicester, who polished him off in 48 minutes, during which 23 rounds were fought, April 17th, 1849, at Balsham Road. Bob’s last appearance in buff was during a tour in America, where, at Harper’s Ferry, May 7th, 1847, he struck his flag to Yankee Sullivan, after 7 rounds, in which 12 minutes were passed, for a stake of 1,000 dollars.