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VI

IKE all human institutions, good, bad, and indifferent, the prize-ring had many ups and downs. Prize-fighting flourished in Broughton's time, but after him, till Mendoza, Jackson, and others of their time, fell into disrepute. These great boxers, however, raised the ring to as high a pitch as ever; after them it degenerated again, till Belcher's time. About 1822 it again began to decline.

Broughton's amphitheatre, in Oxford Road, was formally opened in 1743, when a regular code of rules was drawn up. These, seven in number, must have formed the basis of all subsequent regulations dealing with fighting or boxing.

These rules, here briefly condensed, were as follows: I. That a square of a yard be chalked in the middle of the boxing stage, and on every set-to after a fall or being parted each second should place his man opposite the other, till which time no blow might be struck.

II. A second had to bring his man up to time within the space of half a minute, otherwise he was deemed beaten.

III. No one except principals and seconds was allowed upon the boxing stage, though in minor fights Broughton might stand there to preserve decorum, though not allowed in any way to interfere.

IV. No boxer was deemed beaten unless he failed to come to time or his second declared him vanquished. No second might question his man's adversary or advise him to give in.

V. In bye-battles the winner took two-thirds of the money given, the division to be publicly made on the stage.

VI. To prevent disputes the principals, on coming on to the boxing stage, should choose two gentlemen present as umpires to decide all disputes. If these two disagreed, they had to choose a third, whose decision was final.

VII. No boxer was to hit his adversary when he was down, or seize him by the hair, the breeches, or any part below the waist. A man on his knees to be reckoned down.

Broughton's height did not exceed five feet eleven inches, and his weight was sometimes above, sometimes under, fourteen stone. He was remarkably well formed, but more calculated for strength than action; he had a good eye.

Broughton was superior to all the other pugilists of his day in mental powers; his sagacity in discovering the weakness of an adversary, and ability in covering himself from the most dangerous blows, enabled him to overcome many to whom he was inferior in bodily force. His favourite blows were straight. He used round blows particularly when he wished to strike his antagonist under the left ear. When a blow was directed at his body he beat it down; when his head was aimed at, he caught his opponent's fist in his open

hand. The cross buttock was known long before his days, but he considerably improved it and brought it into notice. Whatever state the science was in at that period, Broughton, it must be admitted, exceeded all other fighters in a knowledge of the principles; for his great talents soon led him to discover much of the theory that was before unknown. Many were his superiors in strength and activity, but none in science and courage. He is deservedly placed at the head of the boxers of his own time. In private life he is described as having been a civil and amiable man.

Another pillar of the ring in its earlier days, Big Ben, whose real name was Bryan, was born in the year 1753, at Bristol, and passed the early part of his life at that place, where he worked as a collier. Being of an athletic make, and of good bottom, he distinguished himself as a capital boxer in that part of the kingdom in several bruising matches, particularly by beating Clayton, the famous Shropshire man, and the noted Spaniard Harris, of Kingswood. About the year 1782 he came to London, and worked as a coal porter at the Adelphi Wharf. The first battle he fought of any note in London was on October 31st, 1786, when he beat a grenadier of the Guards in the Long Field, Bloomsbury. He soon after fought and beat Tring, at Dartford Brimp; in this fight they both exhibited great courage and endurance.

Big Ben fought many successful battles, notably one with the hitherto unconquered Johnson, whom he

completely vanquished. No less than £20,000 is said to have depended upon the result of the fight.

Big Ben died in 1794, it is supposed in consequence of some inward bruise which he had got in one of the many desperate battles in which he had been engaged; his body was opened for the purpose of ascertaining the fact, when it was found that the liver was affected in such a manner that no human power could have saved his life.

After Broughton's time some buying and selling of fights took place, and most of the gentlemen abandoned the ring. The sporting aristocracy were the real supporters of boxing, and while they saw that all was fair and right the thing went on well. They alone were able to maintain prize-fighting as a more or less reputable sport in the face of numberless attacks. Even from the very earliest days of the modern prizering there were not wanting many who protested against what they termed "unprovoked combats " between individuals unknown to each other, productive of idleness, riot, and immorality, which it was declared demoralised thousands of the lower classes.

In more recent times boxing has of course been constantly denounced by impressionable faddists, nurtured on sentimental papers, and by fanatics who hate from their hearts all sports and pleasures.

The absurd outcry raised as to the exhibition of cinematograph pictures of the Johnson-Jeffries boxing match almost exactly coincided with what, it is to be feared, is a symptom of the decadence of fisticuffs as

a means of settling disputes, and the rise in popularity of far more savage methods.

Almost on the very day when the County Council was solemnly devoting its time to discussing the desirability of the exhibition of pictures of the American fight, three men of British birth were charged at the Marlborough Street Police Court with stabbing, wounding, and shooting at one another, the weapons employed to settle some difference having been a revolver, a bar of iron, and a knife.

Surely the old English fashion of settling a quarrel by means of the fists was better than this!

No one, indeed, who has studied the records of the old fights can feel sure that the influence on the spectators was entirely evil. The old prize-ring, no doubt, was inevitably connected with much coarseness and brutality, and, of course, owed a good deal of its vitality to the eternal desire of unscrupulous and disreputable characters to extract money from the pockets of wealthy and easy-going fools. The ring, of course, practically existed for the edification of the Corinthians, the majority of whom were ever ready to welcome any diverting method of getting rid of that cash which a number of them found so scarce at the close of their lives. The prize-fighters themselves were generally unedifying and intemperate persons drawn from a very low class.

Nevertheless, the old prize-ring possibly served no bad purpose in its day, the glamour which hung around it spreading abroad a spirit of dogged, if brutal, courage which largely contributed to the