neck, dropped to even betting, but again rose on the day of fighting to 6 to 4. Never did we witness such a "turn out" from London as that on the morning of fighting: the road down to the scene of action was literally covered with vehicles of every possible description, among which were some score of carriages-and-four filled with the higher grade of amateurs, including many Noblemen of distinction, while the commoners were beyond all calculation. A more extraordinary exhibition of talent and generalship was never witnessed than during the fight. So well did each man guard his points, and so admirably did he outmanoeuvre his opponent, that no less than two hours, nineteen minutes, and thirty seconds were occupied in the struggle, which ultimately terminated in favour of Randall, after fighting thirty-four rounds. A higher treat was never afforded to the Fancy, and even those who lost their money could not withhold the meed of praise from the loser. Randall had now reached the acme of his glory, and on defeating Turner was considered to have gained the "top of the tree"-an elevation the more extraordinary, as he never received a lesson on the art of self-defence, and was, from first to last, the architect of his own glory. He had a natural propensity to the sport, and his genius seemed particularly calculated for its indulgence. He had not yet, however, closed his labours, for, in the same month of December, he was matched against Jack Martin (the Master of the Rolls), £150 to £100, to fight on the 30th April, but this day was afterwards altered to the 4th of May, in order (as in Neal and Bob's case) it might not interfere with the Newmarket Races. Pending this mill, he had a turnup with Ben Burns, and took

on

the conceit out of my "uncle." While training at Hampstead, he ran a race against his antagonist for £5, but was beaten. On the day appointed, the fight came off Crawley Downs, in the presence of a multitude scarcely less numerous than that assembled at his fight with Turner. Jack had it all his own way, and won without a scratch, in nineteen rounds, and in forty-nine minutes and ten seconds. A good deal of indignation was produced by an event connected with this match, and which showed the villainy into which some men will plunge in the pursuit of gain. On the morning of fighting, Jack was hocussed by a person well known in the Ring. It was suspected that a sleeping potion had been given to him in a glass of mulled wine, and it required all the energy of his friends to prevent its fatal consequences. On the 4th of October, 1819, he had a turn-up with Hood, a fighting tailor, in Battersea fields; and, after fighting four rounds, sewed up his opponent, who, it is but due to state, proved himself a good customer, and gave Jack the quid pro quo. In June Jack was matched by an amateur against Scroggins, for £100 a side; but this having been done without Jack's knowledge, and having just then paid a large deposit for "The Hole in the Wall," Chancery Lane, he reluctantly suffered his friend to forfeit.

the patronage of General Barton, his friends giving him a pipe of wine instead of a piece of plate,

to

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commence operations; and on the 17th of August, 1819, he gave his opening dinner, at which Mr. Jackson presided. Two years were now devoted to the duties of a Boniface, when Jack once more came out," or rather gave a challenge to all England, of his weight, for five hundred guineas. This sum he subsequently reduced to £300; and the gauntlet was taken up by the friends of Jack Martin, who, for the second time, matched him against the Nonpareil. There was a good deal of management about his affair, and we have reason to believe that Randall was strongly tempted to do wrong-but he was honest to the backbone, and it was no go." Those who calculated upon his weakness, therefore, found themselves in the wrong box; and the match came off on the square on the 16th of September, 1812, on Crawley Downs, and was decided in one round. Whispers were afloat as to the motives for so short a struggle on the part of Martin; but it is not our purpose to go back into details, which are sufficiently fresh in the recollection of the Sporting World. Martin subsequently challenged Jack to renew the combat, for 300 guineas, and after a good deal of newspaper chaff, a third match was made on the 11th May, 1822, for £300 a side and a bet of 700 guineas, to take place on the 3rd September. Two deposits, amounting to £410, were down; but on the third meeting, Randall's friends were too late by seven minutes, and Martin claimed and received forfeit. On the 21st of May following, he publicly challenged Martin, at the Fives Court, to fight for £500 or £1000; and on the 27th

August a fourth match was made for the former sum, to come off on the 3rd of December; but this, although the whole stakes of £1000 were made good, became a draw, on the ground that Randall's backers, who forfeited the £205, were threatening to sue Martin for that sum, which had been given to him by his friends, and thus ended all negociations between these men. Gypsy Cooper afterwards challenged Jack for £200, but he refused to fight for less than £300. He had a house and business to attend to, and a wife and family to support, which he would not neglect for less. From thenceforth he pursued the beaten path of a publican, and was highly respected by all ranks of the Fancy. The liberality of his friends, however, added to his own predilection for daffey, gradually paved the way to the "break up" of his constitution, and for some months back he was but the shadow of his former self. There has recently been a good deal said about a match between him and Dick Curtis, but we believe no serious intention of the sort was entertained by either man, nor would the condition of Randall have justified such undertaking.

an

Such is the general outline of this man's career. That he had his faults we will not attempt to deny, and who is there without them ?-but he maintained to the last, towards his friends, a sincere feeling of gratitude, and his memory will ever be respected for the honesty which invariably characterized his appearance in the ring.

ON BOXING GENERALLY.

MR. EDITOR, There are few things, in the maudlin cant of the present day, more absurd and annoying than the continual

outcry raised against the manly Science of Boxing. Why it should be so absurdly persisted in I am at a loss to conjecture, unless that, as we cannot expect from the gentler part of the creation much predilection for a science, the ostensive effect of which is the production of "bloody noses and cracked crowns," we may infer that many of the male sex are influenced in their opposition thereto more by motives of gallantry than the exercise of reason. It has been objected to pugilistic contests, that they are productive of much danger, and sometimes even of death. To this I merely observe, that the proportion of deaths resulting from pitched battles, to those arising from accidental rencontres, which no force of law or reason can prevent, may be calculated at the proportion of one to a thousand; indeed, the equality of the combatants, in ring encounters, is a primary consideration with their backers, and fairness in the fight an indispensable requisite to success in the Prizering.

The confidence derived from a consciousness of superior strength, at least of superior skill (which, in a great measure, compensates for the deficiency), in the use of our natural weapons of defence, possesses so many obvious advantages, as to render comment supererogatory. Indeed, the coolness, self-possession, and absolute command of temper, required to form even a tolerable boxer, must prove of infinite service in all avocations of life. In this country we are unquestionably protected, to the utmost extent of civil power, against the ruffian hand of brutal ferocity; but how frequently, in most men's lives, do unavoidable circumstances occur, which render it necessary that all

their reliance should be placed on personal exertion and knowledge of self-defence! The superiority of boxing, as a gymnastic exercise, cannot be for a moment disputed by those who reflect on the matter -no manual exercise presenting such a variety of position and attitude, or, at the option of the practiser, calling into action (either with ease or violence) every muscle and sinew of the human frame. Nor, as I before observed, does any exercise require so complete a self-possession and exertion of all the energies, mental and corporeal. Boxing, among the Greeks (and no one disputes their pre-eminent claim as the most refined nation of antiquity), forms a very prominent part of their public amusements; and no class of men were more respected in the State than the Athletæ, or persons who professed the art of Running, Wrestling, and Boxing, at their solemn festivals. Their rewards and honours, when victorious, were commensurate to the skill and intrepidity required for obtaining success; but the Greeks carried boxing to an extreme, unknown in the British Ring; and the Cestus, or Iron Glove, in which their hands were cased for combat, often proved an instrument of sudden death, or excruciating torture. The following extract, which I have copied from Rollin, enables us to form an opinion of the violence with which those battles were contested:" They sometimes fell down dead or dying upon the sand; though that only happened except when the vanquished person persisted too long in the refusal to acknowledge his defeat; yet it was common for them to quit the fight with a countenance so disfigured, that it was easy to know them afterwards, carrying away with them the sad

not

marks of their vigorous resistance, such as bruises and contusions of the face, the loss of an eye, their teeth knocked out, their jaws broken, or some more considerable fracture." In our pugilistic contests the worst result to the vanquished is a good thrashing; which his well-trained constitution enables him to bear, and frequently recover from in the course of a few days.

The conspicuous part which Homer gives to the pugilistic combat at the funeral rites of Patrocles, plainly designates the estimation in which such scenes were held; and Virgil, as usual, imitates and improves on his great prototype in the description of the combat between Entellus and Dares.

To me nothing is more disgusting than the brutal ruffianism of a country fight, when two awkward bumpkins pummel and phlebotomize each other "sans ceremonie," an hour by Shrewsbury clock;-nor is any sight more gratifying than the opposition of two well-made accomplished boxers, elevated on a stage, matched in science, skill, and intrepidity, and all the requisites of pugilistic warfare. The courage of English boxers is proverbial over the world; nothing can exceed or equal it, but the valour of their native bull-dogs. I by no means wish to maintain that a knowledge of self-defence will constitute any man a more sanctified member of society; but this I aver, that many important advantages will result therefrom, not the least important of which is a feeling of personal independence, an invigoration of all the energies, mental and corporeal, and a stimulus to the system which can be attained only by exercise. With respect to the much misrepresented professors

of

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this science, my own perience enables me to say that a more quiet or unassuming class of men than many of them never existed. I need only adduce the names of Crib, Spring, and T. Belcher, in proof of the assertion for the rest doubtless, were the public to sanction them with a proper degree of patronage, they would anxiously exert themselves to maintain a situation of permanent respectability.-Life in London. M.

LAW OF WAGERS. Opinion.-"A wager on a horserace is legal, provided the race which is the subject of the bet is run for the sum of £50 or upwards, or £25 deposited by each party; but horse-races against time on a highway, or for a stake of less value than £50, are illegal. A wager upon an indifferent matter, which has no tendency to produce any public mischief for individual inconvenience, is legal; but to make the wager legal, the subject matter of it must be perfectly innocent, and have no tendency to impolicy or immorality. A wager between voters on the event of an election, or concerning the produce of the revenue, or tending to inconvenience or degrade the courts of justice, or concerning an abstract question of law or legal practice in which the parties have no interest, is illegal and void. A cock-match, or wager upon it, is illegal. So a wager prejudicial to the interest or feelings of a third person, as on the sex of a person, is illegal. A wager whether an unmarried woman had had a child was held void. A wager tending to restrain marriage is void. A wager on the life of Bonaparte was held void. A person may lay a wager on his own age; and there is no illegality in betting a rump and dozen."

SIR, The account of the Buffalo Hunt contained in your second number has already apprized the sporting world that tiger and hog-hunting are not the only field sports peculiar to India which are worthy of consideration, yet, although I admired the verses, I could not but wish for a more particular account of a sport until lately entirely novel on this side of India. I am no poet myself, but the subject requires not rhymes to make it interesting, and lest none of your correspondents should have sent you intelligence of the late sporting operations in Khandeish, the following information will no doubt be acceptable to your readers.

The rendezvous was at Mangerode on the banks of the Taptee, about 30 miles eastward of Boorhanpore, between the Satpoorah and Bindza ranges of mountains, in the midst of an uninterrupted tract of jungle, swarming with game of almost every description. We met on the 20th of March; our party consisting of nine select sportsmen from Khandeish, and two amateurs from the Nizam's country in the Deccan, who had lately killed so many tigers, that

they were glad of an opportunity of diversifying their sport.

Last year two or three buffaloes had been killed with the spear, and we determined at first that powder and ball was an unsportsmanlike method of overcoming them. We soon found, however, that attempting to spear them was out of the question, for at this season of the year they frequent the immediate banks of the Taptee, where the jungle is so thick as to be frequently impenetrable, and the ravines such as would compel your Nuggur or Goozerat hog-hunters to pull up at. The buffaloes seemed to be aware of the secure positions which they had taken up, and seldom took to the plain.

Owing to the extent and thickness of the jungle, and our want of information regarding the haunts of the buffaloes, we did not fall in with a herd until the evening of the second day. They were grazing on the opposite side of the river; one large male appeared as if standing sentry at the edge of the bank. As luck would have it, one of the party had all the sport to himself: Captain G. had detached himself from the party, while we were going along the bed