Or the following “happy thought,” to which Leech furnished an illustrative sketch:—
“SERIOUS GOVERNOR.—‘I am surprised, Charles, that you can take any interest in these repulsive details! How many rounds (I believe you term them) do you say these ruffians fought? Um, disgraceful! the Legislature ought to interfere; and it appears that this Benicia Man did not gain the—hem—best of it? I’ll take the paper when you have done with it, Charles.’”—_Punch Illustration, April 8, 1860._
1730‒1733. Pipes and Gretting (with alternate success).
1771. Peter Corcoran (doubtful). He beat Bill Darts, who had previously been defeated by Lyons.
1783‒91. Tom Johnson (Jackling), of York.
1791. Benjamin Brain (Big Ben), of Bristol.
1808. (Retired). John Gully (afterwards M.P. for Pontefract).
1809. Tom Cribb, received a belt and cup, and retired.
1824. Tom Spring, received four cups, and retired.
1833. Jem Burke (the Deaf ’un), claimed the title.
1839. Bendigo (Wm. Thompson), of Nottingham, beat Burke, and received the belt from Ward.
1841. Benjamin Caunt, of Hucknall, beat Nick Ward, and received belt (transferable).
1845. Bendigo beat Caunt, and received the belt.
1850. Wm. Perry (Tipton Slasher), claimed belt, Bendigo declining his challenge.
1851. Harry Broome beat Perry, and claimed the title.
1853. Perry again challenged the title, and Broome retired from the ring.
1857. Tom Sayers beat Perry, and received the belt.
1860. Tom Sayers retired after his battle with Heenan, and left belt for competition.
1860. Samuel Hurst (the Staleybridge Infant), beat Paddock, the claimant, and received the belt.
1861. Jem Mace, of Norwich, beat Hurst, and claimed the title.
1863. Tom King beat Mace, and claimed the belt, but retired, and Mace claimed the trophy.
1863. Tom King beat J. C. Heenan for £1,000 a-side at Wadhurst, December 10th.
The origin of boxing has been assumed by some superficial writers as coeval with the earliest contests of man. This view appears to the writer both crude and unphilosophical. It might be argued with equal probability that the foil was antecedent to the sword, the sword to the dagger, or the singlestick to the club with which the first murder was perpetrated. The clumsiest and, so far as rude and blood-thirsty attack could contrive them, the most deadly weapons were the first used; the sudden destruction of life, not the art of defence, being the brutal instinct of the vengeful, cunning, and cowardly savage, or the treacherous manslayer. This, too, would lead us fairly to infer—as the most dangerous forms of the cæstus are the most ancient, and the naked fist in combat appears nowhere to have been used in the gladiatorial combats of Greece or Rome—that to England and her Anglo-Saxon race is due this fairest and least dangerous of all forms of the duel; and to attribute to a recent period the padded boxing-glove (at present the air or pneumatic glove), by means of which the truly noble art of self-defence can be safely and healthfully practised and illustrated.