Smithfield, Moorfields, St. George’s Fields, Southwark, and Hyde Park,[14] during this period also had “booths” and “rings” for the display of boxing and stick play. In Hogarth’s celebrated picture of “Southwark Fair” our hero prominently figures, in a caricatured exaggeration, challenging any of the crowd to enter the lists with him for “money, love, or a bellyful.” This picture we have also chosen as an interesting illustration of the great English painter,—a record of manners in a rude period. As one of the bills relating to this fair (which was suppressed in 1763) is extant, we subjoin it:
AT FIG’S GREAT TIL’D BOOTH, _On the_ Bowling Green, Southwark, During the Time of the _FAIR_, (Which begins on SATURDAY, the 18th of SEPTEMBER), The TOWN will be entertained with the MANLY ARTS OF Foil-play, Back-sword, Cudgelling, and Boxing, in which
The noted PARKS, from Coventry, and the celebrated gentleman prize-fighter, Mr. MILLAR, will display their skill in a tilting-bout, showing the advantages of _Time_ and _Measure_:
Mr. JOHNSON, the great Swordsman, superior to any man in the world for his unrivalled display of the _hanging-guard_, in a grand attack of SELF-DEFENCE, against the all-powerful arm of the renowned SUTTON.
DELFORCE, the finished Cudgeller, will likewise exhibit his uncommon feats with the _single-stick_; and who challenges any man in the kingdom to enter the lists with him for a _broken-head_ or a _belly-full_!
BUCKHORSE, and several other _Pugilists_, will show the Art of Boxing.
To conclude With a GRAND PARADE by the Valiant FIG, who will exhibit his knowledge in various Combats—with the Foil, Back-sword, Cudgel, and Fist. To begin each Day at Twelve o’clock, and close at Ten.
N.B. The Booth is fitted up in a most commodious manner, for the better reception of Gentlemen, &c. &c.
Besides this nobly patronised amphitheatre of Fig, there were several booths and rings strongly supported. That in Smithfield, we have it upon good authority, was presided over by one “Mr. Andrew Johnson,” asserted to be an uncle of the great lexicographer,[15] There was also that in Moorfields, called at times “the booth,” at others “the ring.” The “ring” was kept by an eccentric character known as “Old Vinegar,” the “booth” by Rimmington, whose _sobriquet_ was “Long Charles.” This, it appears, had a curious emblazonment,—a skull and cross-bones on a black ground, inscribed “Death or Victory.” During the high tide of Fig’s prosperity (1733) occurred the battle between Bob Whitaker and the Venetian Gondolier, narrated under the head of “WHITAKER.”