Prize-ring Storles.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 243, 25 February 1888, Page 7

Prize-ring Storles.

Forkmost among the professors of "the! noble art" in London, sixty or eighty years ago, was John Jackson, or " Gentleman" Jackson, as he was called. His magnifies^ ' form still survives in many a painting and sculpture, notably in Sir Thomas Lawrence's picture of John Keinble as Holla, for which ' lie sat for all except the face. Jackson fought only three battles in the ring, and then oponed a school of boxing in Old Bondstreet, which became one of the fashionable lounges of the metropolis ; and it was considered as essential for every gentleman's eon to be taught the art of self-defence by Joh*\ Jackson as to go to a public school. Children were initiated into its mysteries at so tender an age that he freqneutly had to instruct them upon his knees. J4e was Lord Byron's " corporeal pastor," and every reader of the '* Byron Memoirs" will remember in what affectionate, andjeven respectful, terms the poet writes of him. But the following story, told by the late Captain Ross, will best illustrate my remarks : — " A man, who played a great r6lo as a politician, was in his younger days a patron of the ling. His wife did not approve of this, and expressed surprise that a really i great man, a8 her husband always was, should take pleasure in the society of such ruffians as prizo-fightere. So he resolved to play the lady a little harmless trick. He invited Jackscn to dinner, and, when he j arrived, said — " ' Remember, you are ' Colonel Jackson who has fought in the Peninsula and at Waterloo. ' "So Colonel Jackson was announced, and received very graciously by the hostess. He talked well, had a fund of anecdote, and was evidently on an intimate footing with most of the great men of the day. When he had gone, the lady pronounced him to be one of the most agreeable and delightful men she had ever met. " ' You must ask him again,' she said. " ' With pleasure,' said the husband, with a twinkle in his eye ; ' but the next time he comes you must receive him as Mr John Jackson, the pugilist, and not as Colonel Jackson, the Peninsula hero.' " Scarcely less popular amon» the aristocratic patrons of the ring, though of a rougher type than Jackson, was Tom Cribb. The parlour of his house, at the corner of Panton and Oxenden-streets, was, within the memory of many still living, one of the sights of London. Byron relates how he and Jackson dined there with the famous gladiator ; and such visits from persons of even higher social position than the noble poet were common enough. When the Grand Duke of Nicholas was over here he was taken the round of sporting London— not incognito, under the protection of Inspector X, as a Grand Duke, with a curiosity to Eec" the fancy," might be even in the present day, but with all state and circumstance. He went to the Royal Cockpit, to see a main of cocks fought ; and for his special delectation wore arranged a prize-fight, a dog-fight for a silver collar,and a bull-baiting. From the latter he had to take flipkt rather precipitately, in consequence of the tortured animal breaking loose. The English gentleman of those days was always ready to throw off his coat and appealto fiets with anyone from his own equal to the commonest street ruffian. If a costermonger jostled him in the street, a ring would be formed in a moment, and dandy and rough would never leave one another until the one had cried a go; Noblemen have jumped out of thoi2 carriages on the high road to thrash an insolent waggoner who refused to make way for them. , Once wKen returning from a country ball, old Earl Berkeley, leaving his lady in the coach,' alighted into the muddy road in his silk stockings and pumps in tho small hours of the morning, and gave a gigantic " pike-keeper " a terrible towelling because the latter disputed having been paid when the carriage passed through on the previous evening. George, Prince ot Wales, used to relate with great glee how, on the high road, he once stripped and had a set-to with an insolent Brighton butcher, whom he soundly thrashed after many rounds. George Fitzclarence bad a mania for sparring when he was in the 10th Hussars. , One day he was Btrolling along with some brother officers when a quiet-looking man, with a bundle of umbrellas under his arm, pawed by. Ready for a fight, George knocked bis hat over his eyes, and challenged him to try who was the best man. The umbrella doctor promptly replied to the challenge, and threw off hia coat In a very short time this sprig of Royalty found he had caught a Tartar, for he was floored in the first round. He was up to time, however, but only again to measure his length upon the ground ; and a third and fourth round followed with the same result, until he frankly admitted that he, had found his master. Grantley Berkeley had a b»g stufted full of clothes hanging upon a nail in his bedroom, and' under the supervision of his elder brother #enry, he, when a boy, used to punch at this for pn hour every night before going to bed, while he had. a set-to with one of the stable-boys nearly everyday. " Iflwhacked himoneday," saya the writer, "he was fresh and lively the next ; and though three days a week I knocked his head into the corn bin, and he had his face chipped like an antique statue, like Oliver Twist he, was always asking for more. By this ' time I Had "got into such a Habit of pugnacious obedience, that if a bear had been introduceil,and I hadbeen told to do so, I should at once have boxed him." He 'was onoe deputed to thrash one of hia father's, footmen, to whW Henry had taken a dislike, and the flunkey proving too much for him, ; another servant was called in to finish the \ battle. . i < Henry Berkeley was a most expert boxer, ; and afe sixteen put on the gloves at the i Files' Court with the prize tighter, Caleb i Baldwin, and it was said got much the best of it. Crockfbr'd'si' ' the famous aristocratic ganibling^house, was occasionally turned fnto an arena, and after dinner the gilded furniture would be cleared away, and Tom Spring, and Owen Swift, and other noted boxers of the day, would entertain , their noble admirers * with "'a boxing match; Sometimes thiß sport was varied by 'a main of, Cocks fought in the centre! of the dining-room; „ '»'«.,' /To'amucfi'lftW period' thtfn that from ; which we ; have drawn our previous, illastralySnV belong the p>atiks of the notorious Marquisof^aterfprd, ' ' • ' i4 'A' ! favourite amusement of this "nobln spor l ramSn,' u w.hen in "London, toadiSurri after:- dining f at his* club to -"The Rbolcery ,'Vin Sfc./Giles's, take'the chair at a'tliietfeV and, 'catfgW'fiuprjfeV, 1 . helft>ito>'a hqUfc kept bV one' foe $ah\s^;* Sfctinriing Joe * ' as ' lie' wds'^iCkriamed-aiid preside over'the orgies "and" 'dances'; iri- ; the *eaWy

morning hire fourteen or fifteen cabs fill them with the drunken crew and any blackguards be could^ick up on the road ; make a procession through the streets ; stop at every public-houee, and when he was tired of the game set them all by the ears, and in the midst of a general " melee " decamp. One of the best stories told of the Marquis is. the following ;— | One night ho was driven homo in a cab' Ito Iks uncle's, the Bishop of Armagh's house in Charles-street, St. James's Square, which, during the absence of that dignitary, he was occupying ; but though he told the hall porter to give the cabman half-a-sovereign lor little over an hour's work, the Jehu was very abusive,, The Marqui", who had turned into a room off the hall, heard every word that passed. Hanging in a closet was the Bishop's Houtse of Lords costume, and, inspired by the demon of mishchief, in a twinkling he had donned the wig, lawn sleeves and all, and out he marched into the streets, where the Javvie was still indulging in the choicest expressions at his command."Hullo, you, sir," he cried, "is that the language to make use of in the hearing of a Bishop ? If you are not oft w like a shot, you profane scoundrel, I'll give you the rites ot the Church with my clerical knuckles." Now cabby, so far from being awed by his threat, jumped off his box, and, throwing oft' his coat, declared his utter contempt for the whole bench of Bishops, and his readiness to fight them all, one after another. Making sure of an easy victoty, he rushed in, but was stopped by a blow that sent him sprawling. After two or three repetitions of this argument he was fain to take to his heels, the Marquis pursuing him, his gown and wig %ing in the night air, and bawling — " Won't you stay for your extra fare ?" " You may be a bishop," said the fellow ruefully, as he mounted his box, "but you hit like the devi'."— " All the Year Round."