THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 35 



Denne, amid an outburst of laughter, from the 

 Christ Church men, dropped on his knees as 

 if he was shot, and, gathering the precious 

 favours together, crammed them again into the 

 treacherous receptacle, denouncing as he did so, 

 in no measured terms, the ill-luck that had 

 revealed them to view. 



Denne, like a good fellow, did his best to 

 solace the wounded pride of his visitors by 

 giving them a sumptuous champagne breakfast ; 

 but, "nothing could a charm impart" to Gor- 

 don's spirits, who, according to Russell, ** carried 

 his tail between his legs like a cur-dog that had 

 been worrying sheep, and from that day never 

 cocked it again." 



Prize-fighting was then the order of the 

 day ; and a set-to between two professionals of 

 celebrity would bring together men of all ranks, 

 patricians and proletarians, from the most re- 

 mote parts of England, to witness what it would 

 have been heresy then to call a barbarous 

 exhibition. The vale of Bicester, being on the 

 borders of two counties, was a convenient ren- 

 dezvous for such encounters ; and thither, on 

 the occasion of a grand fight, the University 

 would pour forth its legion of gownsmen ; some 

 betting heavily on the event, and some, chiefly 

 amateurs in boxing, going there for the sole 

 purpose of taking a first-class lesson in the 

 "noble art of self-defence." 



