THE RING, THE TURF, AND PARLIAMENT 



great force upon the ground. The odds now moved 

 in favour of Gregson, who had throughout punished 

 Gully severely. At the twenty-fifth round the 

 combatants were so exhausted that they could 

 hardly see or stand, and their blows lost power and 

 precision. However, after the fight had lasted 

 an hour, Gully, pulhng himself together, exerted 

 every ounce of his remaining strength in one- 

 desperate hit with which he knocked his opponent 

 senseless, and the fight was thereupon declared 

 in his favour. The struggle had been Titanic, 

 and victory was in the balance until the final blow. 

 Captain Barclay drove Gully from the ring in his 

 carriage, and the following day both men appeared 

 at the races at Newmarket. 



A review of this fight showed Gully and Gregson 

 to have been very evenly matched, and the backers 

 of the latter contended that the verdict would be 

 reversed if the pair were again engaged. A second 

 match was therefore arranged to take place on 

 May 8, 1808, and again for two hundred guineas. 

 The venue was to have been in Buckinghamshire,, 

 but the Lord-Lieutenant gave public notice by 

 proclamation of his intention to frustrate the 

 fight. On the appointed day the town of Woburn 

 and the neighbourhood were in an uproar. The 

 roads were blocked with strings of vehicles and 

 a confused array of pedestrians. The Dunstable 

 volunteers were called out, and the countryside 

 were firmly persuaded that the French had landed. 

 Ultimately a rendezvous was found in Sir John 

 Sebright 's park, some seventeen miles from Ashley 

 Common. By two o'clock a huge concourse had 

 reached the park, and had assembled at a flat 



89 



