Tom Springs Back Parlour. 15 



Of course the five-pound note was paid, and as soon as it 

 was, the man said, " Now, who is a fool ? I've got all I 

 want, and now I shall let you have a truss or two of straw 

 to make yourselves comfortable in the inner ring, and shall 

 be happy to see you another time." 



It was a splendid autumn day, and the scene of the 

 fight was in the heather country, in that part of Surrey 

 which so strongly resembles Scotland and Ireland. It was 

 a pretty sight to see the crowd dotted about. If I remem- 

 ber rightly, the commissariat was highly praised in the 

 sporting papers. All I can say is, that in the company of 

 many Peers, Guardsmen, Members of Parliament, and fre- 

 quenters of the best London clubs, who like myself were 

 half famished, I made one in consuming what appeared to 

 be half-raw horse, which probably had been killed the day 

 before, eaten with the crummiest new bread and no salt, 

 a,nd washed down with some brandy-and-water, which 

 ought to have killed us all on the spot. 



Just before the fight commenced, a startling event 

 occurred. A gentleman on a magnificent hunter, took a 

 hedge and ditch which bovmded the field in grand style, 

 ^nd, riding up to the ring-side, he informed a select few of 

 the company, Spring included, that he was a magistrate 

 for Surrey and Hants, and confessed his incapacity, single- 

 handed, to clear the ring, if called upon to act, but he 

 dropped a hint pubHcly that the county constabulary would 

 be up at least in two hours, whereupon the crowd gave him 

 three cheers. The magistrate, who was an ex-guardsman, 

 and formerly a patron of the P.R., lit his cigar, and, as I 

 saw him with my own eyes, gave Lord L. a sovereign for 

 the losing man after the fight. (For particulars of the 

 fight, vide BelVs Life October, 1819.) The fight lasted 

 an hour and five minutes, and, barring one or two nasty 

 incidents, which are not worth mentioning, I never enjoyed 



