20 Tom Sj)ring's Back Parlour. 



class who habitually got drunk and quarrelled, it was much 

 better for them to be taught to settle their quarrels in a 

 mode which left them with a couple of black eyes and a 

 broken nose, than to be found in the street with a knife 

 stuck in them, and a widow and fatherless children left 

 unsupported. In the same article they stated that, as 

 i-egards the Ring, if no necessity for it existed, nothing- 

 would please them more than to withdraw all note of it 

 from their columns. 



Whether it is owing to our frequent intercoiu^se with 

 foreign nations, or from what other cause, I know not, but 

 the knife is much more frequently used now than it ever 

 was. 



I knew very intimately, from having passed a long vaca- 

 tion — within the last twenty years — in the parish where 

 he dwelt, a very eminent editor of a very eminent sporting 

 paper, who used not only to -attend the great fights, but 

 was often referee. He was one of the most amiable cf 

 men, and his three proclivities were gardening, being a vei y 

 active Yicar's churchwarden, and looking after the parish 

 schools, in which his wife was an indefatigable worker. I 

 remember at church disturbing the devotions of a very 

 excellent lady, who was getting her money ready for the 

 collection at a missionary sermon, by remai'kmg that Bell's 

 Life was stakeholder. 



But what quaint language they used in Bell, especially 

 in the days of old Vincent Dowling, and, earlier still, in the 

 days of Pierce Egan. 



I wish everything would stick to my memory like the 

 quaint sayings of such writers do. Here is a specimen, in 

 the description of a fight between young Dutch Sam and 

 Ned Neale, from Pierce Egan's " Book of Sports " : — 



" The nobby appearance of Curtis and Holt attracted the 

 admiration of the spectators. They were dressed in new 



