PRIZE-FIGHTING. 19S 



put the lad up behind his saddle ; he told the boy 

 to put his arms round him and to hold on ti^ht. The 

 boy did so, and, when near the close of the fight, the 

 men heartily thanked my friend for his kindness to their 

 kinsman, and, lifting the innocent little lad down, were 

 soon lost sight of. The rider then discovered that his 

 watch and purse were gone, and every farthing of 

 money he had, nearly i^20. The poor little fellow had 

 managed to rummage the farmer's pockets with eminent 

 success. 



Of course these pugilistic encounters brought together 

 crowds of thieves and scoundrels of every description, 

 and the districts in which the contests took place were 

 often pillaged wholesale. The proprietor of the King's 

 Arms at Bicester lost nearly all his plate, about ^lOO 

 worth, while several inns in Aylesbury were also sadly 

 plundered. The Bull's Head Inn lost nearly all the 

 takings of the day, about £2^, which was stolen from 

 the desk. The Crown Inn lost ^20 in plate, and about 

 the same in money, and minor depredations were the 

 order of the day. It was my good luck to lose nothing 

 whatever ; perhaps it was that I had only the cream of 

 the visitors, and the plunderers thought it better to keep 

 away from the '' upper ten," some of whom at least 

 would probably have known them well enough as doubt- 

 ful customers, and in self-defence would have denounced 

 them. The police had been carefully informed before- 

 hand that the fight w^as sure to take place at Brackley, 

 about twenty miles distant, on the borders of North- 

 amptonshire. They therefore attended at that place in 



