3oe Aanton 105 



that was the general opinion. But Birmingham thought 

 otherwise, and ranked her Westley Richards as second 

 to none. That famous maker had as his London 

 representative in Bond Street a man whose name was 

 familiar as a household word in the mouths of all 

 the sportsmen of the metropolis, but especially such 

 as patronised " The Fancy." " Uncle Bishop," or " The 

 Bishop of Bond Street," as he was humorously dubbed, 

 was one of the best-known men in London. The Prize 

 Ring was his pet hobby, and pugilism had no more 

 liberal and ardent patron than this jovial gunmaker. 

 When Corinthians wanted to see a " merry mill " they 

 were glad to put themselves under " the Bishop's " wing, 

 for not only were they safe from robbery, but they were 

 sure to be generously catered for. " The Bishop's " 

 hampers on these occasions were always carefully packed 

 and contained the choicest wines and comestibles. And 

 he had his reward. For it soon became an acknow- 

 ledged fact that the best man in London to supply 

 a good gun at a few hours' notice was Bishop, and in 

 this way the guns of Westley Richards found their way 

 into the hands of some of the most aristocratic sports- 

 men in the West End. I do not know when Bishop 

 died, but I think he lived to see the ignominious death 

 of the Prize Ring and a change in London life 

 which must have saddened his jolly spirit. It was a 

 peculiarity of Bishop that he always wore an apron 

 in his shop and was never seen without it on his own 

 premises. And no one would have guessed from his 

 deferential manner to his customers that he had been 

 up roystering with swells of the first water till long after 



