PRIZE-FIGHTS 



191 



his life and of the battles he 

 fought, after pursuing him 

 through the classic pages of 

 " Boxiana " and the voluminous 

 records of " Pugilistica," after 

 consulting, too, that sprightly 

 work " The Fancy " ; after all 

 this I find no further mention 

 of the fact. It was fitting, 

 though, that the pugilist should 

 have his home near Crawley 

 Downs, the scene of so many of 

 the Homeric combats witnessed 

 by thousands upon thousands 

 of excited spectators, from the 

 Czar of Russia and the great 

 Prince Regent, downwards 

 to the lowest blackguards 

 of the metropolis. An inspiring 

 sight those Downs must have 

 presented from time to 

 time, when great multitudes — 

 princes, patricians, and 

 plebeians of every description — 

 hung with beating hearts and 

 bated breath upon the per- 

 formances of two men in a 



roped enclosure battering one another for so much 

 a side. 



It is thus no matter for sunrise that the Brighton 

 Road, on its several routes, witnessed brilliant and 

 dashing turn-outs, both in public coaches and private 

 equipages, during that time when the last of the 

 Georges flourished so flamboyantly as Prince, Prince 

 Regent, and King. How else could it have been 

 with the Court at one end of it and the metropolis 

 at the other, and between them the rendezvous of all 

 such as delighted in the " noble art " ? 



Many were the merry " mills " which " came off " 

 at Crawley Downs, Copthorne Common, and Blindley 



SCULPTURED 



EMBLEM OF THE 



HOLY TRINITY, 



CRAWLEY CHURCH. 



