258 Did you ever Drive a Jibber down to a Fight? 



into the street with an awkward young horse coupled up alongside 

 of a steady old near- wheeler. You then behold them in all their 

 glory 3 and no aristocrat, as he leans back in his well-appointed 

 barouche, enjoys his park ride more than these fellows seem now 

 to enjoy themselves, perched on and about the brake in all the 

 dishabille of the stable-yard, ready for any emergency. 



Well, we will suppose aU this is familiar to you. You have 

 probably more than once been started by the powerful assistance ot 

 three or four such fellows, one at each wheel, and another at the 

 head of the horse, who will persist in backing your gig into a 

 linendraper's shop-window. 



But did you ever drive a jibber down to a fight ? 



I dare say not. I, however, havej and I will describe a little 

 adventure of the kind which once happened to me — a good many 

 years ago, but still not so long as to be entirely forgotten. Do not, 

 however, be shocked ! it is the drive down, and not the fight, which 

 I am about to describe. 



In the year 1842, a prize-fight was fixed to come off in Cam- 

 bridgeshire, on a common called Melbourne Heath, between two 

 worthies — the one a black man, named Sambo Sutton j the other, 

 a copper-coloured individual from the antipodes, the champion of 

 Australia, who rejoiced in the aboriginal solriquet of Bungareej 

 and I received the following laconic note from head-quarters a few 

 days previous: — " Littlebury, Oct. 25, ten a.m. Be in time." I 

 was then about twenty miles to the east of Cambridge, so on the 

 afternoon of the 24th I rode over to the old town, intending to 

 hire a fresh horse to ride down to the fight on the next day, and 

 have my own horse fresh to take me home again in the evening. 

 These were the days whan the prize-ring was hardly at so low an 

 ebb as it is at present j and special trains were not then chartered 

 tor the occasion to convey the company stealthily down to the 

 meeting, but all who wished to see the performance had due notice 

 of the time and place^ and travelled down as best they could — in 



