INTRODUCTION 



heath, but on turf and by ring-side as well. 

 Roped arena, cocking-main, and paddock 

 were alike familiar to him, nor were his en- 

 counters with those of the pugilistic profes- 

 sion at least, purely those of patronage on 

 his part. Indeed he was more than a match 

 for many of the best bruisers of his time. It is 

 related that he once got into an altercation 

 with a pugilist unknown to him by sight who, 

 when Wilson offered to fight him, thought to 

 frighten the Oxonian, equally unknown, by a 

 parade of his redoubtable name. Wilson pro- 

 ceeded to punish him in the most approved 

 fashion, and his aggressor when he had suffi- 

 ciently recovered could only gasp : " You can 

 only be one of the two; you are either Jack 

 Wilson or the Devil." 



It may be thought that these predilections 

 for rather brutalizing pastimes, taken together 

 with the drinking feats for which he was 

 famous, represent a certain quality of coarse- 

 ness in the character of Christopher North. 



[xii] 



