226 SPORTING STORIES 



" Presently a bustle outside gave notice that someone 

 particular had arrived, and in came Tommy Hughes, 

 the gentlest of roughs, and the proprietor of the ' drum,' 

 bowing and scraping, and ushering in the ' First Gentle- 

 man in Europe,' accompanied by his brother, the Duke of 

 York, and supported by his friends, foremost amongst 

 whom was Beau Brummel, then in the zenith of his 

 power. 



" And now the sport began. ' The backers,' the seconds, 

 the umpires, and referee took their places, and the first 

 two feathered heroes were tenderly delivered at the scratch. 

 It was a strange scene; the place, with its vaulted roof and 

 stone pillars, was but dimly lit by the flickering candles, 

 and these were chiefly focussed upon the stage, and the 

 crowd in the background was shadowy and indistinct. 

 The babel of tongues soon became uproarious ; bets were 

 shouted from each side of the pit ; the Prince, who had 

 thrown off all restraint on entering and had been shaking 

 hands and betting with everyone, entered into the fun 

 with an energy second to none. It would be impossible 

 to recount the individual battles of this mighty main, or 

 to describe how a gallant Redbreast with a broken thigh 

 made his dying effort, and with a fortunate flutter slew 

 his unscathed antagonist ; or how another, blinded in the 

 fight, with peculiar instinct, knocked over his unsuspecting 

 foe. But in the end the Duckwings won, and the Derbyites 

 were badly beaten, and the Prince who had backed the 

 latter lost a large sum. After which the company turned 

 out and had to push their way through the crowd of 

 tatterdemalions that filled the streets." 



But the most graphic account of a well-fought main is 

 from the pen of a journalist who in 1826, in company with 

 Tom Owen, a famous pugilist and the inventor of the dumb- 

 bells, paid his first visit to the Westminster cockpit. After 

 describing the interior of the building (" round, with seats 

 rising row above row like an amphitheatre, with a stage of 

 about 18 ft. or 20 ft. in diameter in the centre, covered by 

 a mat on which an inner and an outer circle where chalked ; 

 and illumined by a ring of tallow candles that hung from 

 the ceiling "), he proceeds to sketch the most conspicuous 



