THE PRIZE RING 239 



He amassed a considerable fortune, which enabled him 

 to retire and enjoy an old age of leisure and comfort, till 

 his last summons came on the 17th of October 1845, when 

 he had just completed his seventy-seventh year. The 

 elaborate monument erected to his memory by his numerous 

 admirers testifies to the respect in which he was held by 

 sportsmen of all classes, and is still one of the sights of 

 Brompton Cemetery. 



So long as John Broughton was Champion of England, 

 prize-fighting enjoyed the patronage of the best sportsmen 

 in the kingdom. In those days big battles were usually 

 fought on a stage erected at one of the London amphi- 

 theatres, and people crowded to see them as they would 

 nowadays to a pantomime at Drury Lane. Women and 

 even children were among the spectators, and a varied 

 entertainment preceded the great event of the day. Doors 

 were opened as early as nine o'clock in the morning, though 

 the fight, which was ^q piece de resistance^ did not usually 

 commence till twelve or one o'clock. 



But directly after Broughton's defeat by Slack, prize- 

 fighting began to fall into disrepute. Slack himself was a 

 " wrong 'un," and his half-dozen successors to the Champion- 

 ship were " wrong 'uns," who sold their fights, played cross, 

 and did any and every blackguardly trick which their 

 rascally patrons ordered them to do. 



English pugilism had reached its nadir, and was patron- 

 ised only by the lowest of the low, when a champion arose 

 who not only raised the character of the Ring, but gave it 

 a prestige greater than it had ever enjoyed before. This 

 hero was Thomas Jackling, of Derby, better known by his 

 nofn de guerre of Tom Johnson. 



Johnson was succeeded by Big Ben Brain, the favourite 

 hero of George Borrow, a fine fighter and an honest man. 

 Then came Mendoza, and for nearly forty years — from 

 Dan's great fight with Gentleman Humphries to Tom 

 Spring's last fight with Jack Langan — prize-fighting was 

 the most popular sport in England. Those were the days 

 of the two Belchers, the Game Chicken (Hen Pearce), Gully, 

 Cribb, Gregson, Molineux the Black, Dutch Sam, Jack 

 Randall, Tom Hickman (the terrible " Gas "), Ned Painter 



