248 SPORTING STORIES 



Englishmen — with Nature's weapons ? " Then he gave 

 them a stirring account of the fight between Humphries 

 and Mendoza, which he had witnessed, dwelling on the 

 manliness and fair play which characterised the combat, 

 and urging them to settle their quarrels in the like 

 manner. That was how British prize-fighting struck a 

 foreigner, and an ecclesiastic of cultured and refined tastes, 

 and he, at any rate, did not regard the spectacle of a prize- 

 fight as brutalising or demoralising. 



One of the most enthusiastic lovers of the noble art I 

 ever met was the late George Borrow, author of The Bible 

 in Spain and Lavengro. I have often listened to him as 

 he told in his dramatic way thrilling stories of prize-fighters, 

 for many of whom he had the highest admiration. He 

 was himself a fine boxer, and his great height, strength, and 

 fearlessness made him a most formidable opponent — as 

 rogues and bullies at country fairs found to their cost. His 

 description of the fight between Tom Oliver and Phil 

 Sampson in Lavengro and his own combat with " The 

 Flaming Tinman," are two of the most striking episodes in 

 that wonderful book. 



Of the usefulness of boxing as a healthy exercise, I 

 might give countless instances. Mr Rufus Choate, the 

 recently retired American Ambassador, is now over seventy, 

 yet he still indulges in an occasional set-to with the gloves 

 and attributes his remarkable vigour to the constant practice 

 of boxing all through his life. 



Of the value of boxing as a means of self-defence a remark- 

 able illustration was once given by the Right Honourable 

 William Windham, whom Macaulay describes as "the 

 finest gentleman of the age." Windham, then Colonial 

 Secretary in the Grenville administration, was defending 

 the Prize Ring in the House of Commons, and to illustrate 

 the usefulness of boxing told the following anecdote : — 



" One night I was bidding adieu to a young lady at the 

 Opera, when her brother pressed me to take a sandwich 

 with them in St James's Street, On our way there two 

 men rushed out of an entry and tried to seize the lady, 

 who at that moment was unguarded on the right hand, her 

 brother being a few paces in the rear. On hearing his 



