250 SPORTING STORIES 



services at the street corners. When first he started these 

 services the roughs used to gather round and jeer at him, 

 using the foulest language. He saw that this must be 

 stopped at once, so one evening, after the service was over, 

 he singled out the biggest fellow among them, who had 

 made himself conspicuous in annoying the little band of 

 worshippers, went up to him, and said : " Now look here, 

 my man. You have been behaving yourself like a filthy 

 beast, and I mean to teach you a lesson. Put up your 

 hands if you're a man." The hulking lout grinned as he 

 looked down upon the little parson, and prepared to 

 demolish him before the eyes of his admiring pals. The 

 fight was very short. Twice the parson knocked the man 

 clean off his legs. Then the hooligan gave in ; and never 

 again were the parson's out-door services disturbed. 



I think the most enthusiastic lover of boxing I ever came 

 across was the late Honourable Robert Grimston, familiarly 

 known as " Bob " Grimston. He was a contemporary of 

 John Ruskin at Oxford. " I remember when I was at 

 Christ Church," writes the great art critic, " Grimston 

 attended the same lectures as myself. He was a man of 

 herculean strength, whose love of dogs and horses, and 

 especially of boxing, was stupendous." As a boy he had 

 taken lessons from the famous John Jackson, and as a 

 young man he was a pupil both of Tom Spring and Jem 

 Ward. I have often heard Jem relate anecdotes of " The 

 Honorable Bob's" contempt for hard knocks. If Jem were 

 a little slack in hitting, Grimston would cry out : " Look 

 here, Ward, none of your gammon ; come at me as if you 

 were fighting for the Championship ; I like being hit." 

 An undergraduate who was once having a spar with him 

 remarked : " It's all very well for you, Bob, for your head 

 is like a rhinoceros's." " Of course it is," was the reply, 

 " because I have boxed from boyhood ; and if you go on 

 long enough your head will be like a rhinoceros's, which 

 will be a comfort to you for life." Another time, when 

 doubled up by a body blow which rendered him speechless 

 for some minutes, there was a roar among the spectators, 

 his partisans declaring it was a foul. Up rose Grimston 

 as soon as he could get back his breath, and spluttered out : 



