5 6 MR. JOHN GULLY. 



shire ; on both of which occasions Gully was proclaimed 

 the victor, and retired from the ring and turned 'Boni- 

 face,' as did many others of the same lively occupa- 

 tion that came after him. 



I can hardly see, myself, that Gully as a pugilist 

 was deserving of the high reputation which he en- 

 joyed. He only fought two men ; the one he beat, 

 and the other beat him. It is true he beat Gregson 

 twice ; but at one time the fight was a near thing, 

 occupying a full hour, and Gregson would not have 

 made another match. Dutch Sam, Tom Crib, and 

 many others, were much better men in their 

 day, to my thinking. Again, Owen Swift, if I re- 

 member rightly, actually killed three men, Anthony 

 Noon being one of them, in a fight which took place 

 near the Queen Charlotte public-house, close to 

 Andover, for which he stood his trial some time after. 

 But the witness for the prosecution failed to identify 

 him, as his face and hands were darkly stained with 

 the green bark of walnuts, and so got him acquitted. 

 It is also remarkable that few champions of the ring 

 lived to a peaceful end. Nat Langham, Owen Swift, 

 the two Brooms, John and Harry, all came to untimely 

 grief. The Brooms, early in life, severed their jugular 

 veins with a carving-knife, whilst the others drank 

 themselves to death, or sought shelter from starvation 

 in alms-houses, an infliction which Gully only escaped 

 by the friendly hand of death. 



He had before I knew him adopted a modern style 



