CHAP II.] Lord Althorp^ a Patron of Boxing. 35 



knocked down in tke first five or six rounds by Humphrey^ 

 and seeming almost beat till his brethren got their 

 money on, when a hint being given him, he began in 

 earnest and soon turned the tables. He loved to de- 

 scribe the " great mill ^' between Gully and '^ the chicken/' 

 which came oS* at Brickhill in Bedfordshire ; how he 

 rode down and was loitering about the inn-door when a 

 barouche and four drove up with Lord Byron and a 

 party of friends and Jackson the trainer; how they all 

 dined together, and how pleasant it had been. Then 

 the fight the next day — a scene, says the describer, 

 ^' worthy of Homer.'' We read in the Life of Lord. 

 Althorp by Sir Denis Le Marchant, that when the party 

 come together to witness this aifair had assembled over- 

 night at the '^ George Hotel,'' it was found that the beds 

 were not sufiicient in number ; so they tossed up, and 

 the winners turned in first. At a certain hour these 

 were called, and the losers took their places. Among 

 the company was the Rector of Blisworth, ^^ Parson 

 Ambrose," a man too well known in sporting-circles. 

 He disgraced a profession he might have adorned, as he 

 was clever and had a remarkably fine delivery. Macklin, 

 the actor, left him fifty pounds, to preach his funeral 

 sermon. Obliged at last to fly from his creditors, he 

 died abroad in misery and want. As a proof of the 

 intimate relations existing between Byron, the peer and 

 poet, and Jackson, the prize-fighter, we give a letter 

 from the former to the latter, bearing date September 

 18th, 1808. 



^' Newstead Abbey. 

 "Dear Jack, — I wish you would inform me what has 

 been done by Jekyll about the pony I returned as 



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