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;and follows it up witli another on the throat which knocks him clean off his 

 feet. The Cheshire gentlemen are greatly excited ; their man has had it all 

 his own way this round — has put in two tremendous blows and not been 

 touched in return. 5 to 4 on Keate, and the Wiltshire men are for the first 

 time rather shy about taking the odds, for their man's wind is dicky, and 

 unless it speedily improves t'other chap will assuredly knock all the fight 

 out of him. But, alas ! for poor Harry, that tremendous fall had so shaken 



him that he couldn't get back his wind. He grows weaker and weaker it 



is pitiable to witness his gallant but unavailing efforts to turn the tide of 

 •"battle in his favour— he can scarcely steady himself to strike— when he does 

 hit, his blows are delivered so slowly that his antagonist easily avoids them 

 — he has shot his bolt — Keate either knocks him down or throws him in 

 every round, till at last the brave fellow cannot leave his second's knee, and 

 ■the sponge is thrown up to signify that Keate has won his hard-fought battle, 

 which lasted seventy minutes. 



The downfall of the Wiltshire Champion is, of course, a terrible dis- 

 appointment, not only to Major Wheble, but to the vast majority of the 

 spectators. But they bear it like true Englishmen, and the stalwart 

 Cheshireman is heartily cheered as he steps down from the stage and makes 

 his way to the stand where Lord Grosvenor, Squire Legh, Mr. .Egerton, and 

 ■the rest of his backers shake hands with him, and warmly congratulate him 

 •on his victory. The gallant Major, after seeing his brave coachman taken 

 up to the house— the crowd cheering him, too, all the way, for Harry has 

 fought like a hero —comes back, and going up to Keate shakes hands with 

 him and says : "You're a game man and a good fighter, and you've beaten 

 my man fairly." Loud cheers greet this manly speech, and then the great 

 >crowd disperses. 



The foregoing gives a perfectly true description of how prize-fights 

 •were conducted in old times, supported as they were by the first 

 families in England, both noble and gentle. If we could have them 

 carried out now upon similar lines with the same class of patron"', and 

 to the exclusion of rowdyism, perhaps there would be found many of 

 the present day who would still like to see British skill, courage, and 

 •endurance thus tested within the twenty-four foot arena. 



Those of my readers who may turn up their eyes in horror at what 

 I have just recorded and will record before I finish this chapter, should 

 bear in mind the fact that in doing so they express horror at what their 

 own fathers and grandfathers in all probability gloried in ! 



In an interesting work entitled " The Dawn of the iN"ineteenth 

 'Century," there is much mention of cock-fighting, which at that period 

 used to be largely advertised in the fashionable Morning Post. Oae 

 advertisement is quoted ; it runs : — " Cocking, to be fought on Monday, 

 January 7, 1805, and continued all the week, at the Cock Pit Royal, 

 south side of St. James's Park, the gentlemen of Suffolk and the gentle- 

 men of Hampshire's main of cocks, for five hundred guineas the battle, 

 and one thousand guineas the odd. To begin fighting each day pre- 

 •cisely at half-past five o'clock." This pit was in Birdcage Walk, and on 



