134 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



How many of you recollect little Jerry 

 Hawkes, one of Bill Richardson's light-weight 

 pets, I believe ? I remember Jerry and George 

 Dove, who was humpbacked with muscle behind 

 his neck, having a tremendous fight with the 

 gloves at Bow Running Grounds on the day 

 when Bat Mullins — Bat with the synonymous 

 ears, the abnormal reach, and the wonderful 

 endurance — met a Life Guardsman, who, had he 

 known the tricks of the trade, would have won 

 for sure. Bat is about teaching, and a good 

 instructor, too ; but this was nearly thirty years 

 ago. Who reading this will recollect the pro- 

 moters of the show ; Old Bill Richardson, Harry 

 Read, the runner of *' Bell's Life," and one 

 Preston. I can see the Bow Grounds and the 

 sparrers as I write ; so I can Jerry Hawkes, up 

 on the barge- walk just above Molesey Lock, 

 when we put him on to a try-your-weight 

 machine pitched on the tow-path. Jerry knocked 

 the whole apparatus bang into the river. Then 

 Molesey Hurst was considered to be common 

 land, and about it hung all manner of traditions 

 of old fights, for which see your ''Boxiana" or 

 *' Fistiana." The vicar of the parish, on the day 

 I name, took the chair at a banquet after an 

 amateur swimming race, and the first thing he 

 knew was that he was hit in the eye by a hot 

 baked potato. Such were the manners, or want 

 of manners, of the British amateur then. 



Hampton Court? — why, when Kempton was 

 first started, and Sandown, you couldn't get a 

 bed In the Mitre, or the Lion, or the Greyhound 

 for love or money 1 All the Newmarket trainers 

 pitched there, as did many of the big owners and 

 jockeys. Such a thing as trainers making 



