l, and took an enormous pride in my acquaintance with him. I
remember one summer evening, seeing him eject an enormous fat Frenchman
from his door--one of the colony of artificers in glass which lived
there at this time. The champion's was the last house in the parish,
and beside it lay the Birmingham and Worcester Canal. The big pugilist
conducted his captive to the bridge and dumped him down there on the
wall, the top of which was all frayed and crumbled by the action of the
towing ropes. The fat Frenchman, who was good-naturedly tipsy, picked
up a loose half brick and tossed it after the departing Slasher. The
missile took him between the shoulders, and he, turning in wrath, flung
out one windy buffet at his assailant, and toppled him over the bridge
into the canal. There was a momentary flurry, and then a bystander lent
the immersed Frenchman one end of a barge-pole, and he was drawn to
the side, apparently quite sobered. The Slasher stood guffawing on the
bridge, a little crowd of loafers roared with laughter, and the fat
victim of the incident seemed as much amused by it as anybody. He struck
a burlesque fighting attitude on the tow-path, and then went dripping
homeward.

This small episode was quite in tune with the place and the time, and
nobody thought it worth more than a laugh. The good old Prize Ring
was even then sinking into disrepute and only the giant fight of years
later, when England and America were matched against each other in the
persons of Tom Sayers and The Benecia Boy, gave it a momentary flicker
before, as it were, it fell into the socket, and one form of British
valour died.

The Slasher was, of course, the central luminary, but there were scores
and scores of lesser lights revolving round him. The fistic art in those
days was very generally practised and a stand-up fight between two local
champions was often undertaken for the mere love of the thing. It was
not at all an uncommon practice for a party of eight to be brought
together, lots would be drawn, and four would stand up against four,
then two against two, and the survivors of the competition would fight
it out between them. I witnessed many of these contests and can bear
evidence that there was less rowdyism displayed than can be noted any
day amongst the crowd on a modern race-course. It was good, serious,
scientific fighting and the rules of the Ring were strictly observed.
Any violation of them would indeed have aroused the spontan