I took the _long odds_, and I floor'd _the flash side_.

"But with training, and treating, and sparring, and paying
For all through the nose, as most do in beginning
Their fancy career, I am borne out in saying,
I was quite out of pocket in spite of my winning.

"So when Bob fought old George, being shortish of money,
And bearing in mem'ry the Bagshot affair,
In my former pal's stakes I stood only _a pony_,
(Which was never return'd, so I'm done again there).

"To be perfectly safe, on the old one I betted;
For the knowing ones told me the thing was made right:
If it had been, a good bit of blunt I'd have netted;
But a double X spoilt it, and Bob won the fight.

~209~~

"But the famed stage of Warwick, and Ward, were before me--
I look'd at Tom Cannon, and thought of the past;
I was sure he must win, and that wealth would show'r o'er me,
So, like Richard, I set all my hopes on a cast;

"And the die was soon thrown, and my luck did not alter--
I was floor'd at all points, and my hopes were a hum;
I'm at Tattersall's all but believed a defaulter,
And here, in a spunging house, shut by a bum.

"'Mid the lads of the fancy I needs must aspire
To be quite _au fait_; and I have scarcely seen
Of mills half a score, ere I'm fore'd to retire--
O thou greenest among all the green ones, Pea Green!

"And what have I gain'd, but the queer reputation
Of a whimsical dandy, half foolish, half flash?
To bruisers and sharpers, in high and low station,
A poor easy dupe, till deprived of my cash.

"All you who would enter the circle I've quitted,
Reflect on my fate, and think what you're about:
By brib'ry betray'd, or by cunning outwitted,
In the Fancy each novice is quickly clean'd out.

"For me it has lost its attractions and lustre;
The thing's done with me, and I've done with the thing:
The blunt for my bets I must manage to muster,
Then farewell to Tom Cannon, farewell to the ring!"

The reading of this morceau produced, as might have been expected,
considerable merriment on the ~210~~one hand, and some little discussion
upon the other; the angry feelings of the c