mother is impatient; let me put on her fetters first."

Three "stars of the ring" attended the coronation of George IV, presumably in order to check any disturbance. These were Cribb, Richmond, and Randall, who moved about Westminster Hall and assumed a somewhat comic air of official confidence.

When the Daffy Club received the application requiring the attendance of a sprinkling of knights of the fist, a most excited meeting was held, at which, though order prevailed, considerable warmth was exhibited.

Cribb, of course, acted as chairman, and set forth the important question which the Club had met to consider. The champion was not much of a speaker; But if the eloquence of tongue he miss'd, His was the soft persuasion of the fist,

and his oration was listened to with great respect.

Richmond, the black, for his part insisted that the gentlemen of colour should be represented; and Randall was equally anxious that he should himself represent the Irish. Josh Hudson at length moved that Cribb, Richmond, and Randall should be the deputation. Martin proposed his name instead of Randall's; and Caleb Baldwin and West Country Dick wished to petition Lord Sidmouth to permit a turn-up in the Abbey, Dick offering to accommodate any of his lordship's friends, or the coronation champion himself. Josh's motion was at length carried by a ruse. While several of the members had retired to

arrange about including Spring's name in the list, the remainder divided.

For Cribb, Richmond, and Randall .. 16
Against them

Majority

12

4

It should be added that during the ceremony considerable attention was excited by the appearance of Cribb, who had been equipped for the occasion in a gorgeous costume of scarlet with a blue sash.

VII

WHILST most of the old prize-fighters are

forgotten, the memory of honest Tom Cribbthe friend of Byron and Tom Moore-still endures. Only recently we witnessed an admirable character sketch of this hero in Sir Conan Doyle's manly and thoroughly English melodrama The House of Temperley, which came as a refreshing change from the so-called problem plays, most of which stimulate little but morbid fancies.

The two great fights of Cribb's life were with Tom Molineux, a Virginian black, who came to England in 1809. Molineux was what is known as a hurricane fighter, and a man of great strength and self-confidence. So confident, indeed, was he that he despised training, which no doubt greatly impaired his powers in the ring.

The frame of this black was perfectly Herculean. The best judges of anatomical beauty considered his bust a perfect picture. It was a model for a sculptor. In his early days as a fighter he had no aristocratic patron to back him, and first became known by peeling in Tothill Fields with the utmost sang-froid to the first rough customer that showed fight.

An illiterate man, Molineux was by disposition good-tempered and generous, whilst fond of dress

and gaiety to excess. He was also amorous to the end of the chapter. Unfortunately, like most pugilistic heroes, he flattered himself that his constitution was of so excellent a nature as to be almost capable of resisting the effects of every kind of excess.

A fine fighter, it was said that Molineux only wanted an "English heart" to place him at the top of the tree, if not to render him completely invulnerable against any antagonist alive!

The first battle between Cribb and Molineux took place on 18th December, 1810, on Copthall Common, near East Grinstead, Sussex, for two hundred guineas and a subscription purse of one hundred guineas. Such was the anxiety as to the result of this battle that the road to the scene of action was thronged at an early hour on the previous day, insomuch that beds could not be obtained for half the number who required them. At twelve o'clock the combatants met at the appointed spot. Molineux first entered the ring with his seconds, Richmond and Jones, and some time after Cribb appeared with his seconds, Gully and Joe Ward. Betting was three to one on Cribb.

The battle, which was won by the latter, lasted fifty-five minutes, in which forty-four rounds took place, and it was all hard fighting.

If Cribb had superior science, Molineux displayed equal courage, and his bottom at one time caused the betting to be in his favour, as two to one was betted on him in the thirtieth round of the battle.

The two men were so dreadfully beaten that their

sight was temporarily lost, and their bodies were in the most battered state, from the repetition of heavy blows constantly administered. When the

battle was decided, sense had left Molineux, and Cribb could not have stayed much longer, but his gameness bore him out.

It was a battle even more sanguinary than that betwixt Gully and Gregson, at Newmarket. It was all hitting, with two as courageous men as ever stripped for combat. Molineux fought all at the head, and the champions were both disfigured. A gentleman, who stood near the ring, reckoned forty-six facers, according to the classical phraseology of pugilism, given by Cribb to his adversary!

The string of vehicles from the field of battle reached six miles. During the contest, lords, nobles, and commoners, to the number of ten thousand, got a complete soaking by heavy rain, which fell at the setting-to of the champions, and continued until long after the close of their performance. The owner of the turnpike tolls near the scene of action took money enough to pay the rent of the gate for a whole year.

In fairness to the memory of Molineux it should be said that he had very hard luck during this fight, and does not appear to have been accorded an entirely fair chance of winning.

The second fight took place on 28th September, 1811, at Thistleton Gap, in the parish of Wymondham, Leicester, near Crown Point, where Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and Rutlandshire join. This fight was for £300 a side.