Fencing . encourage the combatants with great delight of heart,and never part them while they fight according to the rules ; andthese by-standers are not only other boys, porters and rabble, butall sorts of men of fashion. The fathers and mothers of the boyslet them fight on as well as the rest, and hearten him that givesground or has the worst. These combats are less frequent amonggrown men than children, but they are not rare. If a coachmanhas a dispute about his fare with a gentleman that has hired him,the coachman consents with all his heart; the gentleman pulls offhis sword and lays it in
Fencing . encourage the combatants with great delight of heart,and never part them while they fight according to the rules ; andthese by-standers are not only other boys, porters and rabble, butall sorts of men of fashion. The fathers and mothers of the boyslet them fight on as well as the rest, and hearten him that givesground or has the worst. These combats are less frequent amonggrown men than children, but they are not rare. If a coachmanhas a dispute about his fare with a gentleman that has hired him,the coachman consents with all his heart; the gentleman pulls offhis sword and lays it in some shop, with his cane, gloves andcravat, and boxes in the same manner as I have described once saw the late Duke of Grafton at fisticuffs in the open streetwith such a fellow, whom he lambed most horribly. In France wepunish such rascals with our cane, and sometimes with the flat ofour sword, but in England this is never practised ; they neitheruse sword or stick against a man that is Figure V.—Ducking to the right I3S CHAPTER 11. THE OLD SCHOOL. The father of actual professional prize fighting, the establishedpatriarch of the ring, is Figg, whose portrait we have on thecanvas of Hogarth, and whose name stands first on the rollof recognised champions. His date is 1719 ; and he appearsto have reigned eleven years, when his name is succeededby the rather enigmatical mention of Pipes and many pitched battles these heroes fought against oneanother is a question that could only be decided by diving intothe mustiest records of pugiHstic literature ; but it seems thatGretting (for that was his real name) won alternately for sometime, and was rather undecidedly getting the worst of it withPipes, who was the smaller man, when both were very easilyvanquished by the redoubtable Jack Broughton. From theend of their four years tenure of of^ce in 1734, the list ofsole champions continues unbroken and complete right downto the date of the famous internatio
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