Despite the shortness of his fighting life and his monumental respectability, John Gulley was a very fine pugilist. How he gained the necessary reputation before being matched with the Game Chicken it is impossible to say. We know that he found willing backers, so we may safely assume that he had shown more than usual skill with the “mufflers,” as boxing gloves were called in those days. The fight, which took place on July 20th, 1805, at Hailsham, in Sussex, lasted for an hour and ten minutes, and was finished in fifty-nine rounds. Gulley was beaten, nearly every round ending by his downfall, but he boxed well and showed remarkable3 endurance and pluck.
On the retirement4 of Pearce, chiefly owing to ill-health—indeed, the poor fellow died not long afterwards of consumption—Gulley became virtual champion. But he can hardly be described by that title with full justice, for the reason that he declined the office and showed no desire to act as a champion in the true meaning of the word, for he did not stand to accept challenges. He honourably6 retired7 from the ring, kept the Plough Inn, Carey Street, and realised a large fortune as a 35 bookmaker. But his two victories over Bob Gregson are certainly worth mention. One of them is the subject of an illustration in this book.
Though these battles were between two big men, the hugeness of Gregson made them appear unevenly8 matched. Gulley weighed about 13? stone, and stood just under 6 feet. Gregson, a Lancashire man by birth, weighed 15 stone and was 6 ft. 2 inches. They fought at Six Mile Bottom, near Newmarket, on October 14th, 1807. Gulley had Tom Cribb in his corner and Gregson Bill Richmond.
For the first six rounds there was little to choose between them. But Gregson was somewhat daunted9 by a very severe knock down in the second round. Gulley hit him full in the face with such force that the blood literally10 flew from him. In the seventh, however, the bigger man fought through his opponent’s guard and gave Gulley such a blow under the eye as knocked the senses out of him for a few seconds, and his eye swelled11 up so that he was completely blinded in it. In the next round Gregson, using his tremendous strength, lifted his man up and hurled12 him to the ground as though he had been a piece of timber. But he refrained from falling on him, which, by the rules then in force, he was entitled to do, and whereby with his great weight he might have done severe damage—and so earned the cheers of the onlookers13. The ninth round immediately following, found Gulley still quite cool and using all his skill. He knocked his man down, though not severely14. Then onward15 till the sixteenth round, however, Gregson’s strength made itself felt, and he gave John Gulley a very bad time. Gulley seemed to be weakening, and round after round ended in his downfall. Then he “got his second wind,” and in a fierce rally knocked Gregson clean off his feet.
It must be remembered that for some time past Gulley could see with but one eye, and though he was the better boxer1, his opponent’s extra weight was a severe added handicap when it came to a fall. Gulley would have much the better of the exchanges round after round, and yet many of these rounds ended by his being desperately16 thrown. 36
By the twenty-third round, however, it was seen that Gregson’s strength was ebbing17, whilst Gulley somehow gave the impression of maintaining the same condition as he had shown after the first ten rounds. That is to say, he appeared to be weak, but again and again gathered himself up for some prodigious18 effort by sheer will-power. Up to the twenty-fifth round it was, as the saying goes, anybody’s fight. Both men were badly damaged: the strength of both was fast ebbing. You might say that if either had known exactly how bad the other felt he could have won then and there. In all personal combats it is each man’s business to hide his feelings from his opponent. He must be hurt without showing that he is hurt, and however much hurt he must persist in wanting to win. There comes a time in a hard fight, with gloves or without them, when one man or other wants less to win than to be done with the whole agonising, wearying business on any terms. And that man is beaten. So it was now with Gregson. Hurt and fatigued19, he lost heart at last. His will had been stubborn, but not so stubborn as John Gulley’s. They fought on till the thirty-sixth round, till both were almost at a standstill. Then Gulley made the last supreme20 effort and knocked Bob Gregson down, so that he could not rise to the call of time. Gulley himself came staggering to the scratch.
This was regarded at the time as one of the severest battles ever seen in the Prize-Ring. It was a good sporting encounter throughout, with good will and even magnanimity on either side. Gulley had greatly improved in the science of boxing since his encounter with the Chicken, and he needed all that science in order to balance Gregson’s extra height, weight, and reach.
For his part Gregson and his backers believed that he could yet beat Gulley, and he accordingly challenged him to fight for ￡200 a side. The day fixed21 was May 10th, 1808, and the scene of action on the borders of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The magistrates22, however, made difficulties, as they occasionally did even in those days, and the Dunstable volunteers were called out to “keep the peace” and to deal with “the proposed riotous23 assembly.” Eventually the principals, seconds, backers, and 37 huge “riotously assembled” crowd moved off to Sir John Seabright’s Park in the friendlier county of Hertford. And there the fight took place in a huge ring, forty feet square.
Men on horseback and on foot, in barouches, coaches, carriages, donkey-carts, men walking, men running, went across country for several miles out of the jurisdiction24 of the enemies of pugilism. Much rain had fallen during the day, with the consequence that the fighters had some difficulty in keeping their feet. Gregson, in anticipation25 of this, had spiked26 shoes, but Captain Barclay, as referee27, justly regarded these as dangerous and unfair, and ruled that the men should fight without shoes, which accordingly they did.
The men circled about each other in the dog-like fashion in which the majority of fights opened, and Gulley retreated towards his own corner. His seconds, Bill Gibbons and Joe Ward5, fearing lest Gregson with his great weight should fall upon their man whilst his back was against one of the stakes, put their hands over the top of it to prevent serious injury. But Gulley knew what he was about; feinting with his left he brought his right over with a great swing of his shoulders and caught his man fairly upon the temple and knocked him down. So excited were the onlookers at the second great trial between these men that they were quite silent, and not one cheer was raised. Only the light shuffling28 of stockinged feet was heard, hard breathing, and the spank29 of Gulley’s prodigious blow. The second round ended in the same way, though Gregson had first put in a resounding30 thump31 upon his opponent’s chest, which was, however, unlikely to have damaged him much. They were still very cautious, and for five minutes sparred for an opening, neither taking any grave risk. Then, with all his might, Gregson let fly with his left. Gulley took the blow on his arm, but felt the effects of it for long afterwards. It is probable that such a blow set up an inflammation of the muscles which, aided perhaps by rheumatism32, would render it useless for several months.
The next three rounds ended by Gulley going down: in the sixth Gregson fell upon him so that he gasped33 long for breath. 38 He had previously34 committed a foul35 by seizing Gulley’s thighs36. The seventh round was Gulley’s, for with blow on blow he drove his opponent through the ropes. He knocked Gregson down again and it was evident that he not only knew more boxing, but by agility37 and strength made up for the disparity in their weights. The tenth round found Gregson’s head pulped38 with savage39 blows and his left eye nearly closed. Egan tells us that Gregson was now “fighting rather after the Lancashire method, without any pretensions40 to science.”
Gregson showed plenty of ordinary pluck, for though he was knocked down again and again and severely punished, he stood up like a man. But the extraordinary pluck or will-power exerted in adverse41 circumstances deserted42 him sooner in this encounter than it had in the previous one. He had been very badly hammered then; and the moral effect of that thrashing told upon him now.
In the twelfth round Gulley landed a smashing hit from which Gregson was in the act of falling when his antagonist43 hit him again. There were cries of “Foul,” but the blow was a fair one. Such an incident happens not infrequently. It happened in January, 1922, at the end of the fight between Carpentier and Cook.
After this Gregson was all but blinded, and staggered about the ring half dazed, he could not reach Gulley, who hit him thrice in quick succession as it pleased him, and knocked him down.
In the seventeenth round Gregson lost his temper and his head. That is fatal. It is, of course, all nonsense to suppose that an angry man cannot put up a good fight. He can; a touch of cold rage lends power to a man: thinking clearly he hits to hurt. But wild, tempestuous44 rage is another matter altogether. The man becomes blind, inasmuch as what he sees conveys no message to his brain. For a moment or two it is, perhaps, impossible to hurt him, for his passion consumes his other senses. But sooner or later some stunning45 blow will cool its victim’s fiery46 temper: there will be a brief moment of realisation, and—it will 39 be too late. The wild, unthinking attack will have been checked, but the power to guard against reprisal47 will be numbed48.
Gregson charged at his antagonist like a great bull, head down, arms working like flails49. Gulley stood still, coolly taking his opportunity. Left and right he sent his bony fists crashing into Gregson’s face, brought, by his attitude, into easy reach. Left and right, and then, giving way a little, left and right again. He hit him as he liked, driving his weight behind each blow, guarding himself from or merely avoiding the ponderous50 windmill attack of the infuriated giant. When Gregson’s moment of realisation came, his temper having passed, he fled towards the side of the ring, actually turning his back upon Gulley as he did so. But Gulley was after him and never left him alone, bringing short-arm blows to bear upon face and body until, utterly51 exhausted52, Gregson fell.
From the eighteenth to the twenty-fourth and last round Gulley had the fight, as it were, in one hand. He punished Gregson terribly, but the giant’s pluck was even greater than his rage had been. He would not give in, but came, at each call of time, staggering to the scratch. At last Gulley got the chance of an absolutely clear, free blow, into which he could put every ounce of his weight. It caught Gregson behind the ear and knocked him out; that is to say, he had not recovered at the end of half a minute, and was unable to stand at the next call of time.
Bob Gregson was certainly a great pugilist, and besides, like Gulley and Jackson, a man of presence and social charm. Indeed, he was offered and accepted a commission in the army, but Pierce Egan tells us that his means would not support the privilege for more than a very short while. It is Egan, too, who tells us that Bob Gregson, “although not possessing the terseness53 and originality54 of Dryden, or the musical cadence55 and correctness of Pope, yet still ... entered into a peculiar56 subject with a characteristic energy and apposite spirit.” In other words, Gregson wrote verse. That there may be no misunderstanding, 40 the following stanza57, the first of three in honour of Tom Cribb, is quoted below:—
“You gentlemen of fortune attend unto my ditty,
A few lines I have penn’d upon this great fight,
In the centre of England the noble place is pitch’d on,
For the valour of this country, or America’s delight;
The sturdy Black doth swear,
The moment he gets there,
The planks58 the stage is built on, he’ll make them blaze and smoke;
Then Cribb, with smiling face,
Says, these boards I’ll ne’er disgrace,
They’re relations of mine, they’re old English Oak.”
This refers to one of the battles, shortly to be described, between Tom Cribb and Molineux, the black.
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boxer
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| n.制箱者，拳击手 | |
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boxers
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| n.拳击短裤；（尤指职业）拳击手( boxer的名词复数 )；拳师狗 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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honourably
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| adv.可尊敬地，光荣地，体面地 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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unevenly
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| adv.不均匀的 | |
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daunted
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| 使（某人）气馁，威吓( daunt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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onlookers
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| n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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fatigued
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| adj. 疲乏的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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jurisdiction
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| n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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spiked
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| adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的 | |
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referee
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| n.裁判员．仲裁人，代表人，鉴定人 | |
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shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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spank
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| v.打，拍打(在屁股上) | |
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resounding
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| adj. 响亮的 | |
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thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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rheumatism
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| n.风湿病 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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pulped
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| 水果的肉质部分( pulp的过去式和过去分词 )； 果肉； 纸浆； 低级书刊 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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adverse
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| adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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tempestuous
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| adj.狂暴的 | |
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stunning
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| adj.极好的；使人晕倒的 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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reprisal
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| n.报复，报仇，报复性劫掠 | |
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numbed
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| v.使麻木，使麻痹( numb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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flails
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| v.鞭打( flail的第三人称单数 )；用连枷脱粒；（臂或腿）无法控制地乱动；扫雷坦克 | |
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ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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terseness
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| 简洁，精练 | |
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originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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stanza
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| n.（诗）节，段 | |
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planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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