Fistiana, I am unable to verify the date of this fight, or to name the combatants; but people who know their subject, in an age when boxing may be said to be revived, will not need me to tell them that Blindley Heath, which is about four miles from Godstone Green, was one of the most popular and celebrated of prize-fighting rendezvous. Here, to quote one example: On the 12th of June, 1821, Hickman, the gas-light man, and Oliver, fought ten rounds in thirteen minutes. Not that Blindley Heath is the only place in the neighbourhood celebrated for this classic amusement. Within a few miles are Copthall Common, where on December 10th, 1810, Cribb fought and beat Molineaux, the black, for the first time; and Crawley Down, which has witnessed more mills than I have time or memory to catalogue.

The processions from town to these fights however afford too remarkable an illustration of contemporary manners for me to pass over so lightly: an illustration of manners continually to be studied in this neighbourhood on the Brighton Road. And I think that an extract from the classic authority will give a better idea than I can of the scenes to be witnessed on the road immediately before a celebrated "mill."

"The Fancy were all upon the alert soon after breakfast" (I quote from Boxiana's description of the Grand Pugilistic combat between Randall and Martin, at Crawley Down, thirty miles from London, on Tuesday, May 4, 1819) "on the Monday, to ascertain the seat of action; and as soon as the important whisper had gone forth, that Crawley Down was likely to be the place, the toddlers were off in a twinkling. The gigs were soon brushed up, the prads harnessed, and the boys who intended to enjoy themselves on the road were in motion. Between the hours of two and three o'clock in the afternoon upwards of a hundred gigs were counted passing through Croydon. The Bonifaces chuckled again with delight, and screwing was the order of the day. Long before cight o'clock in the evening every

bed belonging to the inns and public-houses in Godstone, East Grinstead, Reigate, Bletchingley, &c., were doubly, and some trebly occupied.

Five and seven shillings were charged for the stand of a horse in any wretched hut. But those customers who were fly to all the tricks and fancies of life, and who would not be nailed at any price, preferred going to roost in a barn; while others possessing rather more

gaiety, and who set sleep at defiance, blowed a cloud over some heavy wet, devouring the rich points of a flash chaunt; and thought no more of time hanging heavily than they did of the classics. Chaunting and swiping

till many of the young sprigs dropped off their perches ; while the ould ones felt the influence of the dustman, and were glad to drop their nobs to obtain forty winks. Those persons whose blunt enabled them to procure beds, could not obtain any sleep, for carriages of every description were passing through the above towns all night. Things passed on in this manner till daylight began to peep. Then the swells in their barouches and four, and the swift trotting fanciers, all hurried from the metropolis, and the road exhibited the bustle of the primest day of Epsom Races. The brilliants also left. Brighton and Worthing at about the same period, and thus were the roads thronged in every direction. The weather at length cleared up, and by twelve o'clock the amphitheatre on Crawley Down had a noble effect, and thousands of persons were assembled at the above spot. It is supposed if the carriages had all been placed in one line they would have reached from London to Crawley. The amateurs were of the highest distinction, and several noblemen and foreigners of rank were upon the ground."

Regent and emperor putting up at a wayside inn to witness a fight for the championship! Young sprigs chaunting and swiping till they dropped off their perches! The swells in their barouches and four hurrying from the metropolis! The noblemen and foreigners of rank crowding round the twenty-four foot ring! What can give us a better idea of the Brighton Road in its prime than these facts? What paint more vividly what I call its "Regency flavour," its slang, its coarseness, its virility-in a word, its "Corinthianism"?

V. THE DOVER ROAD

SUCH rich crowds of historical figures throng the long reaches of the Dover Road that one really hardly knows where to make a beginning and where to make an end with them. Indeed, when I think of the record of this seventy-one miles, one long, confused, grotesque procession of all ages, and of all periods of English history, files before me. I see as many sights as Tilburina does in the Critic, and a few more. Kings returning from conquest. One king returning from exile. Many queens on their way to weddings-(" Unfortunate chiefly, I regret to say," as Mr. Pecksniff might have remarked)-one queen on her way to a wedding, which, fortunately for her, can hardly be said to have completely come off; grave archbishops tremulously procceding to installation; our earliest dramatic genius on his way to London, glory, and a violent death, his "unbowed, bright,