Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 1 (of 3) / Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists; Full Reports of Their Battles from Contemporary Newspapers, With Authentic Portraits, Personal Anecdotes, and Sketches of the Principal Patrons of the Prize Ring, Forming a Complete History of the Ring from Fig and Broughton, 1719-40, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863

by Henry Downes Miles

Extempore Verses upon a Trial of Skill between those two Great Masters of Defence, Messieurs Fig and Sutton.

I.

Long was the great Fig, by the prize-fighting swains,

Sole monarch acknowledged of Marybone plains,

To the towns far and near did his glory extend,

And swam down the river from Thame to Gravesend,

Where lived Mister Sutton, pipemaker by trade,

Who hearing that Fig was thought such a stout blade,

Resolved to go in for a share of his fame,

And so sent a challenge to the Champion of Thame.