[50]. Daily Advertiser, January 22, 1790.
[51]. Mendoza’s last ring battle may be considered as that with John Jackson in 1795. His return to the ring to fight out a quarrel with Harry Lee, in 1806, and the foolish exhibition in 1820 with old Tom Owen, are solecisms, and do not disturb the arrangement by Periods.
[52]. A contemporary writer, in 1790, says of him: “Mendoza is a pugilist better initiated in the theory of boxing than perhaps any of his cotemporaries, and has produced some exceedingly expert pupils. In his manner there is more neatness than strength, and it has been said, more show than service; his blows are in general deficient in force, but given with astonishing quickness, and he is allowed to strike oftener, and stop more dexterously, than any other man; he is extremely well formed in the breast and arms, but his loins are very weak; his wind is good, and he possesses excellent bottom.”
[53]. This would have lost Mister Packer the battle by the modern rules.—Ed.
[54]. See notice of Warr in Appendix to Period II.
[55].
1— Thomas Wilson 2— John Horn 3— Harry Davis 4— John Lloyd 5— Thomas Monk 6— John Hind 7— William More 8— John Williams 9— Richard Dennis 10— George Cannon 11— A. Fuller 12— T. Spencer 13— William Taylor 14— John Knight 15— John Braintree 16— William Bryant 17— John Matthews 18— Tom Tyne 19— Ditto 20— George Hoast 21— George Mackenzie 22— John Hall 23— William Cannon 24— George Barry 25— George Smith 26— William Nelson *27— Martin (the Bath Butcher) *28— Richard Humphries *29— Ditto *30— Ditto *31— William Warr *32— Ditto *33— John Jackson *34— Harry Lee *35— Tom Owen.
Such is the list; see “Boxiana” (Vol. iii. p. 489). There is “a curious felicity” in the selection, as, with the exception of Tom Tyne (Nos. 18, 19), whose two defeats by Mendoza are unrecorded, and those with an asterisk, not one name ever figures as fighting anybody else on any discoverable occasion.
[56]. Mendoza was at that period fifty-seven years of age, while Owen was nearly six years younger; an important difference—supposing all other circumstances equal—at such an advanced (we had almost said absurd) time of life for a fistic exhibition.
[57]. Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis.—Virgil.