[148]. “Boxiana” says, in an undated and unplaced line and a half, “Richmond now entered into an unequal contest with Tom Cribb.”
[149]. This is a blunder in “Boxiana” (if ever the battle did take place), for 1808, and is so corrected in “Fistiana.”
[150]. See Tom Moore’s Poem, “Tom Cribb’s Memorial to Congress.”
[151]. “The Fancy,” a selection from the Poetical Remains of the late Peter Corcoran, of Gray’s Inn, Student at Law.—Pseudonymous.
[152]. The term “navvy” or “navigator,” now applied to the labourers who do the earthworks, embankments, and excavations of our railways, seems anomalous; it, however, was derived from the fact that the early canals, which these men dug, were called “navigations,” not only in common speech, but in legal documents and Acts or Parliament. Those who worked on the “navigation” were called “navigators.” The name has remained, though a viaduct has taken the place of an aqueduct.
[153]. This is Pierce Egan’s report. Shelton was 5 feet 10 inches; Burn (who is always by him called Burns) 6 feet 1 inch. Johnson was a trifle under 5 feet 9 inches, Perrins 6 feet inches in his stocking feet. See ante, p. 61.
[154]. He was a backer of pugilists, and kept the Goat, in Lower Grosvenor Street.
[155]. This term perhaps may not be generally understood. To “hocus” a man is to put something into his drink of a narcotic quality, that renders him unfit for action. On the morning alluded to, Randall, in company with some “friends,” partook of a bottle of red wine mulled, into which, he asserted, the sleepy potion must have been introduced by some scoundrel of the company.
[156]. He vanquished the great black, Molineaux, and a wonderful old man, Richmond, who was a fighter at the age of nearly 60.
[157]. See “Boxiana,” vol. ii., 135.