But Neat to its ‘service’ has given ‘the turn;’
The Fancy may long be illumed by his art,
And ‘the coal’ that is sported due ardour impart;
Yet never again can his light be complete,
Now sullied and dimmed by the ‘feelers’[[21]] of Neat.”
In March, 1822, Hickman, in company with Cy. Davis, set out on a sparring expedition to Bristol, where he was flatteringly received. A Bristol paper observed:—“On Thursday morning the sport at Tailors’ Hall was particularly good. In the evening upwards of four hundred persons met at the Assembly-room to witness the set-to between Hickman and the Champion (rather premature this), which enabled the amateurs to form a pretty correct notion of the manner in which the great battle was lost and won. The style of Neat exhibits the perfection of this noble science—it is the cautious, the skilful, the sublime. That of the Gas is the shifting, the showy, and the flowery style of boxing. The audience were highly gratified, and the sum received at the doors exceeded £120.”
Another journal of the same city remarked that—“The puissant Neat and the lion-hearted Hickman, attended by that able tactician, Cy. Davis, with Santy Parsons and others of minor note, have, within these few days, been showing off in this city in good style. The benefits have been well attended, principally by Corinthians, for the tip was too high for other than well-blunted coves. The sums received at the doors are said to exceed £120. This is really good interest for their notes of hand.”
Hickman had a bumper benefit at the Fives Court on Wednesday, May 8, 1822, and altogether the amusement was excellent. The principal attraction of the day was the set-to between the Gas and Neat. The former was determined to have “the best of it,” and he most certainly had “the best of it.” It is, however, equally true that Neat has no taste for sparring, and is not seen to advantage with the gloves on. The Gas was still a terrific opponent, and it was evident “the fight” had not been taken out of him. “Let those pugilists who meddle with him,” said an experienced amateur, “anything near his weight, beware of the consequences.” What sporting man connected with the ring, on viewing the Gas and Neat opposed to each other, could, in point of calculation, assert it was anything like a match between them; and Neat, with the most honourable and manly feeling on the subject, never did exult on the conquest he obtained over as brave a man as ever stripped to fight a prize battle.
Hickman appeared rather unsettled in his mind after his defeat by Neat; and, when irritated by liquor, several times boasted that he was able to conquer the Bristol hero. But, as time gets the better of most things, Hickman became more reconciled to his fate, and asserted, in the presence of numerous amateurs at the Castle Tavern, when Josh. Hudson challenged him for £100 a-side, that he had given up prize-fighting altogether. In consequence of this declaration he commenced publican at the Adam and Eve, in Jewin Street, Aldersgate Street, which house he purchased of Shelton. During the short time he was in business he was civil and obliging to his customers, and a great alteration for the better, it was thought, had taken place in his behaviour; but, before any just decision could be pronounced on his merits as the landlord of a sporting house, the sudden and awful termination of his career banished every other consideration.
A tradesman of the name of Rawlinson, a strong made man, a native of Lancashire, but well known in the sporting circles in the metropolis for his penchant for pugilism and wrestling, being rather inebriated one evening at Randall’s, would have a turn-up with Hickman. The Gas-light man was perfectly sober, and extremely averse to anything of the kind; but the set-to was forced upon him by Rawlinson chaffing, “That Tom was nobody—he had been over-rated, and he was certain that Hickman could not beat him in half an hour; nay more, he did not think the Gas could lick him at all.”