“But it very soon must, if it don’t stalk. See here,” said he, pointing to a strong cord stretched from the top rail across the bed, from which another cord was suspended midway, and made fast to the handle of an old-fashioned corkscrew. “If it warn’t for this tackle I’d get no sleep night nor day. Inside the bedclothes I’ve got a bung—good idea for a licensed victualler—into that I screws the corkscrew through the bedclothes, which I then raise tent-fashion by this hal’yard, and that I make fast down here to the bedpost. There’s a wrinkle for you, Miles’s Boy; but I hope you’ll never want it for yourself.” Poor Jem we never saw again. His arch-enemy ascended to his portly stomach, and on the morning of the 29th of May Jem slept with his forefathers.
“——Men must endure
Their going hence, even as their coming hither,
Ripeness is all.”
CHAPTER VII.
EDWARD BALDWIN (“WHITE-HEADED BOB”)—1823–1828.
Ned Baldwin, whose sobriquet was suggested from the profusion of his pale flaxen hair, was born at Munslow, near Ludlow, in Herefordshire, on the 6th May, 1803. His youth was spent in his native county, in which, and in Shropshire and Worcestershire, several unimportant battles are placed to his credit by “Boxiana.” After a gallant contest on Worcester Racecourse with a local boxer named Souther, whom he defeated in an hour and a quarter, a gentleman well known in the London Ring, finding him an active, civil, and intelligent fellow, engaged him as his groom, and brought him to London. A trial battle in Harper’s Fields, Marylebone, with a big Irishman named O’Connor, in which the youngster displayed more pluck than science, led to his master putting him under the tuition of the scientific Bill Eales, who then superintended a boxery at his house in James Street, Oxford Street. Here he rapidly improved his style, and gained the reputation of a quick and fearless hitter, with some skill in defensive tactics. In February, 1823, he went down to Wimbledon, and there, after Hall and Wynes had settled their differences, Bob, as he was now called, threw up his hat to accommodate any man who had not yet fought in the Prize Ring, for £10 of his master’s money. Here he was made the victim of a not very creditable “plant.” The afterwards renowned Jem Ward, who had already defeated Dick Acton and Burke (brother to “Warrior” Burke), and fought a draw with Bill Abbott, habited in a countryman’s smock frock, was introduced as a “yokel” aspirant. The men set to, but the ruse de guerre was soon seen through, and after nineteen minutes Bob’s friends took him away, though Bob was game enough to have fought it out with defeat staring him in the face.
EDWARD BALDWIN (“White-headed Bob”).
After a disappointment with Harry Lancaster, Baldwin was matched with Maurice Delay, for £50 a-side, and the battle came off at the classic ground of Moulsey, on the 11th of February, 1824. Bob was brought upon the ground in a carriage, in a smart Witney upper, and threw his hat into the ropes, esquired by Bill Richmond and Paddington Jones; Delay, accompanied by Josh Hudson and Ned Neale, quickly followed. Tom Owen fastened a green bandanna to the stakes for the East Ender, and Richmond tied a blue bird’s-eye over it for Bob. The seconds and principals shook hands, and the men threw themselves in attitude. Five to four on Maurice Delay.
THE FIGHT.