Fisher, Molyneux (proposing the impossible 11st. 7lb.), and others now rushed into letter-writing, but Bendy kept up his claim and his price; and so ran out the year 1837 and part of 1838, the Championship remaining in abeyance, as Jem Ward had retired, and the Deaf ’un was still in America.
Bendy’s old opponent and fellow-townsman next re-appeared on the scene. Ben Caunt, who in the interim had beaten Ben Butler, at Stoney Stratford, in August, 1837, and Boneford, a big countryman, at Sunrise Hill, Notts, in October of the same year, proposed to meet “the self-styled Champion” for £100. Bendigo, more suo, thereupon observed, that “at that price, or any other, the big, chuckle-headed navvy was as good as a gift of the money to him.”
All, therefore, went merrily; the instalments were “tabled” as agreed; Bendy was a good boy, and took care of himself; Big Ben worked hard, and got himself down to 15st. 7lb. (!), as will be seen in our account of this tourney, which, according to the plan of our work, must appear in the memoir of the victor, Ben Caunt (Chapter II., post), in the present volume. In this unequal encounter, after seventy-five rounds, Bendigo, who from a mistake had no spikes in his shoes, had the fight given against him for going down without a blow. Two to one was laid on Bendigo within four rounds of the close of the battle.
No slur on the skill, honesty, or bravery of Bendigo was cast by the umpires and referee in this battle, when they gave their decision that he had fallen without a blow, and handed over the stakes to Caunt. Bendigo proposed, before the decision, to make a match for £500, each to raise £200, to be added to the old battle-money. This Ben declined, but declared his readiness to enter into new articles for £100. Another match was accordingly made for £100 a side, to take place on Monday, July 20th, 1838. Bendigo, after bumper benefits in Liverpool, Derby, and Nottingham, now came to London, with Peter Taylor, and took up his quarters at Tom Spring’s, where he became an object of much curiosity; his animal spirits and practical joking being almost too much for Tom Winter’s quiescent and almost sedate temperament. In London he also took a benefit, “before going into strict training,” said the bills. There was “somewhat too much of this,” for Ben also was taking benefits in Notts, Leicester, and Derby. In the month of June it may be noted Deaf Burke returned from America, a fact which occasioned a hitch in Bendigo’s arrangements, as we shall presently see, for on June 24th, 1838, we read in Bell’s Life: “The match between Caunt and Bendigo is off by mutual consent, and Caunt desires us to state, that he is now open to fight any man in the world, barring neither country nor colour, for from £50 to £500. What does this mean?” The following paragraph in the ensuing week’s paper may show what it meant:—
“Bendigo and Caunt.—On the authority of a letter signed Caunt, we last week stated that this match was off by mutual consent; but we have since been informed by our Nottingham correspondent that such is not the fact, and that Caunt’s deposits are forfeited. Our correspondent adds that Caunt’s backer tried to get the match off, on the plea that it was a pity to see so little a man as Bendigo fight a giant like Caunt, who was anxious to enter the ring with Burke. He was, however, told that the fight must go on, and he promised to attend, but he neither came nor sent the deposit, but forwarded a letter to London stating that the match was off by mutual consent. As a proof that Bendigo’s backers intended the mill to go on, the deposit (£20) was received from Sheffield on the Thursday prior to the Monday, and on that very day £19 towards the next £20 deposit was raised.”
Thus pleasantly released from his engagement with his gigantic competitor, Bendigo instantly responded to the cartel of Deaf Burke, issued on his landing from the New World, in which the Deaf ’un defied any man in the Eastern or Western hemisphere to meet him for £100 to £500, within the twenty-four feet of ropes. £100 was remitted to Peter Crawley to make the match; but lo! Burke had gone over to France (Owen Swift, Young Sam, Jack Adams, &c. were already there) with a “noble Earl,” and at two several meetings, to which the Deaf ’un was summoned, though Bendigo’s “ready” was there, there was no cash from across the water, and Jem Burn announced to Peter Crawley, that he had “a letter” from Paris that “Mister Burke,” who was on a Continental tour, could not fight for less than £200. In the midst of the ridicule and censure of this proposal, so inconsistent with his own published challenge, a gentleman offered to put down the other hundred himself for Bendigo. Crawley, however, declined to put down £50 of Bendigo’s money until guaranteed the £100. Thus the matter fell through. The public feeling in this matter was not badly expressed in a contemporaneous “squib” entitled:—
HEROIC STANZAS FROM BENDIGO TO DEAF BURKE.
Why, truly, my nabs of the torpid auricular,
Your conduct of late ha’nt been wery particular,
And I tell you in werse, which I’m no hand at tagging,