Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 3 (of 3) / Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists; Full Reports of Their Battles from Contemporary Newspapers, With Authentic Portraits, Personal Anecdotes, and Sketches of the Principal Patrons of the Prize Ring, Forming a Complete History of the Ring from Fig and Broughton, 1719-40, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863

by Henry Downes Miles

Let Puritans sour in accents shrill

Rave against Fistiana still,

And owl-faced beaks shake the nob and vow

To their fiat stern the Ring shall bow;

Let lobsters raw with their truncheons roar

“Disperse” to the pugilistic corps—

The pinks of the Prize Ring, in freedom nurs’d

Shall tell them undaunted to do their worst—

Shall proclaim to the traps ’tis weak and vain

To seek the brave boxer to restrain;