12.—Thorpe with the left got home slightly on the head, but in trying to improve upon this he was well stopped. In a wild rally the Londoner fought his man to the ropes, when the countryman with both the left and right gave him an additional dose of punishment on the nob, drawing another supply of claret. After these exchanges the men closed and fell.
13.—Thorpe, after leading off, napped a stinger on the side of the nob, when he immediately closed with his opponent. Some half-arm fighting ensued, all in favour of Mace, and both were down.
14.—Bill, in a wild impetuous manner, went dashing in at his man, but in the counters did little or no execution. Mace, after steadily planting both mauleys on the head, retreated, and in breaking ground slipped and fell.
15.—The Londoner made an attempt with the right, but was well stopped. As Mace broke ground, Thorpe followed him up with much gameness and resolution, and in the exchanges delivered a tidy spank with the left on the side of the head, when Mace went down to avoid the close, with more prudence than pluck.
16.—Mace, who had been allowing his opponent to do all the work, now saw he had him in hand; with great quickness and precision he let fly with both hands at the head, and repeated the dose without a return. Thorpe rushed at his man for the close, when Mace went down laughing.
17.—Thorpe met his antagonist with much resolution, and with the right planted a stinger on the side of the head. Mace, in retreating, slipped and went down, but on the instant he was again on his pins, and renewed the battle. In the counter-hitting he got home with telling effect, and in retreating from his man he again slipped and went on his knees, but instantly jumped up and faced his opponent. Bill, though, as usual, receiving all the punishment, stood his ground manfully, until they closed, when, after some little fibbing, Mace went down.
18 and last.—Mace in this bout gave his antagonist the coup de grace in the most off-hand and masterly manner. Thorpe came up desperate, and Jem, after stopping the opening shots of his opponent, delivered his left and right with stinging force on the middle of Master Bill’s nob, the last hit with his right being full on his nasal prominence. This immediately sent Thorpe to grass, and when “time” was called, it was found that he was in no condition to renew the contest. Hereupon Jemmy Welsh throw the sponge up in token of defeat, the battle having lasted twenty-seven minutes.
Remarks.—There was but one opinion among the cognoscenti as to the winner—namely, that he was one of the best boxers that we have seen for many a day. He is a quick and rapid fighter, and hits with judgment, precision, and remarkable force, as the condition of poor Thorpe’s head strikingly manifested. The Londoners knew by repute that he was considered to be a good general; but we are confident that they never for a moment imagined that he was anything like the man he turned out. As will be seen by our description of the rounds, he fights remarkably well, and when in danger has the ability to get out of it in clever style. From first to last he had the battle entirely in his own hands, Thorpe never having the remotest chance of winning, for he was out-fought and out-manœuvred in every round. Mace at the weight is a strong-made, powerful man, and if his pluck and bottom are in any way equal to his other qualifications, we can only say that it will require an opponent of first-rate ability to beat him. This tournament, however, is by no means a fair criterion of those qualities, for he had the fortune and skill to get in no way punished, absolutely winning the contest without so much as a black eye. Thorpe, the unfortunate loser, is, there can be no doubt, a very game man, but he will never be able to obtain a front position in the P.R. It must, however, be borne in mind that, as a game and determined fellow, he did his best, and it is to be hoped that he will not be forgotten either by his friends or by the winners. All being over, the company returned to the metropolis, which was reached before seven o’clock in the evening.
The money was given to Mace, at Mr. G. Smith’s, King Street, Norwich, on the following Thursday, when several matches were talked of, but nothing came of them. After a sparring tour, we find our hero in London, making Nat Langham’s his headquarters, and offering to do battle either with Mike Madden or Bob Brettle, of Birmingham, at 10st. 3lbs., for £100 a side. He was also “nibbled at” by Job Cobley (nicknamed by Baron Nicholson “the Elastic Potboy”) whose victories over Webb, Bob Travers (the black), and George Crockett, had brought him into the front rank of middle-weights; Cobley’s engagement with Mace going off, owing to the former being matched against Bob Brettle. Some pourparlers with Jack Grant also ended in talk, until, early in the month of September, Mace having left a deposit in the hands of the Editor of Bell’s Life, Mike Madden covered the same, and articles were signed for a fight for £50, to come off in the Home Circuit, on the 20th of October, 1857.
Mace was now in business as a publican, keeping the Swan Inn, Swan Lane, Norwich; and at the final deposit at Nat Langham’s on the previous Thursday we heard an ominous whisper to the effect that there would be “no fight;” while, per contra, we were assured by both parties that each meant fighting and nothing else. On the Friday Mr. Lockwood, of Drury Lane, on the part of Madden, and Langham, on the part of Mace, attended at the Editor’s Office, and were there informed, as that gentleman could not be present, he should exercise the power vested in the stakeholder by the articles of naming the referee, and further that he should appoint Dan Dismore to that office, to which neither of the parties made the slightest objection. On the Monday the men went to scale at Mr. Lockwood’s, and here there were loud complaints on the part of Mace’s friends about Madden’s style of weighing, they stating him to be overweight, also that he jumped off the scale before the balance was fairly ascertained, and, putting on his clothes, refused to return. On the other hand Madden and Co. averred that Mace never meant fighting, that after the weighing he went out of the house in his shirt sleeves, and did all in his power to attract the attention of the police; and that in the evening he went to Gravesend, where he ostentatiously paraded himself, and even proclaimed the whereabouts of the coming mill.