Note 630 — SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19.

Horace Walpole, writing of 1758, says:—'Prize-fighting, in which we had horribly resembled the most barbarous and most polite nations, was suppressed by the legislature.' Memoirs of the Reign of George II, iii. 99. According to Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 5), Johnson said that his 'father's brother, Andrew, kept the ring in Smithfield (where they wrestled and boxed) for a whole year, and never was thrown or conquered. Mr. Johnson was,' she continues, 'very conversant in the art of boxing.' She had heard him descant upon it 'much to the admiration of those who had no expectation of his skill in such matters.'