stone of considerable weight. They assemble twice a year to hold their tournament. One stone serves for all the competitors; he who throws it furthest in the manner already described, gains the prize. He raises his right hand, which holds the projectile, to the height of his right shoulder, bends his body slightly, and, as he discharges the stone, runs forward a pace or two.

In Scotland, "putting the stone," a game in which a heavy stone is thrown forward from over the shoulder, is practised; as also, chiefly among the Highlanders, a game called "tossing the caber," or "throwing the hammer," to which reference will be made hereafter.

The Age of Philosophy and Boxing-Boxing kept up by the Aristocracy-The Friend of a Prince of the Blood-J. Broughton, the Father of Boxing -The Last Days of a Professor-The Champions of England-The Gentleman Prize-fighter-The Breviary and Golden Book of Boxers-Rupture of Friendly Relations between England and America-Black and White-The Famous Crib-A Great Day-Extravagant Ovations-Cook's discovery of Boxing in Polynesia-Female Boxers in England-Sayers and Heenan. NOTHING less resembled Greece than England; no one less readily suggests the idea of the Greek than an Englishman; and yet, almost to the present day, Great Britain has maintained the practice of antiquity in regard to pugilism, but without that air of elegance and nobleness which distinguished even the least refined amusements of the Greeks. This is the position which England occupied until recently among the nations of Europe; that while in France, for instance, prize-fighting has never become a national institution, here, until recently, boxers did not require to induce the people to witness their exhibitions, for they had the people for the most part on their side.

It is somewhat singular that the English should have conceived a passion for pugilism in the same age-the eighteenth century-in which philosophy made such great advances among them, and through them influenced the whole continent. The rules which are observed to the present day and determine the conditions of the contest,

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the laws to be observed during the "rounds" of which the battle consists, the rest allowed after every round, are the productions of Jack Broughton, a professional boxer, who managed to get the sporting world to adopt them in 1743. Sword combats began to be less the fashion during the reign of George I., and boxing, an amusement less offensive in appearance, replaced them in public favour.

Broughton was the first who assumed, or obtained by the suffrages of the world of sport, the title of "Champion of England," that glorious distinction which each performer in the ring resolves he will one day attain, or perish in the attempt. Few, however, long maintain this elevated position. "The belt " slips from the holder sooner or later, and the palm is handed to the first assailant who, having a rougher hide and a quicker hand and eye than his, thrashes him out of his envied honours.

From the first boxing was patronised by the great. Broughton, who had his theatre or academy in Tottenham. Court Road, had for his chief admirer and zealous protector the second son of the king, the Duke of Cumberland, who regularly attended the boxing-school; and took the "professor" so closely into his friendship, that he attached him to his retinue while making a continental tour. Upon taking Jack to see the parade of grenadiers at Berlin, he asked him what he thought of those great fellows, and how he would like to encounter one of them in the ring. "Faith," replied the pugilist, "I could 'lick'a regiment, provided I had a dinner after each 'set-to.""

Amateurs still speak in high terms of the originality of Broughton's style; but there was an end to all his greatness, for he was beaten at last. The thunderbolt in Broughton's case came in the shape and with the vulgar features of a