PREFACE TO VOLUME II.
The favour with which the first volume of Pugilistica has been received gives the author encouraging hope that the present instalment of his history will prove yet more interesting and acceptable.
The two periods comprised in these pages embrace the lives of
several of the most skilful and courageous boxers who have illustrated
the art of attack and defence. In the first, we have the battles of
Spring (Thos. Winter), John Langan, Ned Painter, Oliver, Neat of
Bristol, Thomas Hickman, Dan Donnelly, and Carter, with minor
stars in an Appendix. In the second, Jem Ward, Peter Crawley,
Tom Cannon, Josh. Hudson, Ned Neale, Ned Baldwin, Young Dutch
Sam, Alec Eeid, Tom Gaynor, Bishop Sharpe, Brown of Bridgnorth,
and Sampson of Birmingham. Dick Curtis, Barney Aaron, Harry
Jones, and light-weights forming the Appendix.
The third and concluding volume, commencing with Bendigo (William Thompson), will include the Decline and Fall of the P.E., with occasional flickerings of its olden fire, till its final expiry in the doings of Tom Sayers, John Camel Heenan, and Tom King.
Wood Green, August, 1880,
