BOXING

a manner of fighting with the fists so common in England as to be reg^urded abroad as a national characteristic. The art of boxing consists in showing skill in dealing blows with the fi«t against one's opponent^ especially on the lower part of the body, while at the same time one protects one's self. The art is carried on according to certain rules, which are universally observed — ^for example, that as long as one of the combatants is lying on the g^round he may not be struck by the other. The one who first intimates his desire that the combat should cease, or who is unable to rise again within a given time after being knocked down, is considered to be beaten. In England profe ional boxers, who made a livelihood out of their skill in the art, were at one time common, especially during the reigns of the Georges. At the beginning of the present century persons of the highest rank were sometimes to be seen at pugilistic combats, and 'profe ors' of the art frequently had members of the nobility among their pupils. Byron relates in his diary that he received instruction in boxing from the celebrated Jackson, who made a fortune as a pugilist. Boxing has, however, now fallen in a great measure into disrepute, but matches, when they do occur, still excite a great deal of interest, and tiiey are even defended by a portion of the English pre as tending to keep up a manly spirit among the lower cla es. Prize-fights are illegal in England, and both the principals and the spectators may be proceeded against. In ancient times boxing was practiBed in the Greek games and in the Roman gladiatorial spectacles. Among both Greeks and Komans the weapon of offence was not the naked fist, but it was armed with a kind of glove called cestus, made of leather thongs, and sometimes loaded with iron or lead. It ia not to be wonderod at that these fights were often fataL See Boziana, or Sketches of Ancient and Modem Pugiliam, by Pierce Egan (four vols. London, 1824).