Star.
London, England, 1825-07-28 00:00:00

F. GUT BETWEEN rim LION NERO AND
SIX pocs, ON 2i1:104K, IT ingSrICX

••,...1N11N1..... .

Thii....Stffair was expected to realise the extreme of
eldeliy or the supreme of humbug. The result has
shewkit to be a combination of both, with a great pre-
ponderance of the former in the execution, though the
latter war most prominent in plan and details almost
up to the last moment. For several months the country
has been amused with notices that a fight between a lion
and dogs was intended, and time and place were more
than -once appointed. This had the desired effect—
making the lion an object of great attention in the pro-
towns, and a golden harvest was secured by
showing him at two shillings a head. The next move
. was to get:tip-such a fight as would draw all the world
froth-London as well as from the villages to fill places
eisarted at one or two guineas each to see it ; and lastly,
Tio.:firld.degs rif suz.h weight and inferior quality as to
. stand no chance before.an enraged lion, thus securing the
lion from inj.ii y, and making him still a greater lion than
frefziir, or than the world ever saw, to be exhibited as the
wonderful an;mat that beat six British bred mastiffs.—
. Al( tills: was a tolerable raw to be established on the
• Credulity and pocket of John Bull, but it was a little
overdone, and had nearly failed in the attempt to effect
too much. The .repeated. disappointments as to time,
and place led people ;o conclude that the affair was al-
together a hum and the magnitude of the stake of
400(4:Said 'to be at issue, was so far out of any reason-
• calculation, that the whole was looked upon as a
-.fabrication, and the majority became incredulous on
• tie subject. Nay, so far did humbug counteract hum-
hog, that the very persons who saw the lion, and the
:dogs, ind the stage, disbelieved even to the last mo-
ment that the fight was in reality intended. But the
"proprietor of tie concern was too good a judge to let
-the d as altogether escape him, and this extremely gra-
. luiteda, .as we-I as disgusting exhibition of brutality,
accordingly took place at a late hour on Tuesday even.
- ing, at Warwick. The Magistrates, as we stated yes-
terday, having refused to interfere, on the ground, that
-under Mr. Martin's present Act, no steps could be taken
e the act constituting cruelty had been committed,
-ri•Ceiitleman, a Quaker, who resides near Warwick,
went down to the menagerie in person, to remon-
strate with Mr. Wombwell; but, against the hope of
letrug seats at ',Three Guineas" a-head, of course his
• mediation could have very little chance of success.
• The shew was got up in an extensive enclosure,
celled tf e Old Factory-yard," just in the suburbs of
Warwick, on the road towards Northampton ; and the
Cage in which the fight took place stood in the centre
of -a hollow square, formed on two sides by ranges of ,
empty workshops, the windows of which were fitted
up with planks on barrels as seats for the spectators;
and in the remaining two, by the whole of Mr. Wornb-
well's wild " c lltction," as they have been on shew
for some days p ist, arranged in their respective dens
and travelling ca'riages.
Huge bilis were posted and circulated in Warwick,
and the neighbourhood of Leamington, stating that
the " match" was made for 5000 sovereigns; but this
Was too monstrous for even rustic credulity to swallow.
:The digs which were to exhibit were stated, in the
• same publieafons, to be furnished by some person or
pin-sons (whorls nobody had mt. heard of) residing at
Liverpool ; but as the -a Isackers'.". names were withheld,
tletun•motives of delicacy," the common belief was,
chit it was all a packed affair, and that no money was
really depending.
In the /curse of the morning these animals were
shewn, for the fee of a shilling, at a public-house in
Warwick called the" Green Dragon." Eight had been
brought over originally ; but, by a mistake of locking
them up together on .the preceding night, they had
fallen cut among themselves, and one had been
killed entirely ; a second escaping only with the loss
of an ear, and a portion of one cheek. The guardian
of the 'beasts being rebuked for this accident, declared
he could not have supposed they would have fought
each other—being " all on the same side;' six, how-
ever, still remained in condition, as Mn. Heide:6;g ex-
presses it, for the al runcounter."
The price of admission demanded in the' first in.
stance for the fight seemed to. have been founded is
very grois miscalculation. Three guineas were asked
for seats at the windows In the first, second, and third
floors of the unoccupied manufactory ;. two guineas for
seats on the fourth floor of this building ; one guinea for
places at a 'still more distant point; and' half-a-guinea
for standing room in the square. The appearance of the
cage, when erected, was rather fragile, considering
the furious struggle which waste sake placeavithin it.
It measured fifteen feet square, and ten feet high, the
floor of it standing about six feet from the ground.. The
top, as well.as the sides, was.composed merely of iron
- bars, apparently slight, and placed at such a distance
lions each ether that the dogs -might enter or escape
between, but too close for the lion to' follow. Some
. :dpubts were expressed about the sufficiency of this last
-pkecaution—merely because a number of " Ladies," it
was understood, would be present; but the Ladies in
general escaped that disgrace, for not a single female
came; and, at all events, the attendant bear-wards
swore in the most solemn way—that is to say, using a
hundred imprecations instead of one—that the security
• of the whole was past a doubt. Towards afternoon the
determination as to prices" seemed a little to abate ;
and it was suspected that, in the end, the speculator
Would take whatever prices be could get.
In the meantime, the unfortunate lion lay in a cara-
van by bimseli, all day in front of the cage in which he
was to be baited; surveying the preparations for his
own annoyance, with great simplicity and apparent
good humour ; and not at all discomfited by the notice
-of the numerous persons who came to look at him. In
the course of the day, the dogs which were to fight were
brought into the menagerie in slips—it being not the
• least singular feature of this combat that it was to take
place immediately under the eyes of an immense host
of wild beasts of all descriptions—not including the
human spectators. These animals generally looked
dean, and in good condition; and were (as is the
custom with such creatures when confined) perpetually
in motion ; but the dogs disappointed expectation—
they
were re: y little excited by the introduction.' They
were strung, however, and lively; crossed, apparently,
tl e majority of them, between the bull and the mastiff
breed ; one or two ,hewed a touch of the lurcher—a
point ,ist the descent of fighting dogs which is held to
give an inc eased capacity of mouth. The average
steight-pf those which fought was from about five and
thirty to fire and forty pounds each ; one bad been
t nought over that weighed more than sixty, but was, on
some ircconei or other, excluded from the contest.
I:he cub iropuros wire-"-fine;drlitsg-littic creatures;
Eau old la.ry neat Obtetve-0 in • the morning, fully