7]

[Illustration: THE FAMILY OF JASPER PETULENGRO

'Jasper' or Ambrose Smith was a very old man when this picture was taken
by Mr. Andrew Innes of Dunbar in 1878. In both pictures we see
Sanspirella, Jasper's wife, seated and holding a child. We are indebted
to Mr. Charles Spence of Dunbar for these interesting groups.]

Yes: Borrow was never hard on the bruisers of England, and followed
their achievements, it may be said, from his cradle to his grave. His
beloved father had brought him up, so to speak, upon memories of one who
was champion before George was born--Big Ben Brain of Bristol. Brain,
although always called 'Big Ben,' was only 5 feet 10 in. high. He was
for years a coal porter at a wharf off the Strand. It was in 1791 that
Ben Brain won the championship which placed him upon a pinnacle in the
minds of all robust people. The Duke of Hamilton then backed him against
the then champion, Tom Johnson, for five hundred guineas. 'Public
expectation,' says _The Oracle_, a contemporary newspaper, 'never was
raised so high by any pugilistic contest; great bets were laid, and it
is estimated L20,000 was wagered on this occasion.' Ben Brain was the
undisputed conqueror, we are told, in eighteen rounds, occupying no more
than twenty-one minutes.[78] Brain died in 1794, and all the biographers
tell of the piety of his end, so that Borrow's father may have read the
Bible to him in his last moments, as Borrow avers,[79] but I very much
doubt the accuracy of the following:

Honour to Brain, who four months after the event which I have
now narrated was champion of England, having conquered the
heroic Johnson. Honour to Brain, who, at the end of other four
months, worn out by the dreadful blows which he had received in
his manly combats, expired in the arms of my father, who read
the Bible to him in his latter moments--Big Ben Brain.

We have already shown that Brain lived for four years after his fight
with Johnson. Perhaps the fight in Hyde Park between Borrow's father and
Ben, as narrated in _Lavengro_, is all romancing. It makes good reading
in any case, as does Borrow's eulogy of some of his own contemporaries
of the prize-ring:

So the bruisers of England are come to be present at the grand
fight speedily coming off; there they are met in the precincts
of the old town, near the field of the chapel, planted with
tender saplings at the restoration of sporting Charles,