The Trail of the Serpent by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

"IT is a palpable and humiliating proof of the decadence of the glories of white-cliffed Albion and her lion-hearted children," said the sporting correspondent of the _Liverpool Bold Speaker and Threepenny Aristides_ -- a gentleman who, by the bye, was very clever at naming -- for half-a-dozen stamps -- the horses that _didn't_ win; and was, indeed, useful to fancy betters, as affording accurate information what to avoid; nothing being better policy than to give the odds against any horse named by him as a sure winner, or a safe second: for those gallant steeds were sure to be, whatever the fluctuating fortune of the race, ignominiously nowhere. "It is", continued the _Liverpool B. S._, "a sign of the downfalling of the lion and unicorn -- over which Britannia may shed tears and the inhabitants of Liverpool and its vicinity mourn in silent despair -- that the freedom of England is no more! We repeat (_The Liverpool Aristides_ here gets excited, and goes into small capitals) -- BRITAIN is no longer FREE! Her freedom departed from her on that day on which the blue-coated British Sbirri of Sir Robert Peel broke simultaneously into the liberties of the nation, the mightiest clauses of Magna Charta, and the Prize Ring, and stopped the operations of the Lancashire Daddy Longlegs and the celebrated Metropolitan favourite, the Left-handed Smasher, during the eighty-ninth round, and just as the real interest of the fight was about to begin. Under these humiliating circumstances, a meeting has been held by the referees and backers of the men, and it has been agreed between the latter and the stakeholder to draw the money.

But, that the valiant and admired Smasher may have no occasion to complain of the inhospitality of the town of Liverpool, the patrons of the fancy have determined on giving him a dinner, at which his late opponent, our old favourite and honoured townsman, Daddy Longlegs, will be in the chair, having a distinguished gentleman of sporting celebrity as his vice. It is to be hoped that, as some proof that the noble art of self-defence is not entirely extinct in Liverpool, the friends of the Ring will muster pretty strong on this occasion. Tickets, at half-a-guinea, to be obtained at the Gloves Tavern, where the entertainment will take place."