The Art and Practice of Boxing

Writing in 1825, the anonymous "Celebrated Pugilist" penned "The Art and Practice of Boxing." This early boxing manual, as is typical, teaches footwork, striking, blocking, and training details. This includes specifics of diet, exercise, & grappling. However, he deviates from the norm in two important ways. First, he dedicates an unusual amount of his text to discussion (and derision) of methods and strategies which, though technically legal under boxing rules of the time, he considers "unmanly." Second, he cites an earlier Wrestling text, Sir Thomas Parkyn's "In-Play" for advice and description on performing some of the grappling and throwing which were part of orthodox boxing of the period. He includes in his text images of 9 techniques which he considers either confusing or foundational, rounding out his relatively short text with a recitation of Broughton's rules which, like this manual itself, were authored before the adoption of the London Prize Ring rules of 1838.