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The relations and connexions of Thomas Winter, at Hereford and in the neighbourhood, were respectable; and when he tried his “’prentice han’,” at the age of seventeen, in battle with Hollands, a big countryman of some provincial repute, he won by science and steadiness. He thus gained a name is the immediate neighbourhood of Mordeford, where he was in service with a butcher, who was in after life a firm friend and an admirer of Tom’s prowess.

Two years afterwards (in 1814), one Henley, a local celebrity, challenged Tom for three sovereigns a-side. This also came off at Mordeford, when in eleven rounds Henley was satisfied that he had found his master in the youth whom he had challenged to the fray.

Spring two years afterwards made his way to the metropolis. Here he met one Stringer, a Yorkshireman, from Rawcliffe, renowned for its “paddocks.” Stringer was under the wing of Richmond, and was proposed as a “trial horse” for the young aspirant Spring. The battle took place at Moulsey, September, 9, 1817. We take the contemporary report as giving the first impressions produced on those who did not foresee the brilliant career of the youthful débutant.