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Rudyard Kipling Gunga Din

Posted by S. Ryan on April 18, 2003

In Reply to: Rudyard Kipling Gunga Din posted by Henry on April 17, 2003

: : My father age 85 has asked me to try and find out the meaning of the line "an' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it" He is a big Kipling fan. I have found info about Aldershot as a military base but I cannot find out what "penny-fights" refers to. Any Ideas?

: Penny fights are skirmishes and training campaigns. Aldershot is the army training camp set up in Hampshire.

:I know it is a boxing match, but am not sure whether the penny refers to the small purse
the winner was paid, or the admission spectators paid.I suspect from the poem and what I found that it is the price spectators paid. Of course boxers at these fights would have also been paid
less as well. Also, I think they were brutal, often bare fisted fights

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