Train Smash

In this George Plimpton book about boxing, I read that Lord Byron's mother died "of a fit of rage brought on by reading an upholsterer's bill." I am sure I did not know that. Then I read of the "Mad Marquis" who wrote to a railway company, "SIRS: I am anxious to witness a train smash." He later tried to crash two locomotives into each other on his estate. "Champagne was served," notes Plimpton. It didn't go so well. I am learning many facts from this book about boxing. If we check the index of this book about boxing we see, in just one random column, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Toots Shor, Sitting Bull, Edith Sitwell, and Jacques Tati (pictured). Boxing! Hey, my dad likes to quote an Edith Sitwell poem. He likes to say, "Jane, Jane/ Tall as a crane/ The morning light creaks down again."