"Ye roaring Blades who nightly rove . . ."

Engraving entitled "Ye roaring Blades who nightly rove . . ." "The popular prize-fighter John 'Buckhorse' Smith . . . was by then (mid-18th century) in retirement and a well-known sight at Covent Garden as a street vendor and linkman" (http://novel.stanford.edu/pdf/dickie.pdf). "The earliest known autobiography of an English boxer, Memoirs of the Noted Buckhorse, is printed in London. Buckhorse, whose real name was John Smith, was active from 1732 to 1746. He was never much of a boxer, and reportedly earned his living picking pockets and singing in the streets (it is said that he "sucked in the love of gin" from his first nurse). In 1767 Buckhorse was also the subject of an ode by Christopher Anstey; this too celebrated the man about town rather than the pugilist." - A Chronological History of the Martial Arts and Combative Sports 1700-1859 (http://ejmas.com/kronos/NewHist1700-1859.htm).
Smith is shown running through Covent Garden carrying his hat and a bundle of canes(?). The verse refers to "Broughtonian sons" - i.e., pugilists, after Broughton; and "snag poor Bucky's Muns" means "look at Smith's face". Not located in BM catalogue. Gillray attribution in ms. on print.