Backs what looks rather like a huge moat, designed to keep marauders
from the sacred college courts, and filled with discoloured water,
destitute seemingly of all stream. This he knows cannot be the racing
river. The innumerable bridges forbid the notion, although Ouida has, in
one of her novels, sprinkled it with a mixture of racing Eights and
water-lilies. He wanders on from college to college, and nowhere does he
come across the slightest sign of the river of which he has heard so
much. Indeed, a man may stroll on Midsummer Common within about a
hundred yards of the boat-houses without suspecting the existence of the
Cam. I can well remember convoying to the river an enthusiastic
freshman who had just joined his college boat club. At every step I was
asked whether we were yet approaching the noble stream. I answered
evasively, and with an air of mystery which befits a third-year man in
the presence of freshmen. At length we turned on to the common, which is
bounded by the Cam; on the further bank stand the boat-houses. There
were crowds of men busy in the yards, there were coaches riding on the
nearer bank, but of the river itself there was no indication. We were
still about two hundred yards away when a Lady Margaret Eight passed,
the heads of the crew in their scarlet caps being just visible above the
river-bank as they swung backwards and forwards in their boat. I felt my
freshman's grip tightening on my arm. Suddenly he stood stock still and
rubbed his eyes. "Good heavens!" he said in an awestruck voice, "what on
earth are those little red animals I see running up and down there?
Funniest thing I ever saw." I reassured him, and in a few moments more
we arrived at the Cam, crossed it in a "grind," and solved the puzzle.
Distance, therefore, can scarcely be said to lend enchantment to the
view, since at anything over one hundred yards it withdraws the Cam
altogether from our sight. It is not easy, indeed, to see where the
attractions of the Cam come in. It has been called with perfect justice
a ditch, a canal, and a sewer, but not even the wildest enthusiasm would
have supposed it to be a running stream, or ventured at first sight to
call it a river. Yet this slow and muddy thread of water has been for
more than seventy years the scene of excitements and triumphs and
glories without end. Upon its shallow stream future judges and bishops
and Parliament-men--not to speak of the great host of minor celebrities
and the vaster army of future obscurities--have sought exercise and
relaxation; to its unsightly banks their memory still fondly turns
wherever their lot may chance to be cast, and still some thousand of the
flower of our youth find health and strength in driving the labouring
Eights and Fours along its narrow reaches and round its winding corners.
It may well excite the wonder of the uninitiated that, with so many
natural disadvantages to contend against, the oarsmen of Cambridge
should have been able during all these years to maintain so high a
standard of oarsmanship. Time after time since the year when First
Trinity secured the first race for the Grand Challenge have her college
crews carried off the chief prizes at Henley against all competitors,
until, in 1887, Trinity Hall swept the board by actually winning five
out of the eight Henley races, other Cambridge men accounting for the
remaining three. The record of Cambridge rowing is thus a very proud
one; but those who know the Cambridge oarsman and his river will find no
difficulty in accounting for it. The very disadvantages of the Cam all
tend to imbue the man who rows upon it with a stern sense of duty, with
the feeling that it is business and not pleasure, hard work and not a
picnic, that summon him every day of the term to the boat-houses and
urge him on his way to Baitsbite. We are forced to do without the
natural charms that make the Isis beautiful. We console ourselves by a
strict devotion to the labour of the oar.

The man who first rowed upon the Cam was in all probability a lineal
descendant of the daring spirit who first tasted an oyster. His name and
fame have not been preserved, but I am entitled to assume that he
flourished some time before 1826. In that year the records of Cambridge
boat clubs begin. There is in the possession of the First Trinity Boat
Club an old book, at one end of which are to be found the "Laws of the
Monarch Boat Club," with a list of members from 1826 to 1828, whilst at
the other end are inscribed lists of members of the Trinity Boat Club,
minutes of its meetings, and brief descriptions of the races in which it
was engaged from the year 1829 to 1834. The Monarch Boat Club was by its
laws limited to members of Trinity, and, I take it, that in 1828 the
club had become sufficiently important to change its name definitely to
that of Trinity Boat Club. At any rate, it must always have been
considered the Trinity Club; for in the earliest chart of the Cambridge
boat races--that, namely, of 1827--in the captains' room of the First
Trinity Boat-house, "Trinity" stands head of the river, and no mention
is made of a Monarch Club. These ancient laws form a somewhat Draconian
code. They are twenty-five in number, and eight of them deal with fines
or penalties to be inflicted upon a member who may "absent himself from
his appointed crew and not provide a substitute for his oar," or who may
"not arrive at the boat-house within a quarter of an hour of the
appointed time." There were fines ("by no means to be remitted, except
in the case of any member having an _ægrotat_, _exeat_, or _absit_, or
having been prevented from attending by some laws of the college or
University") for not appearing in the proper uniform, for "giving orders
or speaking on a racing day, or on any other day, after silence has been
called" (exception being made in favour of the captain and steerer), and
for neglecting to give notice of an intended absence. To the twelfth law
a clause was subsequently added enacting "that the treasurer be
chastised twice a week for not keeping his books in proper order."

From the minutes of the Trinity Boat Club I extract the following
letter, dated Stangate, December, 1828, which shows that even at that
early date the first and third persons carried on a civil war in the
boat-builder's vocabulary:--

"Rawlinson & Lyon's compliments to Mr. Greene wish to know if there is
to be any alteration in the length of the set of oars they have to send
down have been expecting to hear from the Club, therefore have not given
orders for the oars to be finished should feel obliged by a line from
you with the necessary instructions and be kind enough to inform us of
the success which we trust you have met with in the New Boat.

                    we remain Sir
                        Your ob^t Servts
                            RAWLINSON & LYON."

In 1833 it is curious to read, "towards the end of this Easter term six
of the racing crew were ill of influenza, etc., when the boat was bumped
by the Queens', which we bumped next race, but were bumped again by
them, and next race owing to a bad start the Christ's boat bumped us
immediately being nearly abreast of us at the bumping-post." Was this
the _grippe_, I wonder? In the Lent Term, 1834, it is stated, "The
second race we touched the Christ's after the pistol was fired the first
stroke we pulled, and lost our place to the Second Trinity for making a
foul bump." By the way, in the oldest minute-book belonging to the
University Boating Club, extending from 1828 to 1837, I find the Second
Trinity boat occasionally entered on the list as "Reading Trinity." It
continued to enjoy this bookish reputation up to 1876, when a debt
which continued to increase while its list of members as constantly
diminished, brought about its dissolution. Its members and its
challenge-cups were then taken over by First Trinity.

In an old book belonging to First Trinity is preserved a map of the
racing river, which explains much that would be otherwise inexplicable
in the various entries. In those days the races began in the short reach
of water in which they now finish. A little below where Charon now plies
his ferry were the Chesterton Locks, and in the reach above this
starting-posts seem to have been fixed for the various boats. When the
starting-pistol was fired the crews started rowing, but apparently no
bump was allowed before the bumping-post, fixed some little way above
the first bend where the big horse-grind now works. Any bump before this
was foul, and the boat so fouling appears to have been disqualified.
This post once passed, the racing proper began and continued past
Barnwell up to the Jesus Locks. It must be remembered that the Jesus
Locks were not where they are now, but were built just where the Caius
boathouse now stands, there being a lock cut in the present bed of the
river, and the main stream running quite a hundred yards south of its
present course, and forming an island, on which stood Fort St. George.
This was altered in 1837, when the Cam was diverted to its present
course, and the old course from above Jesus Green Sluice to Fort St.
George was filled up.

A few more extracts relating to the first beginnings of college
boat-races may be of interest. In 1827 there were six boats on the
river--a ten-oar and an eight-oar from Trinity, an eight-oar from St.
John's, and six-oars from Jesus, Caius, and Trinity, Westminster. In
1829 this number had dwindled to four at the beginning of the races on
February 28; but in the seventh race, which took place on March 21,
seven crews competed, St John's finishing head of the river, a place
they maintained in the following May. Usually from seven to nine races
appear to have been rowed during one month of the term, certain days in
each week having been previously fixed. Crews were often known by the
name of their ship rather than by that of their college. I find, for
instance, a _Privateer_, which was made up, I think, of men from
private schools, a _Corsair_ from St. John's, a _Dolphin_ from Third
Trinity (which was then, and is still, the Club of the Eton and
Westminster men), _Black Prince_ from First Trinity, and _Queen Bess_
from the Second or "Reading" Trinity. The following regulations, passed
by the University Boat Club on April 18, 1831, will help to make the old
system of boat-racing quite clear:--

"1. That the distance between each post being twenty yards will allow
eleven boats to start on the Chesterton side, the length of the ropes by
which they are attached to the posts being ten yards.

"2. That the remainder of the boats do start on the Barnwell side at
similar distances, but with ropes fifteen yards in length.

"3. That there also be a rope three yards long fixed to the head of the
lock, which will be the station of the last boat, provided the number
exceed twelve."

These arrangements allowed thirteen boats to start at once, and special
provision was made for any number beyond that. Obedience to the properly
constituted authorities seems from an early period to have
characterized the rowing man. I find that in 1831 a race was arranged
between the captains of racing crews and the rest of the University, to
take place on Tuesday, November 29. On Monday, the 28th, however, there
arrived "a request from the Vice-Chancellor, backed by the tutors of the
several colleges, that we should refrain from racing on account of the
cholera then prevailing in Sunderland. We accordingly gave up the match
forthwith, and with it another which was to have been rowed the same day
between the quondam Etonians and the private school men." The secretary,
however, adds this caustic comment, "It is presumed that Dr. Haviland,
at whose instigation the Vice-Chancellor put a stop to the race,
confounded the terms (and pronunciations?) 'rowing' and 'rowing,' and
while he was anxious to stop any debauchery in the latter class of men,
by a _slight_ mistake was the means of preventing the healthy exercise
of the former."

The umpire for the college races seems never to have been properly
appreciated. Indeed, in 1834, the U.B.C. solemnly resolved "that the
umpire was no use, ... and accordingly that Bowtell should be
cashiered. In consequence of this resolution, it was proposed and
carried that the same person who had the management of the posts, lines,
and starting the boats should also place the flags on the bumping-post,
and receive for his pay 4_s._ a week, with an addition of 2_s._ 6_d._ at
the end of the quarter in case the starting be well managed, but that
each time the pistol misses fire 1s. should be deducted from his weekly
pay."

In 1835, in consequence of the removal of the Chesterton Lock, the
U.B.C. transferred the starting-posts to the reach between Baitsbite and
First Post Corner, and there they have remained ever since.

Side by side with the college boat clubs, formed by the combination of
their members for strictly imperial matters, regulating and controlling
the inter-collegiate races, but never interfering with the internal
arrangements and the individual liberty of the college clubs, the
University Boat Club grew up. With two short but historical extracts
from its early proceedings, I will conclude this cursory investigation
into the records of the musty past. On February 20, 1829, at a meeting
of the U.B.C. Committee, held in Mr. Gisborne's rooms, it was resolved
_inter alia_ "That Mr. Snow, St. John's, be requested to write
immediately to Mr. Staniforth, Christ Church, Oxford, proposing to make
up a University match;" and on March 12, on the receipt of a letter from
Mr. Staniforth, Christ Church, Oxford, a meeting of the U.B.C. was
called at Mr. Harman's rooms, Caius College, when the following
resolution was passed:--"That Mr. Stephen Davies (the Oxford
boat-builder) be requested to post the following challenge in some
conspicuous part of his barge: 'That the University of Cambridge hereby
challenge the University of Oxford to row a match at or near London,
each in an eight-oared boat, during the ensuing Easter vacation.'"

Thus was brought about the first race between the two Universities. Mr.
Snow was appointed captain, and it was further decided that the
University Boat Club should defray all expenses, and that the match be
not made up for money. It is unnecessary for me to relate once again how
the race was eventually rowed from Hambledon Lock to Henley Bridge, and
how the Light Blues (who, by the way, were then the Pinks) suffered
defeat by many lengths. The story has been too well and too often told
before. Each crew contained a future bishop--the late Bishop of St.
Andrew's rowing No. 4 in the Oxford boat, whilst the late Bishop Selwyn,
afterwards Bishop of New Zealand, and subsequently of Lichfield,
occupied the important position of No. 7 for Cambridge. Of the remainder
more than half were afterwards ordained.

So much, then, for the origins of College and University racing.
Thenceforward the friendly rivalry flourished with only slight
intermissions; gradually the race became an event. The great public
became interested in it, cabmen and 'bus-drivers decorated their whips
in honour of the crews, sightseers flocked to the river-banks to catch a
glimpse of them as they flashed past, and their prowess was celebrated
by the press. It is not, however, too much to say that without the keen
spirit of emulation which is fostered by the college races both at
Oxford and Cambridge, the University boat-race would cease to exist.
Truly a light blue cap is to the oarsman a glorious prize, but there are
many hundreds of ardent enthusiasts who have to content themselves with
a place in the college boats in the Lent or the May Term. Want of form,
or of weight, or of the necessary strength and stamina may hinder them
from attaining to a place in the University Eight, but they should
console themselves by reflecting that without their patient and earnest
labours for the welfare of their several colleges it would be impossible
to maintain a high standard of oarsmanship, or to form a representative
University Eight. Let me, therefore, be for a page or two the apologist,
nay, rather the panegyrist, of the college oarsman, with whom many of my
happiest hours have been spent.

Before entering upon the serious business of life as a freshman at
Cambridge, the youth who is subsequently to become an oar will in all
probability have fired his imagination by reading of the historical
prowess of past generations of University oars in races at Henley or at
Putney. Goldie who turned the tide of defeat, the Closes, Rhodes,
Gurdon, Hockin, Pitman the pluckiest of strokes, and Muttlebury the
mighty heavy-weight, are the heroes whom he worships, and to whose
imitation he proposes to devote himself. A vision of a light blue coat
and cap flits before his mind; he sees himself in fancy wresting a
fiercely contested victory from the clutches of Oxford, and cheered and
fêted by a countless throng of his admirers. With these ideas he becomes
as a freshman a member of his college boat club, and adds his name to
the "tubbing list." He purchases his rowing uniform, clothes himself in
it in his rooms, and one fine afternoon in October finds himself one of
a crowd of nervous novices in the yard of his college boathouse. One of
the captains pounces on him, selects a co-victim for him, and orders him
into a gig-pair, or, to speak more correctly, "a tub." With the first
stroke the beautiful azure vision vanishes, leaving only a sense of
misery behind. He imagined he could row as he walked, by the light of
nature. He finds that all kinds of mysterious technicalities are
required of him. He has to "get hold of the beginning" to "finish it
out," to take his oar "out of the water clean" (an impossibility one
would think on the dirty drain-fed Cam), to "plant his feet against the
stretcher," to row his shoulders back, to keep his elbows close to his
sides, to shoot away his hands, to swing from his hips, under no
circumstances to bend his back or to leave go with his outside hand,
and, above all, to keep his swing forward as steady as a rock--an
instruction to which he conforms by not swinging at all. These are but a
few points out of the many which are dinned into his ears by his
energetic coach. A quarter of an hour concludes his lesson, and he
leaves the river a much sadder, but not necessarily a wiser man.
However, since he is young he is not daunted by all these unforeseen
difficulties. He perseveres, and towards the end of his first term reaps
a doubtful reward by being put into an Eight with seven other novices,
to splash and roll and knock his knuckles about for an hour or so to his
heart's content. Next term (the Lent Term) may find him a member of one
of his college Lent boats. Then he begins to feel that pluck and
ambition are not in vain, and soon afterwards for the first time he
tastes the joys of training, which he will be surprised to find does not
consist entirely of raw steaks and underdone chops. Common sense, in
fact, has during the past fifteen years or so broken in upon the foolish
regulations of the ancient system. Men who train are still compelled to
keep early hours, to eat simple food at fixed times, to abjure tobacco,
and to limit the quantity of liquid they absorb. But there is an
immense variety in the dishes put before them; they are warned against
gorging (at breakfast, indeed, men frequently touch no meat), and though
they assemble together in the Backs before breakfast, and are ordered to
clear their pipes by a short sharp burst of one hundred and fifty yards,
they are not allowed to overtire themselves by the long runs which were
at one time in fashion. Far away back in the dawn of University rowing
training seems to have been far laxer, though discipline may have been
more strict, than it is now. Mr. J. M. Logan (the well-known Cambridge
boat-builder) wrote to me on this subject: "I have heard my father say
that the crews used to train on egg-flip which an old lady who then kept
the Plough Inn by Ditton was very famous for making, and that crew which
managed to drink most egg-flip was held to be most likely to make many
bumps. I believe the ingredients were gin, beer, and beaten eggs, with
nutmegs and spices added. I have heard my father say that the discipline
of the crews was of an extraordinary character. For instance, the
captain of the Lady Margaret Boat Club used to have a bugle, and after
he had sounded it the crew would have to appear on the yard in high hats
and dress suits with a black tie. The penalty for appearing in a tie of
any other colour was one shilling. The trousers worn on these occasions
were of white jean, and had to be washed every day under a penalty of
one shilling. The wearing of perfectly clean things every day was an
essential part of the preparation."

All this, however, is a digression from the freshman whom we have seen
safely through his tubbing troubles, and have selected for a Lent Boat.
I return to him to follow him in a career of glory which will lead him
from Lent Boat to May Boat, from that to his college Four, and so
perhaps through the University Trial Eights to the final goal of all
rowing ambition--the Cambridge Eight. He will have suffered many things
for the sake of his beloved pursuit; he will have rowed many weary
miles, have learnt the misery of aching limbs and blistered hands,
perhaps he may have endured the last indignity of being bumped; he will
have laboured under broiling suns, or with snowstorms and bitter winds
beating against him; he will have voluntarily cut himself off from many
pleasant indulgences. But, on the other hand, his triumphs will have
been sweet; he will have trained himself to submit to discipline, to
accept discomfort cheerfully, to keep a brave face in adverse
circumstance; he will have developed to the full his strength and his
powers of endurance, and will have learnt the necessity of unselfishness
and patriotism. These are, after all, no mean results in a generation
which is often accused of effeminate and debasing luxury.

A few words as to our scheme of boat-races at Cambridge. Of the Lent
races I have spoken. They are rowed at the end of February in heavy
ships, _i.e._ fixed-seat ships built with five streaks from a keel.
Thirty-one boats take part in them. Every college must be represented by
at least one boat, though beyond that there is no restriction as to the
number of boats from any particular college club. No man who has taken
part in the previous May races is permitted to row. In fact, they are a
preparatory school for the development of eight-oared rowing. Next term
is given up to the May races, which are rowed in light ships, _i.e._
keel-less ships with sliding seats. No club can have more than three or
less than one crew in these races. In this term the pair-oared races
are also rowed, generally before the Eights. The Fours, both in light
ships and, for the less ambitious colleges whose Eights may be in the
second division, in clinker-built boats, take place at the end of
October, and are followed by the Colquhoun, or University Sculls, and
next by the University Trial Eights, two picked crews selected by the
President of the University Boat Club from the likely men of every
college club. The trial race always takes place near Ely, over the three
miles of what is called the Adelaide course. Besides all these races,
each college has its own races, confined to members of the college. But
of course the glory of college racing culminates in the May term. Who
shall calculate all the forethought, energy, self-denial, and patriotic
labour, all the carefully organized skill and patient training which are
devoted to the May races; for so they are still called, though they
never take place now before June? Every man who rows in his college crew
feels that to him personally the traditions and the honour of his
college are committed. The meadow at Ditton is alive with a brilliant
throng of visitors, the banks swarm with panting enthusiasts armed with
every kind of noisy instrument, and all intent to spur the energies of
their several Eights. One by one the crews, clothed in their blazers,
with their straw hats on their heads, paddle down to the start, pausing
at Ditton to exchange greetings with the visitors. In the Post Reach
they turn, disembark for a few moments, and wander nervously up and down
the bank. At last the first gun is fired, the oarsmen strip for the
race. Their clothes are collected and borne along in front by perspiring
boatmen, so as to be ready for them at the end of the race. The men step
gingerly into their frail craft and await the next gun. Bang! Another
minute. The boat is pushed out, the coxwain holding his chain; the crew
come forward, every nerve strained for the start; the cry of the careful
timekeepers is heard along the reach, the gun fires, and a universal
roar proclaims the start of the sixteen crews. For four "nights" the
conflict rages, bringing triumph and victory to some, and pain and
defeat to others; and at the end comes the glorious bump-supper, with
its toasts, its songs, and its harmless, noisy rejoicings, on which the
dons look with an indulgent eye, and in which they even sometimes take
part for the honour of the college.

Happy are those who still dwell in Cambridge courts and follow the
delightful labour of the oar! For the rest of us there can only be
memories of the time when we toiled round the never-ending Grassy
corner, spurted in the Plough, heard dimly the deafening cheers of the
crowd at Ditton, and finally made our bump amid the confused roar of
hundreds of voices, the booming of fog-horns the screech of rattles, and
the ringing of bells. What joy in after-life can equal the intoxication
of the moment when we stepped out upon the bank to receive the
congratulations of our friends, whilst the unfurled flag proclaimed our
victory to the world?

To such scenes the mind travels back through the vista of years with
fond regret. For most of us our racing days are over, but we can still
glory in the triumphs of our college or our University, and swear by the
noblest of open-air sports.

CHAPTER XIV.

ROWING AT ETON COLLEGE.

_By W. E. Crum_,

Captain of the Boats, 1893; President O.U.B.C. 1896, 1897.

In most books that have been published on rowing matters, a chapter has
been devoted to rowing at Eton. But these accounts have been mainly of a
historical nature, and have not, I think, dealt sufficiently with the
career of an Eton boy, from the time when he passes through the ordeal
of the swimming examination up to the proud moment when he wears the
light blue at Henley, representing his school in the Ladies' Plate.

Before any boy is allowed to go on the river at all, he is obliged to
satisfy the authorities of his ability to reach the banks of the river
safely if he should upset while boating. This swimming examination is
held about once a week after bathing has commenced in the summer half
at the two bathing-places, Cuckoo Weir and Athens, which are reserved
for the use of the boys alone.

On the Acropolis, a mound raised some ten feet above the water for
diving purposes, sit the two or three masters whose duty it is to
conduct the "passing." On one side a punt is moored, from which the boys
enter the water head first as best they can. They have to swim a
distance of about twenty yards, round a pole, and return, showing that
they can swim in good style, and can keep themselves afloat by "treading
water."

When a boy has successfully passed this examination, he is at liberty to
go on the river. As it is probably well on in the summer half before he
has passed, and it is more than likely that he has never before handled
an oar, we will suppose that he does not enter for the Lower Boy races
that year, but has to learn by himself, with no coaches to help him, the
rudiments of rowing and sculling on fixed seats. Always on the river,
whenever he has an hour to spare from his school duties, the Lower Boy
soon acquires that knowledge of "watermanship" for which Etonian oarsmen
are famous.

By the end of the summer half, he can sit his sculling-boat in
comparative safety, and has learnt, perhaps, at the cost of several
fines, the rules of the river, which are considered sacred by all Eton
boys.

The ensuing winter terms are devoted to football and fives, rowing not
being allowed; and we may pass on to the next summer, when our Lower Boy
will probably enter for both Lower Boy sculling and pulling (_i.e._
pairs). These two races are rowed in boats almost peculiar to Eton. That
used for the Lower Boy pulling is called a "perfection," of which the
design is due to the Rev. S. A. Donaldson; it is an open, clinker-built,
outrigged boat, which recalls the lines of the old Thames wherry. That
used for the Lower Boy sculling is known as a "whiff," an open clinker
boat with outriggers. On an average about a dozen competitors enter for
these events, five or six boats being started together, the first and
second in each heat rowing in the final. The course, which is about two
miles long, begins opposite the Brocas, extending for a mile upstream,
where the competitors turn round a ryepeck, and then down-stream to the
finish, just above Windsor Bridge.

If fairly successful in his school examinations, the boy whose career we
are considering will, after his second summer, have reached the fifth
form, a position which entitles him to be tried for the boats. He
probably does not succeed in obtaining the coveted colour at the first
attempt; and it is, say, in his third summer, that he first comes under
the eye of a coach.

For the last month of the summer half, as many as ten or a dozen eights
are taken out by members of the Upper Boats every evening, and four
crews are selected from these, put into training, and carefully coached,
and after about a fortnight's practice race against each other from
Sandbank down to the bridge, a distance of about three-quarters of a
mile; the race is called "Novice Eights," and each crew is stroked by a
member of the Lower Boats. Every boy who rows in this race may be sure
that he will get into the boats on the following 1st of March; and
having reached this important point in an Eton wetbob's career, I must
endeavour to explain the meaning of the term "The Boats," which I have
already frequently used.

The Boats are composed of one ten-oared, and nine eight-oared crews,
presumably made up of the eighty-two best oarsmen in the school; the
boats are subdivided into two classes, Upper and Lower Boats.

The Upper Boats comprise the ten-oared _Monarch_, and the two eights,
_Victory_ and _Prince of Wales_; the Lower Boats are more numerous,
consisting of seven eights, which have characteristic names, such as
_Britannia_, _Dreadnought_, _Hibernia_, and _Defiance_. Each of the
Upper Boats has a distinctive colour just like any other school team,
whereas all members of the Lower Boats wear the same cap.

At the head of the Eton wetbob world there reigns supreme the Captain of
the Boats, who is always regarded in the eyes of a small Eton boy as
next in importance only to the Prince of Wales and the Archbishop of
Canterbury. He is captain of the _Monarch_, and after him, in order of
merit, come the captains of the other boats, who act as his lieutenants;
these captains are practically appointed by the first captain of the
previous year, and were probably all members of the Upper Boats in that
year.

At the beginning of each summer term the Captain of the Boats calls a
meeting of his other boat captains; he has by him a list of all those
who were already members of the boats the year before, and he knows
pretty correctly the form of every one of them; thus, with his
lieutenants' help he can assign to each oarsman the boat in which he
considers him worthy to row.

The first boat to be made up is the _Monarch_. Though nominally the
first of the boats, the _Monarch_ is actually composed of those who,
from their place in the school, or from their prowess at other games,
deserve some recognition; in fact, I may best designate the members of
the "ten," as good worthy people, who have tried to row well and have
not succeeded.

The next boat is the _Victory_, and here we find the pick of the
previous year's Lower Boats. Though junior, and in order of precedence
below all the captains of the various boats, these eight have just as
much chance of rowing in the eight at Henley as any of the captains; for
the younger oar, whose faults can easily be cured, is often preferred to
his stronger senior, whose faults are fixed and difficult to eradicate.

Similar to the _Victory_, though of rather a lower standard, is the
_Prince of Wales_, or "Third Upper;" and this is composed of the
remnants of the previous year's Lower Boats who are not quite good
enough for the _Victory_. The great distinction in the present day
between Upper and Lower Boats is that all those in the former may row in
any boat on sliding seats, while to those in the latter only fixed seats
are allowed.

Having completed his Upper Boats, the captain has now to fill the seats
in the seven Lower Boats. A few of the refuse, one may almost call them,
of the year before are still left; refuse, because it is rarely the case
that a boy who is more than one year in Lower Boats develops into a
really good oar. To these are generally assigned the best places in the
Lower Boats, and after them come, in order of merit, as far as possible,
all those who rowed in the previous summer in the "Novice Eight" race.

Thus, just as the _Victory_ is always better than the _Monarch_, so the
_Dreadnought_, the second Lower Boat, is often better than the
_Britannia_, which may be composed of old "crocks."

On the 1st of March and the 4th of June in each year the boats row in
procession, in their order, each boat stroked by its captain, up to
Surley Hall, where, on the 4th of June, a supper is held. But I will
leave a description of the 4th of June till later, and will return to
where I left our successful Etonian, who has just received his
Lower-Boat colours.

During his first summer half in the boats he is practically never out of
training. As soon as he has rowed one race he must begin practice for
the next. The first race of the season is "Lower Eights." Four crews are
chosen from among members of the Lower Boats, are coached for three
weeks by members of the Upper Boats, and then race for a mile and a
half. After this follow "Lower Fours," in which, again, four crews take
part, chosen from the best of those who have raced in Lower Eights.
These two races are rowed in order that those in authority may see how
their juniors can race, and also that the said juniors may profit by
efficient coaching. No prizes are awarded; they simply row for the
honour of winning. After these come Junior Sculling and Junior Pulling,
two races again confined to the Lower Boats. They are rowed in light,
keelless, outrigged boats, with fixed seats, no coxswain being carried
by the pairs. And here, again, much watermanship is learned, for the
Eton course is a difficult one to steer, and only those who steer well
can have any chance of a win. As many as fifty entries are sometimes
received for Junior Sculling, for though an Eton boy may have no chance
of winning a race, he will start, just for the sport of racing and
improving his rowing, a proceeding which might well be imitated at
Oxford or Cambridge. Each boy who starts in one of these races has to
wear a jersey trimmed with a distinctive colour, and carry a flag in his
bows; and it is extraordinary what ugly combinations some of them choose
and think beautiful.

These four races have taken our young friend well on into the summer
half; but after Henley is over, he will probably have to represent his
House in the House Four race. Perhaps at his tutor's there may be one or
two who have rowed at Henley in the Eight, and with these, and possibly
another boy in Lower Boats, he has to train for another three weeks to
row in what has been called, in a song familiar to Etonians of late
years, "_the_ race of the year." It is an inspiriting sight for any one
who wishes to get an idea of an Eton race to see the crowds of men and
boys, masters and pupils, wetbobs and drybobs, running along the bank
with the race, some so far ahead that they can see nothing, some with
the boats, some tired out and lagging behind, but all shouting for a
particular crew or individual as if their lives depended on it.

In the last few years another race has been established for the Lower
Boats; but it has not met with the approval of many Old Etonians. It is
a bumping race, similar to those at Oxford and Cambridge, rowed by the
different Lower Boats--_Britannia_, _Dreadnought_, etc. It is claimed
that by practising for this race many of those who would not otherwise
get much teaching are coached by competent people, and thus the standard
of rowing is raised; but the opponents of the measure object, and as I
think rightly, on the grounds that the average oar in the Lower Boats
has quite enough rowing and racing as it is, and that even if more
racing were needed, a bumping race is the very worst that can be rowed.
It is necessary at the Universities, on account of the narrowness of the
rivers, to hold these races, for two boats cannot race abreast; but they
must tend to make crews rush and hurry for two or three minutes, and
then try to get home as best they can.

So much for the Lower Boat races. And there is only one more point to
add concerning the Lower Boats: at the end of each summer half a list is
published called "Lower Boat Choices," comprising about twenty of the
Lower Boat oarsmen; to these also is given a special colour; and it is
in the order of these choices that places in the Upper Boats are
assigned in the following spring.

Having, therefore, in the next year, risen to the dignity of the Upper
Boats, our Etonian has before him almost as many races as when he was in
Lower Boats. His first is "Trial Eights." This takes place at the end of
the Lent term, between two eight-oared crews, rowing on sliding seats,
and chosen by the Captain of the Boats. It is from these two crews,
picked from the Upper Boats and the boat captains, that the Henley Eight
has to be chosen; and it is, therefore, the object of the first and
second captains of the boats to equalize them as far as possible, so
that they may have a close race, and that the rowing and stamina of
individuals at high pressure may be watched. In the summer half come the
School Pulling and Sculling, similar to junior races, but rowed on
sliding seats, and confined to the Upper Boats. The winner of a school
race, besides getting his prize, is entitled to wear a "School
Shield"--a small gold shield, on which are engraved the Eton arms, and
the name and year of the race won. To secure a "School Shield" is one of
the greatest ambitions of every ambitious Etonian.

These two races being over, practice for the Eight which is to row at
Henley begins. Every day the Captain of the Boats, aided by one or two
masters, who have probably represented their Universities at Putney in
their day, has out two crews, composed of the best of those who are in
Upper Boats. These crews are gradually weeded out till, perhaps, only an
eight and a four are left; and then, at last, the Eight is finally
chosen.

It is difficult to say who should be pitied most while this process of
choosing the crew is going on--the captain or those who are striving for
their seats; the captain always worried and anxious that he should get
the best crew to represent his school, the crew always in agony lest
they should be turned out, and should never be able to wear the light
blue. Of course, the captain has the advice of those much more
experienced than himself; but if there is a close point to settle, it
is on him alone that the responsibility of the choice falls.

Once safely settled in the boat, there follows a period of five or six
weeks of mixed pleasure and pain, for every crew, however good, must
pass through periods of demoralization when for a few days they cease to
improve, and periods of joy when they realize that, after all, they have
some chance of turning out well.

For the last three weeks of this Henley practice the Eight is in strict
training; but training for Eton boys is no great hardship. The days of
"hard steak and a harder hen" are over. The Eton boy is always fit, and
the chief point he has to observe is regularity.

His meals are much the same as usual--breakfast at eight, lunch at two,
a light tea at five, supper together at eight in the evening, and bed at
ten. There is no need to pull him out of bed in the morning, as at the
Universities, for he has to go to school every morning at seven o'clock;
he does not usually smoke--or, at any rate, is not supposed to by the
rules of the school, and it is rarely that this rule is broken--and he
does not indulge in large unwholesome dinners, after the manner of many
undergraduates.

Every evening at six o'clock he goes down to the river, and is probably
tubbed in a gig-pair before rowing down the Datchet reach in the Eight.
About twice a week the crew rows a full racing course, and is taken in
for the last three minutes by a scratch crew, which goes by the name of
"duffers," composed of five or six Old Etonians and masters, and one or
two Eton boys, who are kept in training as spare men. The crew is
coached from a horse by one of the masters--of late years Mr. de
Havilland, who is certainly as keen for his crew to win as any boy in
the school.

For the last five years the crew has taken a house at Henley for the
days of the regatta, and gone to Henley by train the afternoon before
the races. Though much wiser, this departure from Eton is not as
impressive as in older days, when the crew used to drive to Henley for
each day's racing; when, filled with pride and shyness, the young
oarsman used to issue from his tutor's, wearing for the first time his
light-blue coat and white cap, and walk to Mr. Donaldson's or Dr.
Warre's house, where waited the brake which was to convey the crew,
with the cheers of the crowd, along the hot, dusty road to Henley. In
1891, the last year that this drive was taken, the crew, before the
final of the Ladies' Plate, had to drive no less than seventy-five miles
in three days. They were only beaten by a few feet, and there is little
doubt that but for this most tiring drive they would have won. Once at
Henley, all is pleasure. No crew is more popular, none more cheered, as
it paddles down the course to the starting-point and as it arrives first
at the winning-post. The scene of enthusiasm, not only among Etonians,
but among the whole rowing world, when an Eton crew wins the Ladies'
Plate after a lapse of several years, is past description.

After Henley come House Fours; and then the list of Upper Boat choices
is made up by the Captain of the Boats. The captain, by this means,
appoints his successor for the following year, for he arranges these
choices in order of merit, just as Lower Boat choices are arranged, and
the highest choice remaining at Eton till the next year becomes captain.
Thus the power of the captain is absolute; he can appoint whomever he
likes to be his successor, and it is seldom that the choice falls on
the wrong boy. Besides being the sole authority in these matters, the
captain has to arrange all the money matters of the E.C.B.C.; over five
hundred pounds pass through his hands in a year, and this gives an extra
responsibility to his post. Of course all his accounts are carefully
audited by one of the masters, and the experience gained, not only in
looking after money, but also in arranging dates of races, in choosing
and in captaining his crew, and in judging disputed points, is well
worth all the trouble and worry entailed.

Our Eton Lower Boy has now reached the position of Captain of the Boats,
and here I will leave him to go on either to Oxford or Cambridge and
represent his University at Putney. A few words, however, may still be
added.

There is a great difference between teaching a boy of sixteen and a man
of twenty to row, and this difference lies in the fact that it is much
easier, and perhaps even more important, to teach your boy to row in
good form. By good form, I mean the power to use all his strength
directly in making the boat move so that no energy is wasted in making
the body pass through the extraordinary contortions and antics often
seen in an inferior college crew.

It is easier to teach the boy of sixteen to row in good form, because
his muscles are not yet formed, and his body still lithe and supple; it
is more important to teach him, because he is not so strong as his
elders, and consequently has not as much strength to waste.

A description of best how to use your strength would be out of place
here, for it will be found set forth in another part of this volume. Let
me, therefore, pass on to a subject which lately has caused considerable
discussion--the subject of the length of the course for the Junior and
School races. All these races are held over a course of about three
miles in length, and take some twenty minutes to row. They start
opposite the Brocas, and continue up-stream round "Rushes," and then
down-stream to Windsor Bridge. The contention of many is that the length
of these races is too great, and that the trial put on boys of perhaps
fifteen years of age is too severe. From this view of the matter I
differ, for to any one who has rowed over both the Henley and Putney
course it will be evident that the forty strokes per minute for a mile
and a half would be more trying to a young boy than the thirty-four per
minute for four miles.

A short note on the proceedings of the wetbobs on the 4th of June, the
great day of celebration at Eton, may have some interest.

As I have said, a procession of all the boats takes place on this day.
About five o'clock they start in order from the Brocas, and row to
Surley Hall, where, in tents on the grass, a supper is prepared. After
supping, they return to the rafts in time for a display of fireworks,
the crews standing up in their boats and tossing their oars, whereby a
very pretty effect is obtained. The dresses worn by the crews are quaint
and old-fashioned on this great day. All are dressed in white ducks, a
shirt of the colours of their boat, a dark-blue Eton jacket trimmed with
gold or silver braid, and a straw hat covered with various emblems of
their boat. The coxswains of the Upper Boats wear naval captain's
clothes, while the Lower Boat coxswains represent midshipmen.

So much for Eton rowing; and, in finishing, I must pay a slight tribute
to three old Etonians, to whom the success of Eton rowing is mainly
due. They are Dr. Warre, the Rev. S. A. Donaldson, and Mr. de
Havilland; and I feel sure that out of these three, who have all done
yeomen service for their school, I may single out Dr. Warre, and yet
give no offence to his two successors. Before Dr. Warre came to Eton as
a master, in the early sixties, the masters had taken little interest in
the proceedings on the river; consequently the traditions of rowing,
learnt mainly from the riverside watermen, were not of a very high
standard. Eton had never rowed in any races, except against Westminster,
and it was due to Dr. Warre's efforts that competition for the Ladies'
Plate was first allowed. From this date till the middle of the eighties,
Dr. Warre was always ready to coach when asked, but never till asked,
for he believed, and still believes strongly, in allowing the boys to
manage their own games as far as possible.

How well he kept his principles of rowing up to date is shown in his
pamphlets on rowing and coaching, for probably no one but he could have
written so clear and concise a description as he has given.

Besides being an eminent coach, he understands thoroughly the theories
of boat-building, his ideas being well exemplified of late by the boats
which won for Eton in '93, '94, '96, and '97.

When the duties of head-master became too engrossing to allow him to
devote as much time to the Eight as formerly, his place was taken, and
well filled, by Mr. Donaldson. Mr. Donaldson was always a most keen and
patient coach, and followed closely on the head-master's lines; and his
cheery voice at Henley--clear above all the din of the race--once heard,
could never be forgotten. He was very successful with his crews, and
helped them to win the Ladies' Plate several times.

In 1893 Mr. de Havilland first coached the Eight, and, since this date,
has had an unbroken series of wins. In the first year of his coaching,
fifteen-inch slides, instead of ten-inch, were used, and this, aided by
his excellent advice, helped to produce one of the fastest Eights that
Eton has ever sent to represent the school. Mr. de Havilland has that
wonderful knack, possessed by some good coaches, of training his crew to
the hour, and it is surprising with what speed his crews always improve
in the last week or so of practice.

I can only hope, in conclusion, that I have to some extent succeeded in
explaining to the uninitiated the mysteries of the career of an Eton
wetbob during the five or six happiest years of his life spent at the
best of schools.

CHAPTER XV.

AUSTRALIAN ROWING.

_By E. G. Blackmore._

A country which has produced such scullers as Beach and Searle, not to
mention Trickett, Laycock, Kemp, Nielson, Stanbury, and many others of
less calibre, may well claim a place in a work treating of the science
and art of rowing. In the limits of a chapter it is scarcely possible to
give an exhaustive account of Australian oarsmen and oarsmanship, and as
the performances of the leading Colonial scullers are sufficiently well
known, from their having competed on English waters, this record will be
almost entirely confined to amateur rowing, as practised in Australia.

That large continent, with the island of Tasmania, consists of six
colonies, in all of which the art is cultivated, with more or less
enthusiasm.

The first record we can find of anything like boat-racing occurs in
1818, when ships' gig races were rowed in the Sydney Harbour, while the
first regatta was held in the same place in 1827. In 1832 an
Australian-born crew, in a locally built whale-boat, beat several crews
of whaling ships. Passing over a series of years, in which nothing of
more than local and momentary interest occurred, we find that in 1858,
in the first race rowed on the present Champion course, the Parramatta
River, Green beat an English sculler, Candlish, in a match for £400. I
am inclined to regard this as the real foundation of New South Wales
professional sculling, which afterwards culminated in the performances
of Beach and Searle. The mother colony is the only one of the group
which has produced a professional sculler of any class. Amongst amateurs
none has yet appeared who could be placed in the first rank.

In all the Colonies there are rowing associations which regulate and
control amateur rowing. Of these, New South Wales alone has attempted to
maintain the amateur status on English lines. The other associations
recognize men who would not pass muster at any regatta in the United
Kingdom where the regulation definition obtains. To the New South Wales
Association about ten clubs are affiliated. Under its auspices regattas
are held in the harbour of Sydney, and one on the Parramatta River. The
former water is utterly unfit for first-class racing, as it is
exceedingly rough, exposed to sudden winds, and hampered with steam
traffic of all sorts. In September--regarded as the commencement of the
rowing season--there is an eight-oar race, the winners of which rank as
champions for the ensuing year, and fly the "Premiership Pennant." On
January 26 is held the Anniversary Regatta, which, founded in 1834, has
been an annual event since 1837.

The Parramatta River course, on which champion events are decided, and
which Hanlan, Beach, and Searle have made classic ground, is 3 miles 330
yards. It is practically straight, with a strong tide, the set of which
is very difficult to learn. At times it is so affected by wind, as to
render rowing impossible. The most perfect water is that of the Nepean
River. Here a straight 3¼ miles course can be found, perfectly calm,
and with no current. It was on this river that Beach beat Hanlan in
1887.

The Victorian Rowing Association holds three Championship events in the
year--sculls, fours, and eights rowed in best boats on the Lower Yarra,
and an annual regatta on the Albert Park Lake, though in former years it
has taken place on the Upper and the Lower river. Important meetings are
also held at Ballarat, Geelong, Warrnambool, Bairnsdale, Colac,
Nagambie, and Lake Moodemere. The length for Intercolonial and
Championship races is 3 miles 110 yards, with the tide, which may be set
at three miles an hour.

The South Australian Association holds an annual regatta on the river
Torrens, and has champion races for eights, fours, and sculls, on the
Port River. The city course is one mile, that for the champion races,
three miles. The Torrens is at the best an inferior river for rowing,
while the Port Water is a broad tidal stream, exposed to south-west
winds, and at times exceedingly rough.

Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Australia, like their sister Colonies,
have associations, and hold regattas.

The great event of the year is the Intercolonial eight-oar race, rowed
alternately in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Western Australia is
now (1897) entering the field, but her crew is composed almost entirely
of former Victorian oarsmen. In the past the rowing of Victorian crews
has been generally far superior to that of the other Colonies, and in
1894 the Victorian combination was the nearest approach to English form
that has yet been attained. South Australia has not so far been
represented. Speaking generally, none of the picked eights of the
Colonies have ever shown form or pace within measurable distance of the
best college crews at Oxford and Cambridge, or the eights which may be
seen at Henley. There is no approach to that systematic rudimentary
teaching, coaching, and training, which proves so successful on English
waters, and without which no crew can ever become that perfect human
machine which a finished eight should be.

_Public School Rowing._

_Sydney._

The principal rowing schools in New South Wales are the Church of
England Grammar School, North Shore, the Sydney Grammar School, and St.
Ignatius College. Under the "Athletic Association of the Great Public
Schools" an annual regatta is held on the Parramatta River in May. The
events are--"Schools Championship," Maiden Fours, Junior Eights, and a
June Handicap Sculling Race. The association has fixed the distance at
1¼ miles. The races are rowed in string test gigs; and 8 mins. 15
secs. is considered good time for school crews, whose age, it must be
remembered, does not equal that of English schoolboys. The boathouses of
the two grammar schools are at Berry's and Woolloomooloo Bays, in the
harbour; and they are at a disadvantage compared with St. Ignatius
College, which, at Lane Cove River, has a splendid course and smooth
water. The ten days of the Easter vacation are spent by the two former
schools in "Rowing Camp," _i.e._ they migrate to the Parramatta River,
where there are better opportunities of systematic work and coaching.
Each club, notably St. Ignatius, has a good set of boats, those of the
North Shore School being fitted with convertible fixed or sliding seats,
carried on frames. The form of the two grammar schools is decidedly
good, and conforms to the English standard much more nearly than that of
most of the clubs.

_Victoria._

There are five schools approaching, as nearly as circumstances allow,
the great public schools of England, viz. in the capital, the Church of
England Grammar School, the Scotch College, Wesley College, St Patrick's
College, and the Church of England Grammar School at Geelong.

Two races are rowed annually, for first and second crews, each school in
turn having the choice of course, which is either on the Upper or Lower
Yarra, the Albert Park Lagoon, or the Barwon at Geelong. For first crews
the distance is 1¼ miles, for second a mile, the boats being string
test gigs, fixed seats. Of all the schools none has a record equal to
that of Geelong, where rowing, in comparison with other sports, occupies
the same position as at Eton. To the Cambridge Eight it has contributed
four oars, including the well-known heavyweight S. Fairbairn; while in
the memorable race of '86, when Pitman made his victorious rush on the
post, the school had an "old boy" in each boat--Fairbairn rowing for the
Light Blues, and Robertson, whose father had been in Hoare's famous '61
crew, for Oxford. In the Cambridge Trial Eights seven "old Geelongs"
have rowed; in the Oxford Trials only one; while the school has also
been represented in the Grand Challenge and other races at Henley.

The Public Schools' Race for first crews was established in 1868, and
for second in 1878. Geelong first rowed for the former in 1875, since
when it has twelve wins to its credit, and the same number in the minor
event.

The Boat Club was established in 1874, and at the present date has a
roll of fifty-six members, an excellent boathouse, and nineteen boats.
It holds an annual school regatta in June.

Rowing at the other schools is very spasmodic, mostly confined to a few
weeks' training for the above races.

_South Australia._

There are only two schools in South Australia which merit the
designation of public schools in the English sense, viz. St. Peter's
Collegiate School and Prince Alfred College, both in the immediate
neighbourhood of the city.

Adelaide is bisected by the river Torrens, where, by reason of a dam, a
mile and a half of water is available for rowing. But the course is so
tortuous that racing is limited to a mile. The accumulation of silt is
so great, and the growth of weeds and rushes so rapid, that for some
five months in the year the river is kept empty for necessary
operations; and at the best of times the water is slow and sluggish. At
the annual regatta, under the Rowing Association, the rivals have often
competed in a special race; but they ran the chance of being drawn to
row private schools. In order to make rowing as important a part of
school athletics as cricket and football, the present writer, who was
then chairman of the Rowing Association, instituted in 1893 an annual
race between these schools for a challenge shield, to be rowed on the
tidal river at the Port, over a straight mile course. The boats used are
half-outrigged, clinker, keelless fours, fixed seats, with a
twenty-six-inch beam. The crews practise on the home water, and finish
their preparation on the scene of the contest. So far, St. Peter's
College has won each event in the easiest style. A race has also been
established with the Geelong school. Of three, each of which has been of
the closest, Geelong has won once, St. Peter's twice. The boats used are
full outrigged clinkers, with sliding seats.

In spite of the inferior water, rowing at St. Peter's is becoming almost
as popular with the boys as cricket and football. To this state of
things their success against Prince Alfred and Geelong crews has
materially contributed, as well as the institution of school regattas.
The club has a good boathouse, with the right class of boats for
teaching and coaching, viz. steady, roomy, half-outrigged, clinker
fours, with keels, convertible as fixed or sliders.

_University Rowing._

There are three Universities of Australia--those of Sydney, Melbourne,
and Adelaide. Racing was first instituted when Sydney and Melbourne met
on the water of the latter in string test gig fours over a three and a
half miles course. In the following year they met on the Parramatta.
Melbourne won on both occasions. The race was then discontinued, but in
1885 the Sydney University Boat Club was founded, and in 1888 the three
Universities mutually agreed to establish the race as an annual event in
eights, to be rowed in turn on the Parramatta, the Yarra, and the Port
Adelaide rivers, over a three mile course. Of nine races rowed--in two
of which Adelaide, and in one of which Sydney, did not compete--Sydney
has won four times, Melbourne thrice, and Adelaide on two occasions. The
presentation by Old Blues of Oxford and Cambridge of a magnificent cup,
to be held by the winners, has given a great stimulus to the race, and
invested it with an importance which otherwise would not have attached
to it. It has served to establish the continuity of the contest, and to
connect the local Universities with their more famous elder sisters of
England.

The Sydney U.B.C. undoubtedly takes the lead in prosecuting rowing. It
promotes annual races for Freshmen, and intercollegiate fours between
the three colleges of St. John's, St. Andrew's, and St. Paul's. Since
their inauguration, in 1892, St. Paul's has won on every occasion except
in 1894. In 1895 and 1896 the U.B.C. won the Rowing Association
Eight-oar Championship.

There is an annual race in eights between Ormond and Trinity Colleges of
the Melbourne University, besides a few other less important events, but
the rowing spirit is not in such evidence as in Sydney and Adelaide. The
latter is simply a teaching and examining University, with members so
few that it is rather a matter of finding eight men to put in a boat
than of picking or selecting a crew from a number of aspirants. Its
success and enterprise are the more remarkable.

Speaking generally of University form in Australia, it is far inferior
to that of a good college eight. Nor is the reason far to seek. There is
no such recruiting ground as, for instance, Eton or Radley, not to
mention other rowing schools, nor are there the opportunities for making
oars such as the college clubs at the two great Universities present,
with the successive stages of the Torpids and Lent races, the May and
Summer Eights, Henley, and the Trial Eights. Coaching, as in England,
from the tow path or a fast steam-launch, is practically impossible, and
the number of those who have a scientific knowledge of oarsmanship, and,
what is rarer still, the gift of imparting it to a crew, individually
and collectively, is small indeed. Coaching in Australia is done from
the stern, or from another boat, or by an occasional view from the bank,
sometimes from a launch seldom fast enough to keep up, or range abeam.
Pair-oar tubbing is of course utilized. Sydney University rowing is,
however, far superior to non-University oarsmanship. The men sit up, use
their backs and legs well, understand the knee work at the end of the
slide, and do not rush their recovery. They are somewhat deficient in
fore and aft swing, have a tendency to sky the feather, and rarely
catch their water at the first. Melbourne rowing is wanting in body
work, and conspicuous for absence of length. The men apparently are
taught to discard on slides every approach to fixed-seat form, instead
of to retain as much as possible. Thanks to a strong Oxford inspiration
in Adelaide, and a belief in fixed-seat form as the foundation of good
rowing on slides, an Adelaide school or University crew is conspicuous
for length, reach, and swing. The pace of the eights is far behind
English standard.

_Boatbuilding in Australia._

It was the opinion of Hanlan that in the matter of boats and sculls he
had never been so well served as by Donnelly and Sullivan of Sydney, a
judgment as regards sculls endorsed by Beach and Searle. Chris. Nielsen,
the sculler, has brought out a boat which he claims to be faster than
the ordinary wager boat, with, against, or without tide, in rough water
or smooth. The dimensions for an 11½ stone man are--length, 23 ft.;
beam, 16 ins.; depth, 7 ins.; for'ard, 6 ins.; aft, 5½ ins.; full
lines throughout; height of seat from heel plates, 7 ins.; height of
work from seat, 5¾ ins.; needs no fin, steers well, very light off
hand; weight without fittings, 14 lbs. Riggers are bicycle tubing
fittings, ordinary Davis gate; Colonial cedar, pine, and hickory
timbers. The Australian-built boats are probably, so far as lines,
general design, and workmanship, quite equal to the best English craft.
For pairs, fours, and eights the Melbourne builders, Fuller, Edwards,
and Greenland, are of the first class. They use a skeleton frame for the
slides, built with angle pieces. This has all the rigidity of Clasper's
more solid style, is lighter and stronger, and when the boat is being
emptied allows the free escape of water. A Colonial eight is certainly
lighter than those sent to Australia by Clasper or Rough. Probably the
English builders have overestimated the weight of Australian eight-oar
crews, which do not scale anything approaching a 'Varsity eight. Seating
down the middle is generally preferred, which the present writer thinks
has everything in its favour. The great drawback from which local
builders suffer is the want of seasoned cedar. From this cause their
boats do not last as long as English ones.

_Times._

I am not disposed to place much reliance on time as a test of a crew or
a sculler, as conditions can never be so identical as to make comparison
a safe guide. Still a certain interest attaches to records. It is
contended that the Parramatta is a fifth slower than the Thames. The
best trial with the tide that I know of is for a mile, 5 mins. 20 secs.
with a four; 4 mins. 47 secs. with an eight. Over the whole course, 3
miles 330 yards, an eight has put up 17 mins. 12 secs., one mile of
which was compassed in 4 mins. 52 secs. On the Yarra the Victorian Eight
of 1889 is said to have rowed two measured miles in 10 mins. 2 secs. At
Brisbane, in 1895, the Sydney International Eight, with a strong stream,
compassed three miles in 15 mins., but the distance is doubted. On the
Nepean course, 3 miles 440 yards, Sullivan beat Bubear in 19 mins. 15
secs., no current.

CHAPTER XVI.

ROWING IN AMERICA.

The sport of rowing, as I gather from Mr. Caspar Whitney's well-known
book,[14] was in its infancy in America when it had already taken a
prominent place amongst our amateur athletic exercises in England. The
Detroit Boat Club, established in 1839, was the first rowing
organization in America. Next came Yale University, which established a
Boat Club in 1843, and was followed by Harvard University in 1846. The
first boat-race between Harvard and Yale took place in 1852 on Lake
Winipiseogee, New Hampshire, in eight-oared boats with coxswains. Other
meetings between these two followed at intervals until 1859, when a
College Union Regatta was instituted. This took place at Worcester
(Mass.), on Lake Quinsigamond, in six-oared boats without coxswains, the
bow oar invariably steering, and was continued, with an interruption of
three years during the Rebellion, until 1870, when the course was
changed to the Connecticut River. Up to this time two Universities only
had competed besides Yale and Harvard; but in 1872 the number increased
considerably, and in 1875 no less than twelve different Universities
were represented in one race. These were, in the order in which they
finished, Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, Dartmouth (Hanover, N.H.),
Wesleyan (Middletown, Conn.), Yale, Amherst (Mass.), Brown (Providence,
R.I.), Williams (Williamstown, Mass.), Bowdoin (Brunswick, Maine),
Hamilton (Clinton, N.Y.), and Union (Schenectady, N.Y.). The most
eventful of these big regattas was that of 1874 at Saratoga, when nine
boats entered. Harvard and Yale, having adjoining stations,
unfortunately became engaged in a dispute as to "water," and were left
disputing by several boats. Harvard got away from the entanglement
first, leaving Yale with her rudder and one oar broken, and went in
pursuit of the others; but in spite of the most heroic efforts, were
beaten by Columbia and Wesleyan, who finished respectively first and
second. In 1876 Harvard and Yale decided to withdraw from these crowded
meetings, and in this and the following year they rowed a private match
at Springfield in Eights with coxswains, and in 1878 on the Thames at
New London, where they continued their annual contest up to and
including 1895.[15] In that year there took place a break in the
athletic relations between these two Universities, and in 1896 Harvard
took part in a "quadrangular" race with Cornell, Columbia, and
Pennsylvania Universities. This was won by Cornell, Harvard being
second, and was rowed on a perfectly straight four-mile course at
Poughkeepsie on the River Hudson, where Cornell, Columbia, and
Pennsylvania had decided some previous contests. In the present year,
however, the differences between Harvard and Yale were happily adjusted,
and a race was rowed at Poughkeepsie between them and Cornell, in which
Cornell came in first, Yale defeating Harvard for second place. Harvard,
Yale, Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Cornell possess at the present day
the most important University rowing organizations, and at all of them
the sport is practised with that intense keenness which characterizes
the young American in everything that he undertakes. Especially is this
the case with Harvard and Yale. Their rivalry has continued for many
years, and a meeting between them in rowing, or in any other sport,
evokes among their members an eagerness and an enthusiasm of which an
Englishman can have little conception. Most of the Universities that
took part in the contests of the seventies seem to have dropped
altogether out of the rowing world. Last year saw a new arrival in the
shape of the University of Wisconsin. These Westerners, in spite of
their difficulties of climate, were able to form a very good freshman
crew, which defeated the Yale freshmen in a two-mile race. This year the
Wisconsin University Eight rowed a two-mile race against the Yale
University Eight, but were unable to make much of a show against them.
The United States Naval Academy at Minneapolis can also put a very fair
crew on the water, though the course of their studies allows them but
little leisure for practice. This year they were defeated by Cornell in
a two-mile race. The chief rowing school of America is undoubtedly St.
Paul's, at Concord, New Hampshire. It is divided into two boat-clubs,
the Halcyon and the Shattuck, and the teaching and training of the boys
are looked after by Mr. Dole, a man of great knowledge and experience in
rowing matters. They practise on a large lake situated close to the
school buildings, and show on the whole very fair form, though in this
respect they cannot equal an Eton crew. Rowing recruits from this school
are eagerly sought after by Harvard and Yale, in whose contests old St.
Paul's boys have a very brilliant record. At Groton School, in
Massachusetts, the boys row in Fours on the river Nashua, their coach
being Mr. Abbot, a graduate of Worcester College, Oxford. Rowing,
however, at Groton has not yet assumed the importance it has at St.
Paul's, baseball being considered of the first importance, and the
captain of baseball having the right to claim rowing boys for his team.
Not a few Groton wet-bobs have, however, done well in Harvard and Yale
crews. Besides these two rowing-schools, there is also the High School
of Worcester (Mass.), whose Eight this year--the first, I believe, in
its rowing history--rowed a severe but unsuccessful race against the
Harvard freshmen on Lake Quinsigamond, and later in the summer won the
race for Intermediate Eights at the National Regatta held on the River
Schuylkill at Philadelphia.

  [14] "A Sporting Pilgrimage" (published in 1895 by Messrs. Osgood,
  McIlvaine & Co.), one of the best all-round accounts of English sport
  that it has ever been my good fortune to read.

  [15] For many of these details I am indebted to an article by Mr. J. A.
  Watson-Taylor in the _Granta_.

[Illustration: A HARVARD EIGHT ON THE RIVER HUDSON AT POUGHKEEPSIE.]

To an English reader, with his experience of Henley Regatta, it will
seem strange that the Universities in America should take little or no
part in any rowing contests except their own private matches, and should
have no voice, and apparently no wish to have any voice, in the general
management of the sport outside the Universities. But such is the case.
The National Association of Amateur Oarsmen of America has more than
sixty clubs affiliated to it, but neither Harvard nor Yale nor Cornell
is amongst the number. The National Association holds a successful
regatta every year in August, but no really representative Eight from
Harvard or Yale has ever, I believe, taken part in it. With that
exception, this Association corresponds to our Amateur Rowing
Association, and in its constitution states its object to be "the
advancement and improvement of rowing amongst amateurs." By Article III.
of the Association an amateur is defined as "one who does not enter in
an open competition; or for either a stake, public or admission money,
or entrance fee; or compete with or against a professional for any
prize; who has never taught, pursued, or assisted in the pursuit of
athletic exercises as a means of livelihood; whose membership of any
rowing or other athletic club was not brought about, or does not
continue, because of any mutual agreement or understanding, expressed or
implied, whereby his becoming or continuing a member of such club would
be of any pecuniary benefit to him whatever, direct or indirect;[16] who
has never been employed in any occupation involving any use of the oar
or paddle; who rows for pleasure or recreation only, and during his
leisure hours; who does not abandon or neglect his usual business or
occupation for the purpose of training, and who shall otherwise conform
to the rules and regulations of this Association (as adopted August 28,
1872, amended January 20, 1876, and July 18, 1888)."

  [16] This clause is intended especially to prevent any so-called amateur
  oarsmen being surreptitiously compensated for rowing, as, for instance,
  by being furnished lucrative employment in sinecure positions.

"Any club which shall issue or accept a challenge for the purpose of
holding a professional race, shall be for ever debarred from entering an
individual or crew in the Regattas of the Association, and such club, if
connected with the Association, shall be expelled."

In point of strictness, it will be noticed this Rule does not suffer by
comparison with that of our own Amateur Rowing Association.[17] Indeed,
in some respects it is both fuller and stricter. Practically the only
difference is that whereas we disqualify as an amateur one who has been
employed in manual labour for money or wages, or who is or has been by
trade or employment for wages a mechanic, artizan, or labourer, or
engaged in any menial duty, this exclusion finds no place in the
American Amateur definition. The Laws of Boat-racing adopted by the
Association are practically the same as our own.

  [17] See Appendix.

It may be interesting to contrast the organization and management of
rowing at an American University with the systems that a long tradition
has consecrated at Oxford and Cambridge. In our Universities, in the
first place, each particular sport is entirely independent of all
others. Each has its own club, its own funds, derived from the
subscriptions of its members, and each manages its own affairs and
arranges its own contests, except occasionally in the matter of
convenience of date, without any reference whatever to the others. A don
is usually treasurer of these clubs, but he has no special authority or
control merely because he is a don. His experience and greater knowledge
are placed at the disposal of undergraduates in matters of finance; that
is all. Certain general University rules as to time of residence, etc.,
have to be observed, but beyond this the dons assume absolutely no
authority at all in the sports of the undergraduates. The undergraduates
themselves, through undergraduate officers, elected by themselves, make
all their own arrangements as to dates, matches, and everything else
connected with their competitions; and a don would as soon think of
flirting with a barmaid as of interfering with these matters in virtue
of his donship. This point is really of capital importance. The
responsibility of everything connected with the sports of the University
thus falls upon the proper shoulders--those, namely, of the
undergraduates who take part in them. The full glory of the victory is
theirs, and a defeat they must feel is due to them alone. They cannot
shift the blame to any don or committee of dons, and, as they must
acknowledge themselves responsible, so the necessity of taking steps to
restore the fortunes of their club is the more strongly brought home to
them. The captain of a Boat Club is its absolute autocrat as regards
work and discipline and the selection of his crew. The coach whom he
asks to instruct them may possibly be old enough to be his father, but
the coach, none the less, defers with an almost filial respect to the
captain, through whom all executive orders are issued. In practice, of
course, the wise captain is guided in most matters by his coach, but,
should a serious difference arise between them, it is the coach who must
give way to the authority of the captain. This uncontrolled management
of their sports by the undergraduates is, it seems to me, no unimportant
part of a University education; and a man may learn from it even more
valuable lessons in conduct, self-control, and the treatment of his
fellow-men, than from all the books, papers, and examinations of his
University curriculum.

At an American University a very different situation exists. I will take
the case of Harvard, not merely because it is more familiar to me, but
because it is typical in its general features, though not, of course, in
all its details, of the position taken up by the authorities at most
American Universities with regard to the sports of the undergraduates.
From the earliest days of athletic exercises the Faculty, or Governing
Body, of the University has kept a very tight control over them. It has
issued rules and ordinances, allowing or forbidding certain
competitions, deciding not only the number, but the date and place of
matches in which it was allowable to take part, and regulating and
controlling the conduct of those undergraduates who took part in
athletics. This system, no doubt, originated at a time when the numbers
at Harvard were comparatively small, and when the men entered College at
an age considerably younger than is usual in England. But the numbers at
Harvard have increased by leaps and bounds, and the age of
undergraduates is now on an average the same as at Oxford and Cambridge.

In recent years, indeed, a slight change has been found advisable. The
control of all athletics, whether rowing, baseball, football, or track
athletics, is vested in what is called an Athletic Committee, composed
of three professors (_Anglicé_, dons), three graduates of the
University, and three undergraduates. These nine, who are not selected
on any representative system, promulgate laws, conduct negotiations,
settle dates, and generally perform those details of business which in
England are left entirely to the undergraduates. For instance, the
negotiations for a resumption of athletic relations with Yale University
were on the Harvard side managed by and through the Athletic Committee.
Moreover, the Athletic Committee has in its hands the appointment of
coaches for the crew, and for the football, baseball, and athletic
teams. The captain of a crew or a team is, to be sure, elected by the
undergraduates themselves, the established system being that the crew
should, before disbanding itself, elect the captain for the ensuing
year. But no election of this kind is valid until it has been confirmed
by the Athletic Committee. From the above account, in which I have
confined myself to facts, and have not attempted to criticize, it will
be seen how profound are the differences between athletic organizations
at English and American Universities.

But there are further differences which have nothing to do with the
system of control and management. An English University is composed of
many colleges, each entirely independent, so far as the management of
its affairs are concerned. An English University Boat Club is organized
on the same principle. It is made up of representatives of all the
College Boat Clubs, and combines these autonomous institutions for what
may be termed Imperial purposes. College rowing at Oxford and Cambridge
foments a keen and healthy rivalry, and to no small extent helps to keep
up the standard of University rowing. In America, on the contrary, the
University is one, and apparently indivisible. There are no colleges,
and, therefore, there is no aggregation of College Boat Clubs such as we
have at home. The want of this element is, no doubt, a serious
disadvantage to an American University Boat Club. The only element of
rivalry comes from the competition of the four different classes (_i.e._
years, as we should call them--freshmen; second-year men, or
"sophomores;" third-year men, or "juniors;" and fourth-year men, or
"seniors") against one another in an eight-oared race in the spring.
Beyond this there has been hitherto no internal competition between
members of the University Boat Club. Compare this single race with the
long series of contests in which an English University oarsman takes
part. He may begin in October with the Fours, row in the University
Trial Eights in December, and in the University crew in the following
March. Then come the College eight-oared races in May or June, followed
by Henley Regatta in July, to say nothing of pair-oar races, and
sculling races, and College Club races, or of the various Thames
regattas, in which he may take part during what remains of the summer.
He thus gains invaluable lessons, both in watermanship and in racing
experience, which are not open to his American cousin.

For this absence of competitions in an American University Boat Club,
the severe American winter, which closes the rivers from about the
middle of December until early in March, is only partly responsible.
During October and November the rivers are open; but up to the present
very little advantage has been taken of these valuable months. At
Harvard there has hitherto been no race or series of races for Fours or
Pairs or Scullers, and freshmen, during their first term, have been
exercised on a rowing machine, when they might, with infinitely greater
profit, have gained instruction on the water.

Early in January, when the undergraduates have returned from their short
Christmas vacation, a "squad" for the University crew has generally been
formed and sent to the "training-table," and the men composing it have
been put into regular exercise, consisting of running varied by
occasional skating, and of rowing practice every day in the tank. When
the ice breaks up in March an Eight appears upon the water, and
practises regularly from that time until towards the end of June, when
its race against the rival University takes place. This long period of
combined practice has many obvious drawbacks, which will at once strike
an experienced oarsman. I believe better results might be obtained by
allowing members of the University "squad" to take part in the Class
races, and then, after a period of rest, selecting the University crew.

[Illustration: COACHING ON THE RIVER HUDSON.]

Notwithstanding, however, all these disadvantages, rowing at American
Universities has reached a high standard--a result due to the
extraordinary earnestness and enthusiasm of those who take part in it.
The American University oarsman is in every respect as strong and as
well-developed in physique as the average Englishman. All he lacks is
the prolonged racing experience, which makes the Englishman so
formidable and robust an opponent. There are men amongst the old oars of
Harvard, Yale, and Cornell, who have made skilled rowing their special
study, and whose knowledge of all points of the game is fully as great
as that of our English oars. Yale, in particular, has, during the last
ten years, been able to turn out some wonderfully fine and powerful
crews; but the tendency amongst the American University oarsmen, during
recent years, has been to sacrifice body-swing to the mere piston action
of the legs on a very long slide. There is now, however, a reaction, due
to the visits paid by Cornell and Yale to Henley in 1895 and 1896, and
the long body-swing and general steadiness, which are marked features of
English rowing, are now being very successfully cultivated in America.

At the five chief rowing Universities--Harvard, Yale, Columbia,
Pennsylvania, and Cornell--it is also customary to train a freshman crew
every year, not merely for the local class races, but for competition
against one another, the races taking place a few days before those in
which the University crews compete. This year Yale defeated Harvard by
something more than a length, Harvard being about three-quarters of a
length ahead of Cornell. The race--a two-mile one--was very severe, and
the crews, considering their material, showed, on the whole, better form
than that displayed by the University crews. A week later the Cornell
freshmen defeated those from Pennsylvania and Columbia over the same
course. It is surprising to see what good results can be obtained from
these freshmen crews. The men composing them have, for the most part,
not rowed before coming to the University; they have had no graduated
system of instruction on fixed seats. Up to March, all their rowing has
been done on hydraulic machines in the gymnasium. They then launch a
sliding-seat Eight and practise for the Class races at the beginning of
May. After that they are carefully taken in hand, and trained for their
race in June against the other Universities. It is from this freshman
crew, and from the older hands, who may have been rowing in the Class
races, that the 'Varsity crew of the following year will be recruited.

The number of students at American Universities is thus stated in Mr.
Caspar Whitney's book: Harvard, 3100; Yale, 2400; Pennsylvania, 2500;
Columbia, 1600; Cornell, 1800; as against about 2400 at Oxford, and 2800
at Cambridge.

I ought to add that the use of swivel rowlocks is almost universal in
America, and that all their Eights are built with the seats directly in
a line in the centre of the boat. Boats of _papier maché_ have had a
great vogue, their builder being Waters of Troy; but there is now a
reaction in favour of cedar boats, as being stiffer and more durable.
The Harvard and Yale boats this year were built by Davy of Cambridge
(Mass.), and were beautiful specimens of the art. American boats,
however, cost at least twice as much as English boats. T. Donoghue, of
Newburgh, N.Y., makes most of the oars that are used in first-class
racing. They are lighter by a full pound than our English oars, and are
every bit as stiff. It is a real pleasure to row with them.

CHAPTER XVII.

A RECENT CONTROVERSY: ARE ATHLETES HEALTHY?--MR. SANDOW'S VIEWS ON THE
TRAINING OF OARSMEN.

It would not be right, I think, to send forth a new book on rowing
without referring to the controversy that has recently been carried on
in the columns of the _St. James's Gazette_ under the general title of
"Are Athletes Healthy?" The discussion, which concerned itself mainly
with oarsmen, is naturally of very deep interest, not only to them, but
to the fathers and mothers who are anxious about the welfare of their
energetic sons, and who, if the charges alleged against rowing can be
proved, will, of course, do their best to dissuade their offspring from
indulging in this pernicious exercise. I should have preferred to
discuss the matter in the earlier chapters of this book, but the
printing was already so far advanced as to render this course out of
the question, and I am therefore compelled to deal with it somewhat out
of its place in this final chapter.

[Illustration: ROWING TYPES.

NO. 1.]

It would be idle to deny that there was some reason for beginning this
discussion. Within the past two years three magnificent young oarsmen,
Mr. H. B. Cotton, Mr. T. H. E. Stretch, and Mr. E. R. Balfour, have
died; the first after an illness of six months' duration, the other two
after being ill for less than a fortnight. They were all Oxford men, had
rowed in victorious races both at Putney and at Henley, and two of
them--Mr. Cotton and Mr. Balfour--had been actually rowing and racing
till within a short time of the attack that proved fatal to them. Mr.
Stretch had not raced, except in scratch Eights at Putney, since the
Henley Regatta of 1896, some ten months before he died.

It has been asserted that these three untimely deaths were due directly
to the severe strain undergone both in preparation for racing and in the
actual races in which these oarsmen took part, and that had they been
content with unathletic lives they might have lived on for many years.
Can that be proved? I admit that I do not wish to think the allegation
capable of proof, for these three were my familiar friends. I had
coached and trained them all; with two of them I had rowed in several
races; I had spent innumerable happy days in their society, and the
sorrow I feel in having lost them would be terribly increased if I were
forced to believe that our favourite sport had had any part in hastening
their end. In these cases I will confine myself to stating facts within
my own knowledge, and will leave those who read my statement to say
whether on a fair view of the matter the exercise of rowing can be held
blameworthy.

I may begin by saying that it is the invariable rule at Oxford to send
all men who may be required for the University Eight to undergo a
preliminary medical examination. This examination is no perfunctory one.
It is conducted by Mr. H. P. Symonds, a gentleman of very wide
experience, especially amongst undergraduates, and I have known several
instances in which, owing to his report, an oarsman has had to withdraw
temporarily from the river, and has lost his chance of wearing the
coveted blue. There has never been any question about yielding to Mr.
Symonds's judgment. His verdict, if adverse, has always been accepted
as final both by the oarsman concerned and by the president of the Boat
Club. In all the three cases with which I am dealing, Mr. Symonds passed
his men as perfectly sound in heart and lungs and in every other organ.

I take the case of Mr. Stretch first, in order to eliminate it
conclusively. The cause of his death was appendicitis, followed by
severe blood-poisoning. It is quite impossible to connect this painful
and malignant illness with rowing or with any other exercise. The
_appendix vermiformis_, which is the seat of the disease, is an
unaccountable relic in the internal organization of human beings; it is
liable to be affected mysteriously and suddenly in the young and the
old, and the only effective remedy, I believe, is by means of an
operation which removes it altogether. Mr. Stretch had, as I said, not
trained and raced for ten months, and up to the moment of his illness
had been in the enjoyment of robust and almost exceptional health.

Mr. Cotton, whose case I now proceed to consider, was an Eton boy, and
had rowed a great deal during his school days, though he had not been
included in the Eton crew at Henley. He was a man of small stature,
beautifully built and proportioned, well-framed, muscular, strong, and
active. On coming to Oxford he continued his rowing, and being a good
waterman and a man of remarkable endurance and courage, he was in his
second year placed at bow of the University crew. Altogether he rowed in
four victorious Oxford crews, he won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley
twice as bow of a Leander crew, he won the Stewards' Cup in a Magdalen
College Four, rowed Head of the River three times, besides taking part
in many other races more or less important. During his whole rowing
career I knew him to be unwell only once, and that was in 1893, when he
suffered from a sore throat at Putney. In 1895 he rowed bow of the
Oxford Eight for the fourth time. The training of this crew was a very
anxious one. Influenza was very prevalent, and one after another the
Oxford men were affected by this illness. There were only two
exceptions, and one of these was Mr. Cotton, who was never sick or sorry
for a single day during the whole period of practice. Shortly after the
race he came to stay with me. He was then perfectly strong, perfectly
healthy, and in wonderfully good spirits, and showed not the least sign
of being stale or exhausted. He told me himself, on my congratulating
him on having escaped the influenza, that he had never felt better or
stronger in his life than he did at that time. On the Easter Monday he
bicycled from Bourne End to Oxford and back (a distance of nearly
seventy miles as he rode it), and, as he had had to battle against a
strong cold wind on the return journey, he was very tired on his
arrival. On the following morning, however, he appeared perfectly well.
Towards the end of that week he complained of feeling "very
lackadaisical and having a bad headache," but he attached no importance
to these symptoms, and soon after went back to Oxford with a view to
rowing in the Magdalen Eight. The tired feeling and the headache,
however, continued, and eventually got so bad that he had to take to his
bed with a high temperature and all the other symptoms of violent
influenza. This illness, neglected at the outset, almost immediately
settled on his lungs, both of which were congested with pneumonia.
Owing, as Mr. Symonds himself told me, to his good general condition and
his great strength, he fought through this, but in the mean time signs
of consumption had declared themselves, and of this he died at Davos
Platz in the following October.

With regard to Mr. Balfour, the facts are these: He was a man of
Herculean build and strength. He played in the Oxford Rugby Union
Football team for two years, 1894 and 1895. In 1896 and in this year he
rowed in the University Eight, and last July he rowed at Henley in the
Leander Eight, and won the pair-oared race with Mr. Guy Nickalls. I can
answer for it that during all his races he was absolutely fit and well.
I saw him daily at Henley, and, though I knew him to be strong and
healthy, I was surprised not merely by his improvement in style, but by
the great vigour he displayed in rowing. On the morning after the
Regatta I saw him for the last time. He was then in splendid health and
spirits. On the 12th of August he shot grouse; on the following day, in
very cold wet weather, he went out fishing, and came home wet through,
complaining of a chill. On the following day he took to his bed in a
high fever, with both lungs congested. The illness next attacked his
kidneys, and soon after his life was despaired of. However, he rallied
in an extraordinary way until symptoms of blood-poisoning declared
themselves, when he rapidly sank, and died on August 27th. Now, this
illness was due either to an ordinary chill or to influenza, or, as I
have since heard, primarily to blood-poisoning, caused by leaky and
poisonous drains at a place where he had been staying before his
shooting excursion. A subsequent examination of these drains revealed a
very bad condition of affairs immediately underneath the room that Mr.
Balfour had occupied. In any case it does not appear--and the strong
testimony of the doctors who attended him confirms me in this--that Mr.
Balfour's death was due to his rowing. But an objector may say, "It is
true that neither in Mr. Cotton's nor in Mr. Balfour's case can death be
_directly_ attributed to rowing; their exertions, however, so exhausted
their strength, the soundness of their organs, and their powers of
resistance to disease, that when they were attacked they became easy
victims." To this I oppose (1) the report of Mr. H. P. Symonds, who
examined both these oarsmen before they rowed in their University
Eights; (2) my own observation of their health, condition, and spirits
during practice, in their races, and afterwards when the races were
over; and (3) the reports of the doctors who attended them during their
last illnesses, and who declared (I speak at second hand with regard to
Mr. Balfour, at first hand with regard to Mr. Cotton) that they were
both, when struck down, in a surprising state of strength, due to the
exercise in which they had taken part, and that in both cases their
powers of resistance were far greater than are usually found. Do I go
too far in asserting that any doctor in large practice could find in his
own experience for each of these two cases at least twenty cases in
which non-rowing and non-athletic men have been suddenly carried off by
the same sort of illness? I am not concerned to prove that rowing
confers an immunity from fatal illness: my point is that in the two
cases I have considered, and in all cases where it is pursued under
proper conditions of training and medical advice, rowing does not in any
way promote a condition favourable to disease.

I pass from these particular cases, the discussion of which has been
painful to me, to the general question of health amongst the great mass
of those who have been, or are, active rowing men. It may be remembered
that some twenty-five years ago Dr. J. H. Morgan, of Oxford, moved to
his task by a controversy similar to that which has recently taken
place, instituted a very careful inquiry into the health of those who
had taken part in the University Boat-race from 1829 to 1869. Their
number amounted, if I remember rightly, to 294, of whom 255 were alive
at the date of the inquiry. Of these 115 were benefited by rowing, 162
were uninjured, and only in 17 cases was any injury stated to have
resulted. And it must be remembered that this inquiry covered a period
during which far less care, as a general rule, was exercised both as to
the selection and the training of men than is the case at the present
day. I may add my own experience. Since I began to row, in 1874, I have
rowed and raced with or against hundreds of men in college races and at
regattas, and I have watched closely the rowing of very many others in
University and in Henley crews. I have kept in touch with rowing men,
both my contemporaries and my successors, and amongst them all I could
not point to one (putting aside for the moment the three special cases I
have just discussed) who has been injured by the exercise, or would
state himself to have been injured. On the contrary, I can point to
scores and scores of men who have been strengthened in limb and
health--I say nothing here of any moral effect--by their early races
and the training they had to undergo for them. I could at this moment
pick a crew composed of men all more than thirty years old who are
still, or have been till quite recently, in active rowing, and, though
some of them are married men, I would back them to render a good account
of themselves in Eight or Four or Pair against any selection of men that
could be made. Nay more, in any other contests of strength or endurance
I believe they would more than hold their own against younger athletes,
and would overwhelm any similar number of non-athletes of the same or
any other age. As contests I should select a hard day's shooting over
dogs, cross-country riding, tug-of-war, boxing, long-distance rowing,
or, in fact, any contest in which the special element of racing in light
ships has no part. For such contests I could pick, not eight, but eighty
men well over thirty years old, and if the limit were extended to
twenty-four years of age I could secure an army. Is there any one who
doubts that my rowing men would knock the non-athletes into a cocked
hat? For it must be remembered that the bulk of rowing men are not
exclusively devoted to oarsmanship. A very large proportion of those
that I have known have been good all-round sportsmen.

[Illustration: ROWING TYPES.

NO. 2.]

As to the general effect of rowing on strength and health I may perhaps
be pardoned if I cite my own case, not because there is anything
specially remarkable in it, but because it bears on some of the
questions that have been raised, and I can speak about it with
certainty. In early childhood I had a serious illness which considerably
retarded my physical development. At school, however, I took my part in
all sports, played three years in the Cricket XI. and in the Football
XV., and won several prizes at the athletic sports. I went to Cambridge
in 1874, when I was three months short of nineteen, and immediately took
to rowing. I was certainly not a particularly strong boy then, though I
had a fair share of activity. I rowed persistently in Eights, Fours and
Pairs, at first with labour and distress, but gradually, as time went
on, with ease and pleasure, and I found that the oftener I rowed the
greater became my powers of endurance. I ought to add that I never rowed
in the University Race, but I have borne my share in thirty-six bumping
races, as well as in numerous other races ranging in distance from
three-quarters of a mile to three miles. I believe that the six
consecutive races of a May Term call for endurance at least as great as
the single race from Putney to Mortlake. My actual muscular strength,
too, increased very largely, and has ever since maintained itself
unimpaired. I have found that this exercise has, in fact, strengthened
and consolidated me all round; and I can think of no other exercise that
could have had upon me the same salutary effect that I am justified in
attributing mainly to rowing--an effect which has enabled me to endure
great exertion, sometimes in extremes of heat or of cold, without the
smallest ill result, and has brought me to middle age with sound organs,
a strong constitution, active limbs, and a good digestion. There are
hundreds of other men who could, I doubt not, give a similar account of
themselves.

[Illustration: ROWING TYPES.

NO. 3.]

Out of this main discussion on the health of athletes there sprang a
subsidiary one, which proved of even greater interest to rowing men. It
was started by Mr. Sandow, the eminent weight-lifter and modern
representative of Hercules. Mr. Sandow, stimulated by a disinterested
love for his fellow-men in general, and for those of Cambridge
University in particular, wrote an article in the _St. James's
Gazette_ in which he put forward his own peculiar views on the proper
system for the training of athletes. He ended by declaring that if he
were allowed to train a Cambridge crew according to his system (it being
understood that rowing instruction was at the same time to be imparted
to them by a properly qualified teacher), he would guarantee to turn out
a crew the like of which had never before sat in a boat. We were to
infer, though this was at first sight not obvious, that this crew would
easily defeat an Oxford crew trained on a system which Mr. Sandow
evidently considered to be absurd and obsolete.

According to Mr. Sandow's system, as he subsequently developed it, the
members of this crew were to have complete license in all things. They
were to eat what they liked, drink what they liked, smoke as much as
they liked, and, in fact, make their own good pleasure the supreme law
of their existence. All that Mr. Sandow stipulated was that for some two
hours a day during a period of several months these men were to put
themselves in Mr. Sandow's hands for the purpose of muscular development
all round according to the methods usually employed by him. Any spare
energy that might then remain to them might be devoted to the work of
rowing in the boat.

Now, in the first place, there are certain elementary difficulties which
would go far to prevent the adoption of this experiment. The crew is not
selected several months before the race; and even if it were, it would
be practically impossible for the men composing it to spare the time
required by Mr. Sandow. After all, even the most brilliant of us have to
get through a certain amount of work for our degrees. There are lectures
to be attended, there is private reading, not to speak of the time which
has to be devoted to the ordinary social amenities of life at a
University. Sport has its proper place in the life of an undergraduate;
but it does not, and cannot, absorb the whole of that life. Yet if a man
is to spend two hours with Mr. Sandow, and about two hours and a half (I
calculate from the moment he leaves his rooms until he returns from the
river) on the exercise of rowing, it is not easy to see how he will have
sufficient vigour left to him to tackle the work required even for the
easiest of pass examinations. I can foresee that not only the man
himself, but his tutors and his parents might offer some rather serious
objections.

[Illustration: ROWING TYPES.

NO. 4.]

But I am not going to content myself with pointing out these preliminary
difficulties. I go further, and say that the whole proposal is based
upon a fallacy. The method of training and development that may fit a
man admirably for the purpose of weight-lifting, or of excelling his
fellow-creatures in the measurement of his chest and his muscles, is
utterly unsuited for a contest that requires great quickness of
movement, highly developed lung-power, and general endurance spread over
a period of some twenty minutes. It does not follow that because a man
measures forty-two inches round the chest, and has all his muscles
developed in proportion, he will therefore be better fitted for the
propulsion of a racing-boat than a man who in all points of development
is his inferior. If I produced Mr. C. W. Kent _incognito_ before Mr.
Sandow and asked whether it would be feasible to include this gentleman
in an eight-oared crew, Mr. Sandow would probably laugh me to scorn. Mr.
Sandow could doubtless hold out Mr. Kent at arm's length with the
greatest possible ease. I am perfectly certain that Mr. Kent--if he will
pardon me for thus making free with his name--could do nothing of the
kind to Mr. Sandow. Yet I am perfectly certain, too, that, in a severely
contested race, Mr. Kent--admittedly one of the finest strokes that ever
rowed--would, to put it mildly, be more useful than Mr. Sandow. All
gymnasium work, and even the modified form of it patented by Mr. Sandow,
must tend to make men muscle-bound, and therefore slow. Skilled rowing
consists of a series of movements which have to be gone through with a
peculiar quickness, precision, and neatness. To be able to go through
Mr. Sandow's eight weight exercises, to lift weights, to carry horses on
your chest, may indicate great muscular strength, but it has absolutely
nothing to do with being able to row. If a rowing man requires some
exercise subsidiary to rowing, he would, in my opinion, be far better
advised if he devoted some of his spare time to boxing and to fencing,
exercises which necessitate immense quickness and perfect combination
between brain, hand, and eye, than if he were to spend time in building
up his body with such exercises as are included in the Sandow
curriculum. But, in the main, rowing must develop for itself the muscles
it requires. It is an exercise which, when all is said and done, can
only be learnt effectively in a boat on the water. It is thus, and thus
only, that a man can acquire the necessary movements, and perfect
himself in that sense of balance and of rhythm which is as necessary to
a rowing man as muscular strength. My experience leads me to the
conclusion that men who, though naturally well-framed and proportioned,
are not afflicted with excessive muscle, are more likely to be useful in
rowing than the pet of a gymnasium or the muscle-bound prodigies made in
the image of Mr. Sandow. I may cite as examples such men as Mr. R. P. P.
Rowe, Mr. R. O. Kerrison, Mr. W. Burton Stewart, Mr. W. E. Crum, Mr. J.
A. Ford, and Mr. C. W. Kent.[18] All these men acquired their
unquestionable excellence as oarsmen by the only possible method--that
is, by long practice of rowing in boats. Even an exercise so nearly
resembling actual rowing as the tank work practised in the winter by
American crews has very serious disadvantages. It might be supposed that
it would exercise and keep in trim the muscles required for actual
rowing; but its effect is to make men slow and heavy, faults which they
have to correct when they once more take to the river.

  [18] The photographs reproduced in this chapter are those of active
  rowing men. No. 4, whose muscular development is the slightest, is one
  of the most brilliant oarsmen of the day. See also photographs of Mr.
  Kent and Mr. Gold in Chapter V.

[Illustration: ROWING TYPES.

NO. 5.]

With regard to Mr. Sandow's revolutionary proposals about diet, smoking,
and hours, I have only this to say. We rowing men have shown time after
time that by adhering to what I do not hesitate to call our common-sense
system of rules tempered with indulgences we can bring our men to the
post in the most perfect health and condition, absolutely fit, so far as
their wind and powers of endurance are concerned, to take part in the
severest contests. What has Mr. Sandow shown that should avail, with
these results before our eyes, to make us exchange our disciplined
liberty for his unfettered license? In the mean time we shall very
properly hesitate to take the leap in the dark that he suggests.

I trust that the President of the C.U.B.C. will, in future, conduct the
practice of his crew according to the methods that have proved their
efficacy over and over again, and that he will not listen to the voice
of Mr. Sandow, charm he never so unwisely. _Non tali auxilio_ are
boat-races to be won.

APPENDIX.

HENLEY ROYAL REGATTA.

_Secretary_: J. F. COOPER.

QUALIFICATION RULES.

THE GRAND CHALLENGE CUP, FOR EIGHT OARS.

Any crew of amateurs who are members of any University or public school,
or who are officers of Her Majesty's army or navy, or any amateur club
established at least one year previous to the day of entry, shall be
qualified to contend for this prize.

THE STEWARDS' CHALLENGE CUP, FOR FOUR OARS.

The same as for the Grand Challenge Cup.

THE LADIES' CHALLENGE PLATE, FOR EIGHT OARS.

Any crew of amateurs who are members of any of the boat clubs of
colleges, or non-collegiate boat clubs of the Universities, or boat
clubs of any of the public schools, in the United Kingdom only, shall be
qualified to contend for this prize; but no member of any college or
non-collegiate crew shall be allowed to row for it who has exceeded four
years from the date of his first commencing residence at the
University; and each member of a public school crew shall, at the time
of entering, be _bonâ fide_ a member "_in statu pupillari_" of such
school.

THE VISITORS' CHALLENGE CUP, FOR FOUR OARS.

The same as for the Ladies' Challenge Plate.

THE THAMES CHALLENGE CUP, FOR EIGHT OARS.

The qualification for this cup shall be the same as for the Grand
Challenge Cup; but no one (coxswains excepted) may enter for this cup
who has ever rowed in a winning crew for the Grand Challenge Cup or
Stewards' Challenge Cup; and no one (substitutes as per Rule II
excepted) may enter, and no one shall row, for this cup and for the
Grand Challenge Cup, or Stewards' Challenge Cup, at the same regatta.

THE WYFOLD CHALLENGE CUP, FOR FOUR OARS.

The qualification for this cup shall be the same as for the Stewards'
Challenge Cup; but no one shall enter for this cup who has ever rowed in
a winning crew for the Stewards' Challenge Cup; and no one (substitutes
as per Rule II excepted) may enter, and no one shall row, for this cap
and for the Stewards' Challenge Cup at the same regatta.

THE SILVER GOBLETS, FOR PAIR OARS.

Open to all amateurs duly entered for the same according to the Rules
following.

THE DIAMOND CHALLENGE SCULLS, FOR SCULLS.

Open to all amateurs duly entered for the same according to the Rules
following.

GENERAL RULES.

_Revised December 1st, 1894._

_Definition._

I.--No person shall be considered an amateur oarsman, sculler or
coxswain--

    1. Who has ever rowed or steered in any race for a stake, money, or
    entrance-fee.[19]

    2. Who has ever knowingly rowed or steered with or against a
    professional for any prize.

    3. Who has ever taught, pursued, or assisted in the practice of
    athletic exercises of any kind for profit.

    4. Who has ever been employed in or about boats, or in manual
    labour, for money or wages.

    5. Who is or has been by trade or employment for wages, a mechanic,
    artisan, or labourer, or engaged in any menial duty.

    6. Who is disqualified as an amateur in any other branch of sport.

  [19] This clause is not to be construed as disqualifying any otherwise
  duly qualified amateur who previously to June 23, 1894, has rowed or
  steered for a stake, money, or entrance-fee, in a race confined to
  members of any one club, school, college, or University.

_Eligibility._

II.--No one shall be eligible to row or steer for a club unless he has
been a member of that club for at least two months preceding the
regatta, but this Rule shall not apply to colleges, schools, or crews
composed of officers of Her Majesty's army or navy.

_Entries._

III.--The entry of any amateur club, crew, or sculler, in the United
Kingdom, must be made ten clear days before the regatta, and the names
of the captain or secretary of each club or crew must accompany the
entry. A copy of the list of entries shall be forwarded by the secretary
of the regatta to the captain or secretary of each club or crew duly
entered.

IV.--The entry of any crew or sculler, out of the United Kingdom, other
than a crew or sculler belonging to a club affiliated to the Union des
Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques, or of the Deutscher Ruder
Verband, or of the Verbonden Nederlandsche Roeivereenigingen, must be
made on or before the 31st of March, and any such entry must be
accompanied by a declaration made before a notary public, with regard to
the profession of each person so entering, to the effect that he has
never rowed or steered in any race for a stake, money, or entrance fee;
has never knowingly rowed or steered with or against a professional for
any prize; has never taught, pursued, or assisted in the practice of
athletic exercises of any kind for profit; has never been employed in or
about boats, or in manual labour for money or wages; is not, and never
has been, by trade or employment, for wages, a mechanic, artisan, or
labourer, or engaged in any menial duty; and is not disqualified as an
amateur in any other branch of sport; and in cases of the entry of a
crew, that such crew represents a club which has been duly established
at least one year previous to the day of entry: and such declaration
must be certified by the British Consul or the mayor, or the chief
authority of the locality.

The entry of any crew or sculler belonging to a club affiliated to the
Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques, or of the Deutscher
Ruder Verband, or of the Verbonden Nederlandsche Roeivereenigingen, must
be made on or before the 1st of June, and any such entry must be
accompanied by a declaration in writing by the secretary of such Union,
or Verband, or by the Council of the club from time to time appointed by
the Verbonden Nederlandsche Roeivereenigingen, with regard to the
profession of each person so entering, to the effect that he has never
since the institution of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports
Athlétiques, or the Deutscher Ruder Verband, or of the Verbonden
Nederlandsche Roeivereenigingen, as the case may be, either rowed or
steered in any race for a stake, money, or entrance fee; or knowingly
rowed or steered with or against a professional for any prize; has never
taught, pursued, or assisted in the practice of athletic exercises of
any kind for profit; has never been employed in or about boats, or in
manual labour for money or wages; is not, and never has been by trade or
employment, for wages, a mechanic, artisan, or labourer, or engaged in
any menial duty; and is not disqualified as an amateur in any other
branch of sport; and in cases of the entry of a crew, that each member
thereof is and has been for two months a member of such club, and that
such club has been duly established at least one year previous to the
day of entry.

V.--No assumed name shall be given to the secretary unless accompanied
by the real name of the competitor.

VI.--No one shall enter twice for the same race.

VII.--No official of the regatta shall divulge any entry, or report the
state of the entrance list, until such list be closed.

VIII.--Entrance money for each boat shall be paid to the secretary at
the time of entering, as follows:--

                                          £   _s._  _d._
  For the Grand Challenge Cup             6   6   0
     "    Ladies' Challenge Plate         5   5   0
     "    Thames Challenge Cup            5   5   0
     "    Stewards'    "                  4   4   0
     "    Visitors'    "                  3   3   0
     "    Wyfold       "                  3   3   0
     "    Silver Goblets                  2   2   0
     "    Diamond Challenge Sculls        1   1   0

IX.--The Committee shall investigate any questionable entry,
irrespective of protest.

X.--The Committee shall have power to refuse or return any entry up to
the time of starting, without being bound to assign a reason.

XI.--The captain or secretary of each club or crew entered shall, seven
clear days before the regatta, deliver to the secretary of the regatta a
list containing the names of the actual crew appointed to compete, to
which list the names of not more than four other members for an
eight-oar and two for a four-oar may be added as substitutes.

XII.--No person may be substituted for another who has already rowed or
steered in a heat.

XIII.--The secretary of the regatta, after receiving the list of the
crews entered, and of the substitutes, shall, if required, furnish a
copy of the same, with the names, real and assumed, to the captain or
secretary of each club or crew entered, and in the case of pairs or
scullers to each competitor entered.

_Objections._

XIV.--Objections to the entry of any club or crew must be made in
writing to the secretary at least four clear days before the regatta,
when the committee shall investigate the grounds of objection, and
decide thereon without delay.

XV.--Objections to the qualification of a competitor must be made in
writing to the secretary at the earliest moment practicable. No protest
shall be entertained unless lodged before the prizes are distributed.

_Course._

XVI.--The races shall commence below the Island, and terminate at the
upper end of Phyllis Court. Length of course, about 1 mile and 550
yards.

XVII.--The whole course must be completed by a competitor before he can
be held to have won a trial or final heat.

_Stations._

XVIII.--Stations shall be drawn by the Committee.

_Row over._

XIX.--In the event of there being but one boat, entered for any prize,
or if more than one enter, and all withdraw but one, the crew of the
remaining boat must row over the course to be entitled to such prize.

_Heats._

XX.--If there shall be more than two competitors, they shall row a trial
heat or heats; but no more than two boats shall contend in any heat for
any of the prizes above mentioned.

XXI.--In the event of a dead heat taking place, the same crews shall
contend again, after such interval as the Committee may appoint, or the
crew refusing shall be adjudged to have lost the heat.

_Clothing._

XXII.--Every competitor must wear complete clothing from the shoulders
to the knees--including a sleeved jersey.

_Coxswains._

XXIII.--Every eight-oared boat shall carry a coxswain; such coxswain
must be an amateur, and shall not steer for more than one club for the
same prize.

    The minimum weight for coxswains shall be 7 stone.

    Crews averaging 10½ stone and under 11 stone to carry not less
      than 7½ stone.

    Crews averaging 11 stone or more, to carry not less than 8 stone.

    Deficiencies must be made up by dead weight carried on the
      coxswain's thwart.

    The dead weight shall be provided by the Committee, and shall be
      placed in the boat and removed from it by a person appointed for
      that purpose.

    Each competitor (including the coxswain) in eight and four-oared
      races shall attend to be weighed (in rowing costume) at the time
      and place appointed by the Committee: and his weight then
      registered by the secretary shall be considered his racing weight
      during the regatta.

    Any member of a crew omitting to register his weight shall be
      disqualified.

_Flag._

XXIV.--Every boat shall, at starting, carry a flag showing its colour at
the bow. Boats not conforming to this Rule are liable to be disqualified
at the discretion of the umpire.

_Umpire._

XXV.--The Committee shall appoint one or more umpires to act under the
laws of boat-racing.

_Judge._

XXVI.--The Committee shall appoint one or more judges, whose decision as
to the order in which the boats pass the post shall be final.

_Prizes._

XXVII.--The prizes shall be delivered at the conclusion of the regatta
to the respective winners, who on receipt of a challenge prize shall
subscribe a document of the following effect:--

"I/We A (B C D, etc.) (members of the club), having been this day
declared to be the winners of the Henley Royal Regatta Challenge Cup (or
diamond sculls), and the same having been delivered to us on behalf of
the stewards of the said regatta, do (jointly and severally) agree to
return in good order and condition as now received the said cup (or
diamond sculls), to the stewards on or before June 1st next, and I/we do
also (jointly and severally) agree that if the said cup (or sculls) be
accidentally lost or destroyed, or in any way permanently defaced, I/we
will on or before the date aforesaid, or as near thereto as may be
conveniently possible, place in the hands of the said stewards a cup (or
diamond sculls) of similar design and value, and engraved with the names
of the previous winners (their officers) (and crews) as now engraved on
the present cup and base./case. In witness of which agreement I/we have
hereunto subscribed my/our (respective) name./names."

_Committee._

XXVIII.--All questions of eligibility, qualification, interpretation of
the Rules, or other matters not specially provided for, shall be
referred to the Committee, whose decision shall be final.

XXIX.--The laws of boat-racing to be observed at the regatta are as
follows:--

                    (_The same as the A.R.A. Laws._)

THE AMATEUR ROWING ASSOCIATION.

_Hon. Sec._: R. C. LEHMANN, 30, Bury Street, St. James's, S.W.

_Revised, April 23rd, 1894._

CONSTITUTION.

I.--This Association shall be called "The Amateur Rowing Association,"
and its objects shall be--

    1. To maintain the standard of amateur oarsmanship as recognized by
      the Universities and principal boat clubs of the United Kingdom;

    2. To promote the interests of boat-racing generally.

II.--The Association shall consist of clubs which adopt the following
definition of an amateur, viz.:

No person shall be considered an amateur oarsman, sculler, or coxswain--

    1. Who has ever rowed or steered in any race for a stake, money or
      entrance-fee.[20]

    2. Who has ever knowingly rowed or steered with or against a
      professional for any prize.

    3. Who has ever taught, pursued, or assisted in the practice of
      athletic exercises of any kind for profit.

    4. Who has ever been employed in or about boats, or in manual
      labour, for money or wages.

    5. Who is or has been by trade or employment for wages a mechanic,
      artisan, or labourer, or engaged in any menial duty.

    6. Who is disqualified as an amateur in any other branch of sport.

  [20] N.B.--This clause is not to be construed as disqualifying any
  otherwise duly qualified amateur who previously to April 23rd, 1894, has
  rowed or steered for a stake, money or entrance-fee, in a race confined
  to members of any one club, school, college, or University.

III.--Any amateur club willing to bind itself to observe the rules of
the Association may become affiliated upon making application to the
Hon. Sec. of the A.R.A., and being elected by a majority of two-thirds
of the meeting of the Committee.

Every affiliated club shall have at least one vote at General Meetings.
Any club having more than two hundred full members shall have in
addition one vote for every hundred or part of a hundred members in
excess of two hundred; but no club shall have more than six votes.

Every affiliated club shall, when required, send to the Hon. Sec. of the
A.R.A. a list of its members and a copy of its last balance-sheet.

The Committee shall not consider an application for affiliation from any
club previously refused, until after the expiration of twelve calendar
months from the date of such refusal.

IV.--Each club shall pay to the expenses of the Association an annual
subscription to be fixed by the Committee; such subscription not to
exceed one guinea.

V.--The government and management of the Association shall be vested in
a Committee of twenty-five members, who shall meet once at least in
every six months, or as often as may be required. At the first meeting
of the Committee in each year a chairman shall be elected, who shall
remain in office until the next General Meeting. At all meetings of the
committee the chairman shall preside, and in his absence a chairman
shall be elected for the occasion; seven members shall form a quorum,
and the chairman shall have a casting vote.

VI.--For the purpose of electing the members of the Committee a General
Meeting of the representatives of the affiliated clubs shall be held
once a year at a date to be fixed by the Committee. Ten days' notice of
this meeting shall be given.

Each club shall notify to the Secretary in writing, not less than three
days prior to the Annual General Meeting, the names of its authorized
representatives, the number of whom must not exceed the number of votes
to which such club is entitled; but should a club nominate one
representative only such representative can record the number of votes
to which his club is entitled.

VII.--Five members of the Committee shall be elected at each Annual
General Meeting, and shall remain in office for three years. The
Committees of the Cambridge University Boat Club, the Royal Chester
Rowing Club, the Kingston Rowing Club, the Leander Club, the London
Rowing Club, the Molesey Boat Club, the Oxford University Boat Club, the
Thames Rowing Club, and the Twickenham Rowing Cub shall each nominate
annually a member of the Committee, and such nomination shall be sent to
the Secretary prior to the General Meeting. The Hon. Sec. of the A.R.A.
shall be an _ex officio_ member of the Committee of the A.R.A. In the
year 1894, in order to complete the number of twenty-five, the fifteen
members of the Committee elected and nominated as hereinbefore provided
shall meet and co-opt the remaining ten members, and the business of
that meeting shall be confined to this object alone. Five members of the
Committee shall retire annually by rotation, but shall be eligible for
re-election. Five of the co-opted members shall retire in 1895, the
remaining five in 1896. The Committee shall have power to fill up any