By R.C.Lehmann
In case you worry why 'Rowing at Cambridge' appears on a Thames site the answer is,
that having reproduced '
Rowing at Oxford' 1889 by W H Grenfell to link with the
Rowing page at Oxford,
it seemed appropriate to show this matching article of the same date in the English Illustrated Magazine -
ROWING AT CAMBRIDGE, 1889
By R.C.Lehmann
The casual visitor would scarcely imagine that Cambridge resembled
either Macedon or Monmouth in the possession of a river. He sees
in The 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 boathouses 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 that 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 boathouses. 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 awe-struck voice, "what on
earth are those little red things 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 enthusiast would have supposed it to be
a running stream, or ventured to call it a river at first sight.
Yet this slow and muddy thread of water has been for more than sixty 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 excite the wonder of the uninitiated that with so many natural disadvantages to
contend against the oarsmen of Cambridge should have been able for more than half
a century to maintain so high a standard of oarsmanship. In the record of the
University races twenty-two stand to the credit of Cambridge against twenty-three won
by Oxford, a slight disadvantage which every good Cambridge man hopes to
right by the result of this year's race.
Time after time since the year when First Trinity secured the first race for
the Grand Challenge have college crews carried off the
prizes at Henley against all competitors, until in 1887 Trinity Hall swept the board
by actually winning five 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 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 pic-nic, that summon him
every day of the term to the boathouses 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 possesion 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
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 boathouse 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 aegrotat, 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 12th 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' 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, &c., 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 B.C., 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 1877, 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 (here reproduced),
which explains much that would be
otherwise inexplicable in the various entries.
Map in Rowing at Cambridge, 1889, R C Lehmann
[ And it is still likely to be hard to understand -
CHESTERTON LOCKS (were between the Pike & Eel [10 below] and the Railway Bridge [15]) are at the bottom of the map.
FORT ST GEORGE [2 below] is top right. Notice that the river divides there for JESUS LOCKS
(The Fort St George was on the lock Island)
So the entire original bumps course was above the current bumps finish.
Here is a modern sketch -
The modern Cam from Jesus to Baitsbite Locks
1 | Victoria Road Bridge | 9 | The Top Finish | 17 | The White House |
2 | Fort St. George Pub | 10 | The Pike and Eel Pub | 18 | The Railings |
3 | Peterhouse Footbridge | 11 | Peter's Posts | 19 | The Plough Pub |
4 | Clare Footbridge | 12 | The Bus Shelter | 20 | The Ditch |
5 | Elizabeth Way Roadbridge | 13 | The Bottom Finish | 21 | The Gunshed |
6 | King's College Boathouse | 14 | Morley's Holt | 22 | The Motorway Bridge |
7 | The Gasworks | 15 | The Railway Bridge | 23 | The Little Bridge |
8 | Chesterton Footbridge | 16 | The Pink House |
The History of the First Trinity Boat Club, 1908 (which also has the old sketch map above) says -
as to the racing course. At that time there was a lock at Chesterton about half-way
between the present Pike and Eel Inn and the Railway Bridge,
and another lock opposite the present Fort St George Inn.
The boats started from the former lock and rowed up stream,
the winning post being situated where the capstan of the existing grind-ferry
to the First Trinity Boat House now stands.
In those days it will be seen that 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 boat-house 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 race
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
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 distanr
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 4s. a week, with an addition of 2s.6d. 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 venerable 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, cab men 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 oarsmen 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
and of the great deeds of the present. Goldie who turned the tide of defeat, the
Closes, Rhodes, Gurdon, Hockin, Pitman the gallantest of strokes, and Muttlebury
the mighty President of today [1889] 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 feted 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 boat-house. 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 150 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) writes 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
snow storms 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 circumstances; he will have developed to the
full his strength and his powers of endurance, will have learnt the necessity of
unselfishness and patriotism, and, better than all, he will have gathered round him a
band of friends bound together by the brotherhood of the oar, and tested through
many seasons of patient and laborious effort. 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,
which are now, by the way, always rowed in June. 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 coxswain 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.
Not the least important part of the machinery of a crew is the coach - often a
veteran who has passed through the fiery furnace of many bumping races. The
coach's first duty must be to establish sympathy between himself and his crew, to
make them believe that he is infallible, and that his instructions, if duly acted on,
must lead to their success. The rest is easy. Silence, discipline, and obedience should
be the motto of the crew; patience, enthusiasm, and watchfulness must be that of the
coach. Let him be quick to seize the psychological moment in the life of his men
when an apt piece of advice may turn them from eight disconnected individuals into
one harmonious crew; let him avoid nagging as he would poison, and above all let
him concentrate his attention on essentials and eschew comparatively trivial details.
Let him, too, endeavour to make his men comfortable in their ship, and to keep them
good-tempered in spite of training and work. I have known many crews and many
coaches. Often have I seen a good crew marred by bad coaching; quite as often have
I watched eight weak men being turned into a good crew by the ceaseless efforts of a
careful instructor. Of all Cambridge coaches the late Mr. H. E. Rhodes was the most
successful. Every University crew he coached won against Oxford.
Of the Cambridge crews I have known, those of 1876 and of 1888 were, I think, the fastest; the
most brilliant and plucky was that of 1886, which, under the leadership of Pitman,
wiped out a lead of two lengths which Oxford had secured at Barnes Bridge and won
by two thirds of a length.
Of coxswains much might be said. The
primeval cox who at the start of a bumping
race hurled his watch into the river, crammed
the bung at the end of the starting-chain
(the other end being fixed to the bank) into
his pocket, shouted wildly "well rowed all,"
and as the boat sprang forward was immediately dragged backwards into the water is
responsible, I fancy, for most of the tales
that are current with regard to his profession.
At any rate, I once saw one of his latter-day
successors avenge himself on the burly tribe
of oarsmen by running the nose of his eight
full tilt under the taut chain of a crossing
"grind," the result being that bow was swept, indignant and amazed, not realizing
what had happened to him, over the heads
of the rest of the crew, and that much strong
language was used. "Grind," it should be
said, is our Cambridge term for the ferries
that are worked by a chain from bank to
bank.
Those who wish for a detailed technical exposition of the Cambridge style must seek
it elsewhere. Space fails me to do more
than to point out that on long slides of fifteen
to sixteen inches we attach even greater
importance than before to a slow far-reaching swing forward, to the firm clean grip
of the water well behind the riggers, and above all to the steady even leg drive which
helps the blade through the water, and finally in conjunction with swing presses the
hands square home to the chest. We still ask our men to sit up at the finish, to
shoot their hands away smartly off the chest, and generally to row in a style which
shall be artistic and graceful as well as uniform and powerful. But what we look to
above all is the actual work of the blade in the water. If that be good and true we
pardon many minor faults.
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 the 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.
Oxford Rowing Boatrace 1890s
Introduction
Estuary
PLA
QEII Br
Barrier
Tower Br
Custom Ho
London Br
; Frost Fairs
Cannon St Rb
The Great Stink
Southwark Br
Millenium Br
Blackfriars Rb
Blackfriars Br
Waterloo Br
Charing Cross Rb
Westminster Br
Lambeth Br
Vauxhall Br
Victoria Rb
Chelsea Br
Albert Br
Battersea Br
Battersea Rb
Wandsworth Br
Fulham Rb
Putney Br
Hammersmith Br
Barnes Rb
Chiswick Br
Kew Rb
Kew Br
RICHMOND
Twickenham Br
Richmond Rb
Richmond Br
TEDDINGTON
Kingston Rb
Kingston Br
Ditton Slip
Hampton Br
MOLESEY
SUNBURY
Walton Br
Desborough Cut
SHEPPERTON
Chertsey Br
CHERTSEY
M3 Br
Laleham Slip
PENTON HOOK
Staines Rb
Staines Br
Runnymede Br
BELL WEIR
Magna Carta Is
OLD WINDSOR
Albert Br
Datchet
Victoria Br
Black Potts Rb
ROMNEY
Eton
Windsor Br
Windsor Rb
Windsor Slip
Elizabeth Br
BOVENEY
Dorney Lake
York Cut
Summerleaze Fb
MonkeyIsland
New Thames Br
BRAY
Bray Slip
Maidenhead Rb
Maidenhead Br
Below Boulters
BOULTERS
Cliveden
Hedsor
COOKHAM
Cookham Slip
Cookham Br
BourneEnd RFb
Quarry Woods
A404 Br
MARLOW
Marlow Br
Bisham
TEMPLE
HURLEY
Medmenham
Culham Ct
Aston Slip
HAMBLEDEN
Temple Is
Fawley Ct
Remenham
Regatta
Phyllis Ct
Henley Slip
Leander
Red Lion
Henley Br
Angel on Br
Landing
Hobbs Boatyard
Hobbs Slipway
MARSH
Hennerton
Bolney
Wargrave
Shiplake Rb
R.Loddon
SHIPLAKE
Sonning Br
SONNING
Dreadnought
K&A Canal
CAVERSHAM
Reading Br
Caversham Br
Reading Slip
Purley
MAPLEDURHAM
Hardwick Ho
Whitchurch Br
WHITCHURCH
Hartswood Reach
Gatehampton Rb
Goring Gap
Goring Br
GORING
Swan
CLEEVE
Moulsford
Moulsford Rb
Papist Way Slip
Winterbrook Br
Wallingford Br
BENSON
Shillingford Br
R.Thame
DAYS
Burcot
Clifton Hampden
Clifton Church
Clifton H Br
Barley Mow
Long Wittenham
CLIFTON
Appleford Rb
Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Br
CULHAM
Culham Cut Fb
Abingdon Slip
Abingdon
Abingdon Br
ABINGDON
Nuneham Rb
Nuneham
Nuneham Park
Radley Boats
SANDFORD
Rose Island
Kennington Rb
Isis Br
Iffley Mill
IFFLEY
Oxford Rowing
Isis
Donnington Br
Riverside Slip
Boathouses
Punting
Lower Cherwell
Upper Cherwell
Islip
Head of River
Salters Steamers
Folly Br
Bacons Folly
Oxford Fb
Osney Fb
Weir stream
Osney Rb
Bullstake Stream
Osney Marina
OSNEY
Osney Br
Four Rivers
OLD RIVER
CANAL
Medley Weir Site
Medley Fb
Bossoms
Perch
Trout
GODSTOW
Godstow Nunnery
Godstow Br
Thames Br
KINGS
River Evenlode
EYNSHAM
Swinford Br
Oxford Cruisers
PINKHILL
Farmoor
Stanton Harcourt
Bablock Slip
Arks Weir Site
NORTHMOOR
Harts Fb
Rose Revived
Newbridge
Maybush
River Windrush
below Shifford
SHIFFORD
Shifford Fb
Tenfoot Fb
Trout Inn
Tadpole Br
RUSHEY
Old Mans Fb
RADCOT
Radcot Cradle Fb
Swan Inn
Radcot New Br
Radcot Old Br
GRAFTON
Eaton Hastings
Kelmscott
Eaton Fb
BUSCOT
Bloomers Hole Fb
Trout Inn
St Johns Br
ST JOHNS
Halfpenny Br
Marina Slip
LIMIT
Inglesham
Hannington Br
Kempsford
Castle Eaton Br
Marston Meysey
A419 Br
Cricklade
SOURCE?
THAMES HEAD
SEVEN SPRINGS