The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-13 00:00:00

THE BOAT RACE.

Few things in this vale of tears are more worthy a pen
of fire than an English boat race is, as seen by the runners;
of whom I have often been one. But this race lam bound
to indicate, not describe; I mean, to show how it appeared
to two ladies seated on the Henley side of the Thames,
nearly opposite the winning-post. These fair novices then
looked all down the river, and could just discern two whitish
streaks on the water, one on each side of the little fairy isle;
and a great black patch on the Berksaire bank. The
ihreatening streaks were the two racing boats : the black
patch was about a hundred Cambridge and Oxford men,
ready to run and hallo with the boats all the way, or at
least till the last puff of wind should be run plus halloed
out of their young bodies. Others less fleet and enduring,
but equally clamorous, stood in'knots at various distances,
ripe for a shorter yell and run when the boats should come
up to them. Of the natives and country visitors, those,
who were not nailed down by bounteous Fate, ebbed and
flowed up and down the bank with no settled idea, but of
getting in the way as much as possible, and of getting
knocked into the Thames as little as might be.
There was a long uneasy suspense.
At last a puff of smoke issued from a pistol down at the
island ; two oars seemed to splash into the water from each
white streak; and the black patch was moving ; so were
the threatening streaks. Presently was heard a faint, con-
tinuous, dist tnt murmur, and the streaks began to get
larger, and larger, and larger; and the eight splashing oars
looked four instead of two.

Every head was now turned down the river. Groups
hung craning over it like nodding bulrushes.
Next the runners were swelled by the stragglers they
picked up ; so were their voices; and on came the splash-
ing oars and roaring lungs.
Now the colours of the racing Jerseys peeped distinct.
The oarsmen's heads and bodies came swinging back like
one, and the oars seemed to lash the water savagely, like
a connected row of swords, and the spray squirted at each
vicious stroke. The boats leaped and darted side by side,
and looking at them in front, Julia could not say which
was ahead. On they came nearer and nearer, with hun-
dreds of voices vociferating, "Go it Cambridge I" " Well
pulltd Oxford!" "You are gaining, hurrah I" "`yell
pulled Trinity ' " H urrah I" " Oxford I" " Cambridge !"
"Now is your time, Haidie; pick her up 1" " Oh, well
pulled Six 1" " Well pulled, Stroke 1" " Up, up lift her
a bit I" "Cambridge!" "Oxford 1" " Hurrah I"
At this Julia turned red and pale by turns. " Oh,
mamma I" said she, clasping her hands and colouring high,
"would it be very wrong if I was to pray for Oxford to
win ?"

Mrs Dodd had a monitory finger; it was on her left hand
—she raised it, and, that moment, as if she had given a
signal, the boats, foreshortened no longer, shot out to treble
the length they had looked hitherto, and came broadside
past our palpitating fair, the elastic rowers stretched like
greyhounds in a chase, darting forward at each stroke so
boldly they seemed flying out of the boats, and surging
back as superbly, an eightfold human wave : their nostrils
all open, the lips of some pale and glutinous; their white
teeth all clenched grimly, their young eyes all glowing,
their supple bodies swelling, the muscles writhing beneath
:heir Jerseys, and the sinews starting on each bare brown
arm ; their little shrill coxswains shouting imperiously at
the young giants, and working to and fro with them, like
jockeys at a finish; nine souls and bodies flung whole into
each magnificent effort; water foaming and flying, row-
locks ringing, crowd running, tumbling, and howling like
mad; and Cambridge a boat's nose ahead.

The scene, here, lives before us, so to speak—visibly,
audibly. And so in regard to other scenes and in-
cidents. Ex uno disce omnes. The fire at one of

the madhouses, for example—Drayton House to
wit. The attempted escape from another of them.
And—as with the lc calities, so also with the charac-
ters. We know them, one and all, intimately. We
Know them not only in their outward aspect and
apparel, bat through all the intricate webwork
of their oddities, whimsicalities, and eccentricities.
Charming, loveable, womanly, eminently maternal,
pre-eminently ladylike, Mrs. Dodds nee Lucy
Fountain l Her bewitching " one fair daughter"
Julia, the heroine of the book—and such a genuine
girl-heroine all through it! Edward, Julia's only
brother, Mrs. Dodd's only son, Captain Dodd's only
"heir" (for how long a time apparently "to
Nothing !")—Edward Dodd, c" Eton, of Oxford—a
IA at boating—as good a Fireman as his Grace of
Sutherland—as enthusiastic a believer in the '?Tzar
as even the Author of the "Great Metropolis"himself
could wish to know ! Then, again--the hero of the

tale, Alfred Hardie, of course loving and beloved by
Julia Dodd—the love of the two, also, of course,
running anything but smoothly, and yet, through
how many hair-breadth 'stapes and perillous ad-
ventures, and often seemingly quite disastrous vicis-
situdes, not coming to grief at the end of these long
chapters of accidents! The hoary headed villain
of the book, moreover, the godly banker of Barking-
ton, Alfred's oltrascal of a father, Richard Hardie,
that is! His incomparably pious daughter, Jane
Hardie, again, Alfred's sister—a bit of a bore, by the
way, if the honest truth must be told! And Noah
Skinner, the cashier at Hardie's bank,participator in
Hardie's fraud ! Mrs. Archbold, too, the matron of
the madhouse, she whose very sideling aspect has
about it so much of the voluptuous : ex gr. the sub-
joined incidental mention of her, in the drawing
room at Silverto❑ Grave :

Her back was turned to Alfred; but it was a beautiful
back, with great magnificent neck and shoulders, and a skin
like satin ; she was tall but rounded and syinmetrical, had
massive but long and shapely white arm, and perfect hand;
and masses of chick black hair sat on her grand white poll
like a raven on a marble pillar.

And last and certainly not least among the imagi-
nary people of the tale, one who is introduced to the
reader and to the heroine simultaneously, as Dr.
Sampson—
" And th' Author an' Invintor of th' great Chronothair-
mal Therey o' hlidicine, th' Unity Perriodicity an' Remit-
tency of all disease," put in the visitor, with such prodigious
swiftness of elocution, that the words went tumbling over
one another like railway carriages out on pleasure, and the
sentence was a pile of loud, indistinct syllables,

Hardly has which singular announcement been
uttered by the doctor himself when we read on—
Julia's lovely eyes dilated at this dishmaclavar, and she
bowed coldly. Dr. Sampson had revealed in this short in-
terview nearly all the characteristics of voice, speech, and
manner, she had been taught from infancy to shun : bois-
terous, gesticulatory, idiomatic ; and had taken the dis-
course out of her mamma's mouth, twice; now Albion
Villa was a Red Indian hut in one respect : hero nobody
interrupted.

Yet, the odd "good angel" of the story he turns
out to be,—this unconventional Dr. Sampson of
" Hard Cash"—with his fantastic little distich (so
characteristic of the man !)

Jinnyus, .Tinnyus;
Take care o' your cark'uss,
And his yet more characteristically eccentric pre-
scriptions : as, for example—

TOR MISS DODD.
4 Pit: Hy drarg : Chlor : Co:
eingul : nocte sumend :
Decoe : Aloes Co : 3 j

omni mane.

viii, Sept, J. S.

FOR MISS DODD.
Conf : Sennzo.
• Potass: Bitartrat.
Extr: Tarax: a a 33s
Misft : Elect : Cujus sum: 3j. omni mane.
xviii, Sept. J. S.

Id :, Anglice reddit : per me Carol: Arundin:
The same done into English by me C. R.
!OR MISS DODD.

1. 0 Jupiter aid us I I Plummer's pill to be taken every
night. 1 oz. compound decoction of Aloes every morning.
Sth Sept. J, S.

FOE MISS DODD.

2. 0 Jupiter aid us!! with Confection of Senna, Bitar-
trate of Potash, extract of Dandelion, of each half an ounce,
let an electuary be mixed ; of which let her take 1 drachui
every morning.

18th Sept. J. S.
The whole book itself, by the way, is choke-full of
eccentricities—and not merely the note-book and con.
versation of Dr. Sampson, the chronothairmalist !
Now, the very song of the seamen of the Agra lay-
ing in cargo—words and music together I Now
parallel columns of a double conversation (vide vol.
1., p. 163). Now another of those wondrously mat-
ter of fact little medical prescriptions :
J Die Mercur. circa, x. hor vespert
eat in nausea ad Aulam oppid :
1 Saltet cum xii canicul :
proa3ertim meo. Dom : reddita,
6 hors matutin : dormiat ad prand :
Repetat stultit : pro re nata.

The locality of the Agra, moreover, when first in-
troduced to us, is settled to a nicety, as if in the log-
book ! The very thumb mark of Noah Skinner
is revealed to us on that missing receipt
whereby hangs the whole tangled skein of this in-
tricately ravelled and dexterously unravelled thread
of the narrative ! Does any one want, as it were,
to feel the solid earth under his feet while travers-
ing the haunts of fairyland, let him, under the
guidance of Charles Reade, but once adven-
ture upon the perusal of "Hard Cash" and we
warranti him, he will be fairly in for it. En-
tering successively, but once each, Albion-
Villa, where live the Dodds, and Musgrove Cottage,
where dwell the Hardies the reader will not
care to break away from the glamour wielded
over his imagination by the Novelist, until he has
traversed every inch of the real, yet ideal, world
surrounding that at once starting post and goal
of the whole book—the country town of Barking-
ton.

RUMOUR OF A TRUCE,

(From the Owl.)

We are glad that our last announcement for the
season is one of peace.

We are in position to state that a suspension of
hostilities was yesterday agreed upon between the
German Allies and the Danish Government.

We trust that this truce may lead to a pacifica.

Lion so much needed in the interests of Europe,
and to the final disposal of the question which has
raised so many difficulties.

MARKETS--This Day,

MAIcK-LANE.

Fresh up to our market to-day, the arrivals of home-
grown wheat were very moderate, but most samples were
received in good condition. On the whole, the trade was
steady, and Monday's prices were supported.

The supply of foreign wheat on offer was moderately
large. In most descriptions, however, sales progressed
slowly, yet no material change took place in Monday's
quotations.

Floating cargoes of grain moved off steadily, at full
currencies.

Barley—the supply of which was seasonably large—sold
steadily, at quite previous rates.
Malt was in fair average request, and prices ruled firm,
Oats were in good supply, and the demand for them
ruled inactive, at the late decline in the currency.
Beans and peas were quite as dear as on Monday. The
show of samples on the stands was small,
The Sour trade, on the whole, was steady, at late rates.

ARRIVALS THIS 'WEEE.
Wheat. Barley. Malt. Oats. Flow.
English.— 600 1,070 J 3,770 460
Irish — I 1,70
Foraign 9,720 1 24,580 320 sks,
Do