The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-29 00:00:00

VIE SUN, LONDON, TifURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 29, 1866.

gatherings will have never been equalled.. The honorary
secretary respectfully asks for an early attendance on
Good Friday. ' A hat 1 a hat !* will be shouted at four
o'clock precisely.
(Signed) " JOHN D Y rat, President.

"Mr. JAMES TRUSCOTT, Manager.
"By order of the Committee—G. WILLEY, Hon. Sec.
From the above it would appear that, should the
weather prove favourable, it will be a fine gathering
at Hackney Wick.

ATHLETIC;.

...-- --

:WINCHESTER COLLEGE ATHLETIC SPORTS.
These sports came off in the College Meads on
Thursday, the 22d, and as.the day turned out much
finer,than could have been expected from those that
preceded it, a great many people froth the neigh-
bourhood were present on the ground. It was,
however, extremely heavy going on account of the
previous rain, so that the time in some of the races
was not quite up to that of other years. The band
of the Rifle Brigade, which attended by the kind
permission of Colonel Macdonald, played some good
selections at intervals during the afternoon. We
may especially mention the throwing of the cricket
ball of Mr. S. H. Gatty, who won with 101+ yards,
the throwing of the hammer of Mr. Shelton (66ft.
6in.), and the wide jump of Mr. S. H. Gatty, who
cleared 18ft. 2in., and thus won easily in spite of
his being handicapped. In the 100-yards race, Mr.
S. K. Douglas, who was also handicapped, came in
second, being beaten by a yard by Mr. L. S. Howell,
who completed the distance in 10i seconds. The
vaulting was won easily by Mr. Crawley Bowey,
who cleared 6ft. 9iin. in very good " form." The
300 yards race resulted in a dead heat between
Messrs. S. K. Douglas and L. S. Howell, both of
whom ran extremely well. The Junior Hurdle-race,
for all under five feet, was won by Mr. L. A. Der-
ing in better time than in other years, although the
ground was very slippery. On Saturday the mile
race was run off along the Twyford-road, and was
won by Mr. S. K. Douglas in 4 min. 50 sec. Mr.
E. C. Baker came in second, Mr. G. H. Fort third,
Mr. F. G. D. Drewitt fourth, and Mr. F. Haygarth
fifth, all of whom ran very well.

One of the most remarkable features of the pre
sent day is the change in habit of the upper and
middle classes of society, in so far as regards their
following of manly sports and exercises. Formerly
the diversions of the school were but feebly trans-
mitted to the university, to the public office, or to
the barrack yard, and they became altogether obli-
terated when the bar and church were reached, when
junior clerks left their stool for a senior room, and
ensigns got their step. Then flourished the white
swathe of George IV., or the satin avalanche with
which the fashionables of his successor's reign were
wont to perambulate the shady side of Bond-street,
when Melton was over, and shooting was forbidden
by Act of Parliament. Then young aspirants to
like eminence at Oxford " did the High," or at
Cambridge swelled in Trumpington-street and
King's-parade, gorgeous in pins, with magnificent
cane-heads, slightly abraded by the inevitable suck.
Then the youth of lower degree sought solace in dog
fights and bagatelle, while all alike cultivated idle-
ness and listlessness as gentlemanly duties, and
scorned the wholesome weariness generated by a
hard day's work, quite as much as an average
Frenchman does to this day.
We, happily, have changed all this. Year by year
the movement gained strength among those who
had most influence at the Universities and those
that hail from them. The Oxford and Cambridge
boat race started between 30 and 40 years ago; the
forerunner of days to come, when serious moralists
begin to think muscular Christianity has gone
a little too far, and when running and
jumping have culminated, as on Friday, at
Beaufort House. And thus have the ancient
games been ROW revived nearly in their integrity :
not merely the rowing contest, as to which we have
had quotations infinite from that recorded in the
Eneid, brings as many and as anxious spectators
as ever ".Imto complerant littora cmtu," but " si
cui virtus animusque in pectore prmsit," in any walk
of athletics or skill he can find his place recognised,
and his prowess rewarded at any of the numberless
gatherings with which we weekly fill our columns.
Oxford meets Cambridge at rackets. Football is
added to the list of contests in which grown men
may participate without losing dignity ; and croquet
has found such favour with the fair that we doubt
not in due time, when crinoline shall have been
forgotten, and the limbs of woman restored to un-
controlled freedom from its iron folds, that an
" Atalanta Cup" will find a'place in the programme
of WalhamGreen.
All these illustrations of the change which has
come over us are interesting to those who would
fain see our character as masculine, and' our ener-
gies as vigorous, as modern civilisation will permit.
And the meetings also promote mutual communica-
tion and knowledge of each other among institu-
tions differing in tone and feeling, so widely as
some of them do, a difference, too, which is apt to
mark with asperity the first advances towards the
free communion ultimately attained. Oxford and
Cambridge have had their passages of arms ; Eton
and Westminster, too, have drawn mimic sword
about the terms of their annual race, of which the
glories are now, alas! past ; and the Football Asso-
ciation passed through many fierce phases of extst-
ence, when it was just as well, perhaps, that the
contending parties did not meet in the field, or we
fear the rule against hacking would have been
equally violated by its supporters and enemies.
And this leads us to notice, by the way, a some-
what stormy communication which has passed be-
tween the schools of Shrewsbury and Westminster.
Of the tone of eithor side we cannot profess to be
admirers. It is true that, in ordinary parlance,
Westminster is called a public school in a sense dif-
ferent to that in which Shrewesbnry is, with equal
justice, so called. The term is variable in applica-
tion. There are times when one would speak of
Eton, Harrow, and Winchester as alone being so,
now that Westminster has somewhat fallen from its
high estate. There are others when one would ex-
tend the list by including Charterhouse ; and it is
certainly only of late, and that during the very
period of Westminster ' decadence, that Rugby
would have been included. That Rugby has be-

come amply entitled to the name all must admit,
except some very staid old sticklers for ancient
usage ; and that Rugby, with its high position, is
willing to play Marlborough at Cricket, is a fact
which the Westminster captain might have done
well to remember. At any rate, the " Committee
of the Public Schools Club" do not constitute a tri-
bunal to which the others can be fairly expected to
bow ; and certainly one does not exactly see why
the somewhat singular statement that the general
feeling of the school " coincides with that of" the
aforesaid ibody should have been made except to
wound. On the other hand, the phrases used in the
retort are certainly unparliamentary, and while we
love to see a fellow stick up for his school, we have
grave doubts as to the propriety or expediency of
calling names. For the future, let Camden and the
School Club Committee be alike let out of the ques-
tion, and let the two, if they can't agree to kick,
at any rate row one another on the silver Severn,
and give a prestige to the vaunted course of Tewkes-
bury. Nobody, not even the most enthusiastic de-
nouncer of Erin's wrongs, nor the most earnest
advocate of the top corner for Scotland's lion, has
ever complained of the ordinary phrase, " The
Universities," meaning those who yearly struggle
for aquatic supremacy ; and if they do not, surely
" Sabrina fair" may rearrange her tresses, and make
coy advances to some less reluctant suitor, to meet
her on the " translucent wave."—Sporting Gazette.

SALMON FrsHlNG.—Since the commencement of
the season no such successful take as that of Thursday
evening, 15th inst., was had at Limerick. All the boats
out did well, and in one instance a party with a short net
captured 47 salmon, one of them weighing nearly 451bs—
the price at present is ls. 7d. per lb.
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