The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-04-23
From QUE LONDON cORRESPONDEYT

LONDON April ;, 1858
Ifany of the ''institutions" of England are wor-
thy of imitation in America it is their sports and
pasimes. ! do not mean ALL but some of them
True, you cannot transfer English climate English
scenery, English ideas, and English history to the
United States; and as to the English government
the Americans do not want that But there are
certain habits, exercises, and practices that are CON
ducive to health, checrlulncss, longevity, social
comfort and enjoyment of life which are beneficial
in all countries and all situations. There is an Gle
ment of brutality in the doings of the Clancy that
cannot be too strongly deprecated: but even these
have their excuses, if not their apology, in the
inability OF some minds to appreciate anything
higher
But you take English hunting, yachting, rowing
swimming, skating cricket ana the Scottish oamrs
of curling and golf and they all have the essential
elements of good exercise, field for the intellect
and due appreciation by both sexes. Females do
not always join in them, though in many they do,
and in others they are delighted spectators. have
ridden after pack of foy-hounds where some of
the most daring and active participants ladies'
and greatly did they enjoy it, They would not
not only put their coursers to their mettle through
brake and brier, but they would leap hedge and
ditch, and some of them cleared fvc-barred gates
that tyro like me did not dare attempt. Such
women become the mothers of men. Last year the
Earl of HARDWOOD if recollect rightly, was killed
by being thrown from his horse while bunting
King William Rufus shot with an arrow, during
the pursuit of stag and many fatal accidents are
recorded in the chase; but what Of that? People
are killed on railroads and drowned at sea, but no
one proposes to have act passed to tear up the
iron rails or abolish navigation.
have attended an aquatic contest, n boat race
between students of Oxford and Cambridge Univer-
sites, and should ike to see the eight Americans
whether stalwart watcrmcn studiOus Youths from
Universities, that could compete with these. Their
training and muscle may be Judged by the fact that
each crew in their practice before the rowed
by the side of eight picked crews Of watermen who
spend their lives on the river, and these could
"hold a candle to them. The race came off in the
Thames above London, from Putney to NOrtlake,
and the day being fine there immense
course Of people. Fifteen thousand people at least
attended, and for quite half of that number-thOse
that accompanied the rowcrs, either by land or wa
ter from the start to the cose-the expense was
| rather more than for Il ticket to menagerie. The
steamers charged five shillings (Sl.25.l and there
were many hundreds on horseback. The Cantalis
in their very small river, the Cam (whcre that fa-
nous "bridge" built,) and the Oxonians,
(wherc the oxen used to ford the Isis had not the
most extensive aquatic fields at the seats of their
Universities, but they always practice largely.
| have never seen-nOt even in gingerbread gim-
crack steam palaces the North river-such gor-
geous boats as those owned by the different colleges
! at Oxford.
| The boats used in this race were built specially
for the occasion, at Newcastle, and the other at
Searle's yard (opposite Putney), where the race
started. The boats were about siXty-fve feet long;
/
! perhaps morc-of each end they were covered
over, the top just level of the water, leaving
merely room for the eight rowers and the steers
man. The oars rested on out-riggers the oar being
coniGed at the fulcrum between two pins, or
'tholes," fastened at top by a cord. All this for
your unprofessiona readers. They out of the
boat house little before p. NJ, dressed in white,
with straw hats and blue ribbons; the Oxford hay
ing dark blue and the Cambridge light The oar
blades also of these cOlOrs. The oars went in
and out of the water with majestic sweep, men
and all looking like piece Of machinery. You
must understand these were the picked men of the
! two Universities, each separate college having
boat club of its own, (sixtcen seventeen colleges
! in each University and the best men are selected
! from the best clubs. Last year Oxford won, and
| the year before Cambridge. This is 4 mere friendly
contest, betting prizes, betting among
individuals. The contest decides sort of aquatic
championship for the year between the two Univcr-
sites, the same with a dlcrcnce) Tom Savers
and the Upton Slasher batter one anothers counte
nances for hour, to decide the championship of
England in the "manly art" of brusing.
The steamers all waiting in snorting expectancy,
and the dense crowd on shore cheering, the signal
is given and they start. Almost at the first stroke
Oxford is put back by an irreparable accident The
head rover the 'stroke, he technically termed
snaps the cord that holds the thoes together, and
bends one of the tholes forward inch out of the
perpendicular. Another Oxford rover missed the
water, lost his stroke, and dropped his oar. Re
covered in less time than it takes to write 1T,
and Cambridge got her toulcd against barge.
Inc nature Ol Ine oAlOfu aCclucnJ WAS uhhioNh W
! the spectators who noticed as the boats shot past
the steamers that Cambridge was a little ahead.
could see that the Oxford men had their faces some
what flushed and excited. Not one OF either crew
looked to the right left, or once smiled or spoke
but all laid themselves down to the work in real
earnest The boats went like enormous arrows half
hidden in the water. As soon the rowers were
fairly ahead, the steamers started, but under posi-
tive inunctions not to go near as to impede the
contestants either by agitating the water, or get
| ting in their way.
These injunctons were quite useless for not one
steamer could keep up with them But such an
! excitement you never saw. There were sixteen
| steamers, and as the Thames not wide enough
to receive them all side by side sometimes five or
six would come abreast, with paddle-boxes touching
''Hoid hard" "look out" and other cautionary
eaculatons were sung out from time to time, but
little attention paid to anything but the race;
And race it appeared to be between sixteen sherh
steamers pursuing two boat loads of c9lprltS or
convict watermen rowing in blouses. The shore,
on the South was fanked by two OF three hundred
horsemen, and several score of female equestrans;
the latter with their long vcils their skirts, and
their horses tails streaming behind them in the