Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-07-26
THE OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE BOAT
RAGE
49, "who delight to cleaye,


on this head, still when it is suddenly startled
INTO consciousness, some March morning, by
the appariton of 500 young fellows Tor "boys,"
as the majestic Whewell, feared of gods and
men, chooses to term them) dashing pellmell
in cabs or on foot across Waterloo Bridge, all
eager to back their opinion, its blood does then
Jingle little in unison with theirs. Even Pa
tertamilias chances from the top of the omni-
bus on his homeward route at the placard
whiah bedecks the windows of the sporting
papers, with zest akin to that which fires his
most respectable bosom on the eve of Derby
day yet he only mentions it, perhaps once,
over his port or mullins and then his emotions
about Alma Mater and boat-races in general
slumber peacefully for another year. And he
is no unfair reflex of the public mind on the
subject Of boat-racing On the contrary, any
man at college who does not confess to the
deepest interest not only in this great match,
or the little goes on the Cam or Isis, would be
almost summed as a leper. "Boats and their
departed heroes" form the staple of under
graduates conversation in Term-time; and
five pewters, embossed with the college arms,
on one undergraduates table, is no unusual
sight, in a great boating mans rooms. The
Captain goes round in Hall to see that his crew
are not breaking their training rules by eating
pastry and he not only knows their proper
training weight to an ounce, but is crafty in
devising non, de guerre, if an anxious mother
or guardian objects to her darling "using such
undue exertions," and scans the Lies printed
list of the rival crews a week before, to make
sure that he isn't among them. The whole
current of their being seems to set to boats,
and many a broken blood-vessel and hectic
cheek in after years has to be laid to
their credit. Even in those neat little
monastic cells, where the tea-kettle SINNERS
pleasantly on the hob, and the fire throws its
ruddy glare on the well-filled sh elves, on
| which Heredotus and the Ethics have not
given place to the Sporting Magazine the
spirit is all alive, and the future wrangler or
first class man will chat with friend over the
style in which Trinity bumped Jesus, and
Caius fouled Corpus, before he sports his oak
and sets to work for the night. And can we
wonder at this love, supported as it is at Cam
bridge by SO many glorious Mortlake tradi-
tons George Denman pulled twice if not
thrice in her honour on the Thames, and yet
he "came up on the outside" and defeated one
of DIR. Kennedy's best pupils for the head of
the classical Tripos; Penrose found but one
man better when he underwent that test, and
he, too pulled stroke in his day from Putney
to Mortlake; so did the brothers Croker, both
of them only seven or eight places from the
head Of the wranglers list. And when Bish-
OPP Selwyn was tin Cambridge, he mention
ed as one of his happiest gmpses of his cap
and gown days, that he took long rowing
excursion to different parts of his New Zeal
and diocese with three friends, all of whom
had feathered their oars with him on the Cam,
in the crew of the Lady Margaret of ST.
Johns.
A more beautiful day could not have been
selected for the struggle, and about noon we
found ourselves emerging from the Mortlake
station, amid throng of blue ties and blue
rosettes. They would have "cheered the
cookies" of the late Colonel Sibthorp's heart,
and made him fancy that an election of the
olden time, with good staunch party colours,
had been revived at last, in the teeth of the
fell monster Utilitariansm. The delusion
would not have been shaken off either, by a
glance at the Mortlake Tavern, which was
Respondent with blue flags, forming perfect
bower for the tavoured few who mounted its
topmost balcony. Ere long the air was vocal
with the discussions Of Alma Mater as they
breathed their doubts and their fears, and ex-
pressed them in the shape of crown and half
crown pieces The very fast ones among
them staggered past the dons who moved
solemnly up and down in double and treble
knots, without bowling or even pretending to
know them. Proetors and heads of houses,
and fellows, were in fact 'nowhere," and had
to elbow their way and take sight of the
river in the best way they could Carriages
and CABS were drawn I'M alAaSetas ttitfs, anu
MANY pair of gloves was won and lost
merely One or two young collegians
walked about with nice-ooking girls on
thelr arms, thinking, no doubt of the DAYS
"hen college examinations would fade into
space, and they would be deacons and deacon
esses IN some snug little parish. The lovers
wore no colors, but one who seemed to have
no such tender tie strobe along evidently with
mother and sister on each arm wearing on
their bonnets the ribbons of the University of
his atfectio is, which he sported in so eIoud'
a fashion round his neck and at his button
hole. An elderly Iphigenia on a cropped no.
ny with blue trontlet was there also, and
aruent Cnrlstchurch blades, on steeds of a
higher quality, drove them at a rail to while
away the time but failed to get them to face
It, AS If to give Church and State hint in
season, neighboring dead wall bore four huge
pmcards, Sdescrlblng "a cruel and iniquitous" act
on the part OF the church-wardens of Mortlake
VINO had seized an old mans couch for church
rates, and offered a 910 reward-it was diff
cult to see what for. A reverend divine. in a
deans hat and Mark of the Beast waistcoat.
seemed, however, on the point OF mastering the
difficulty, when two negro melodists assaulted
his ears with
"Jenny come up; Jenny go down;
| Jenny go up the middle:
Darkles strike the tamborine,
| The banjo, and the fiddle!
ana at the SOUND OF that delicious quartrain his
faculties seemed to leave him. and he turned
disguised away
On the river all was animation Fights
SKIES, and fours were gliding past each mo-
ment, with their crews i'll every colored Guern-
sey that the heart of Leeds can devise. One
tour-oar was steered by a naval officer in full
uniform, but "stroke" showed himself ouite
Independent, nevertheless, and kept pulling
his short Guilty pipe as he pulled and in an
other two-oar the lines were guided by fair
hands in gauntets, which claimed kindred
with one Of those riding-hats with which John
Leech invests all his seaside heroines Barpes
laden with wood and Goals lazily sailed up the
river, and five majestic swans followed in In
dian file. Then the winning-post boat with
the union jack flying, doomed in sight with an
other manned by the Thames police, and cast
its anchor; while wood barge, with keen
eye to business, went into position opposite it.
and invited the gentlemen to step up and stand
on Its Baltic logs, at "What you please, sir"
per head.
And there the crowd waited, craning their
necks to catch the first smoke of the coming
attendant steamers, and matchmaking uni.
| Verslty man, who borrowed gun, and would
shoot IN an adjacent oser-bed, thereby delud
ing them at each report into the belief that il
was the long looked for cannon AT last how
ever, the iron mouth of the latter doomed three
distinct times up the water. A gentle curl of
smoke, growing thicker and thicker, intermin-
gled with the hurried movements of men and
horses Jostling each other at every stride along
the towing path, became an acknowledged facf
and the distant war-cries, whose lack Of nten.
Slty seemed anything but symptomatic of n
close race, had already been echoed distinctly