Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-07-25
A REGATTA ON THE THAMES.

AREGATTA ON THE THAMES
ga boat race for amusement or for n
prize" is Brands definition of ihe Anglo.
Italian word regatta" DR.. Ogilyie,
more explicit than the popular antiquary
and historian of sports and pastimes,
interprets the original meaning OF the
term as gondola race iu Venice; and
adds that it is now applied to "any impor-
tant or snowy sailing Or rowing race in
which number of yachts or boats con.
tend for prizes" The air yesterday on
the grassy banks and on the silver stream
breathed wooingly. If the sun was
hidden now and again by lleeting clouds,
the brightness lost nothing of its charm
for being, like beauty itself. lightly yelled
1t was in fact a perfect day for such an
occasion. The sky was not Italian, which
was fortunate, because an Italian skv
might not have precisely harmopized
with II scene so thoroughly English.
Seldom, if eyer, were SO many crafts seen
on the course as were thickly dotted over
its rippled surface yesterday. There is at
the present time fanciful variation in the
build of pleasure boats; but no outlandish
rigs. no copied character of hull, ranging
from the gondola of tradition and romance
to the canoe of picturesque Canadian
custom, could destroy the essentially
English aspect of The Thames. Curious,
indeed. is it to think that some kind OF
human settlement existed here, by local
habtation as by name, when the wild
indigenous cattle and red deer roamed
around, and the river teemed with salmon
and other fish now, but moderately to be
captured in its waters, if at all. The
salmon, yesterday, presenting itself in the
agreeable form of mayonaise, was an
alien to tho gentle stream, near which i,
was devoured with the crisp lettuce and
the creamy mixture of olive oil. yolk Of
egg, and the vinegar of Orleans or Dor.
daux. Hints of primeval life, in savage
days of hunting and fowling, and of the
celebrated sauce called hungar, were few
in that panoramic view of motley sophis
tication yesterday. Still they were there
Lettering or prowling outside the rroup OF
well-dressed merry makers were s,rao.
glers from the wild tribes of prccarious
vagabondage that follow sport and pleas
ure whithersoever they may 90. Free and
untrammelled, the jolly mountebank out
laws OF modern civilization made coutinu-
al mock of the conventionalities in which
they boldly mixed. There was cookie
she'll OF boat with some sort of Jury
mast flying two halves of a calico union
jack, and dressed with odd scraps of chintz
or other stuff on lines running all manner
of ways. Manned and Differed was this
vessel by solitary being with blackered
face and banjo, who sat so low and
heavy in the stern as to lift the stem clean
out of the water. He had moored himself,
unlimited. to one of the house boats. and
was making himself quite at home. His
bark, named the Washer, leaked some-
what; and, with tankard or loving cup
of ipewter or commoner and cheaper
metal, he cody and gravely baled out his
hull, pouring every pint or quart of bilge
into another boat next him, when the
occupants were not looking.
The Hungarian band, secured month
in advance, played their liveliest and most
enhancing melodies, with now and then