Sporting notions of present days and past

202 SPORTING NOTIONS
perhaps, One stroke in every thirty. In weird
spasmodic jerks He does his clumsy toiling, As
though his rusty works Most sadly wanted
oiling."
Young gentlemen and elders of superior
elevation kindly cast your eye carefully on this
" follow " : "Yet some of you who smile With
pitiful sereneness Upon his dreadful style Might
imitate his keenness. He does the best he can
To serve his club and college; I've known a first
boat man Do less for all his knowledge." There
is clever research behind " Grandfather N ilus's
Notes on the Early History of Rowing," and
studiously collected historical matter in " On the
Tideway," a chapter which leaves off just when
it begins to be most interesting to those who
agree with Mr Forster, as I do in this : " There
is a fascination about the tideway, too—a zest
which smoother and more sluggish courses can-
not excite, a charm which is more subtle than
the attraction of more picturesque reaches.
There is a pleasure to be got from rowing on it
which is not to be got elsewhere." True for
you, Mr F., as a novice ought to find out the
first time he comes over the rollers at Teddington
from the stream water, catches the ebb, and finds
his ship, whatever it may be, change from a dead
to a live thing.
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