Sporting notions of present days and past

i
242 SPORTING NOTIONS
must go—and the collar stayed. This was only
one indication of decadence in real fancy for boat-
ing, as that used to be understood, a craft whose
difficulties were not eased by the gradual exten-
sion of launches' proportions. With their growth,
navigation for small rowed or sculled craft has
become hampered, and rendered less safe or more
dangerous. And in regular arithmetical propor-
tion, as dimensions enlarged made apparently for
carrying larger passenger freights, so has form
fallen, noise-making increased, and the arrogance
of the big ship to the small. Can these matters
be remedied or toned down ? To get out of their
way the better-to-do have mostly left the lower
reaches, say, up as far as Maidenhead, and are
eschewing points elsewhere handy to tap by cheap
railway service.
Here is a sort of irregular random log of a
solitary voyage between the harbour of Molesey
Lock and the haven of the Bells of Ouzeley. It
was the second week in August, and I took a
constitutional scull up river to Old Windsor from
the Mitre at Hampton Court—the best inn on
the River Thames, bar none, from the extremest
hostelry on the estuary to the furthermost pub.
I have visited towards its source, which is at
Witney. That I enjoyed myself I freely confess,
also do I plead guilty to selfishness in being
suited by the solitariness of the excursion. The
weather was beautiful. I had a leading wind
for the most part, the river was not so low as
it has been, and not only was I all by myself in
the boat, which is a great advantage to at least
one contemplative man who wants to think a bit
ahead about his work, and at the same time
takes a deal of notice of surroundings, but there