Of those that go down to the River

The famous coach, writer and poet of light verse, Rudie Lehmann’s name stands out when it comes to rowing matters. In 1889, he and some fellow Cambridge students founded the magazine, The Granta, and Rudie took on the position as its first editor. Later, he joined the staff of Punch. However, he was not the only one writing light verse on rowing at Cambridge. In 1895, Owen Seaman (on the right) who had been admitted to Clare College, Cambridge, in 1880, published Horace at Cambridge, a small book with witty poetry, some dealing with rowing. All of the poems had earlier, in one form or the other, appeared in The Granta. In 1897, Seaman joined the staff of Punch, and between 1906 and 1932, he was the editor of the magazine. In “Of those that go down to the River”, Seaman gave the rowing freshmen a taste what they could expect if they were drawn to the river:

WHERE Boating Captains on their beat
Go shepherding the tortuous fleet
Of tubs along the river's reedy hollows,
I marked the Genius who addressed
A Freshman with a beefy chest;
The views of Camus were expressed
Somewhat as follows.

“It first behoves you to undo
Of all your buttons just the two
Topmost, and chance the weather being breezy;
Then, swinging stiffly from the hip,
Cause your prehensile heels to grip
The stretcher; at the signal, nip
Great Heavens! Easy!

Where were we? Yes. There is a rule
Whereby the oarsman, though a fool,
May guarantee the boat against inversion;
Observe your blade; the thing is bent
Obliquely to the element;
Square it at once, and so prevent
Needless immersion.

Again; deposit, if you please,
Your stomach well between your knees,
Aim broadly at the bottom of the vessel;
Swing early, often, long and late;
This is the doctrine up to date,
With which the most immaculate
Fresher must wrestle.

Reck nothing though the process pain
Your blistered hide and make you fain
To be a scaly merman with a sea-tail;
A time may yet arrive when you
Will be as hardened as a Blue,
And have a soul superior to
Matters of detail.

That future waits you far and dim,
And in the awful interim
You have to pass a pretty hot probation;
‘Much is to learn, much to forget,’
And now and then you'll feel regret,
And never, never, fail to sweat
With perspiration.

Full often, rowing like an ox,
On you the curses of your cox,
Falling like blasts of some Tyrrhenian trumpet,
Will rend the horror-stricken air
With language fit to curl the hair
That clusters nicely round the fair
Crest of your crumpet.

Then will you at your rigid thwart
Restrain the apposite retort
And like the parrot merely think profanely,
The while your heavy head you wag
Panting as pants the hunted stag,
And wear your ‘Pontius’ to a rag,
Sliding inanely.

Perchance you will mislay your oar,
When quickening to forty-four,
And learn a little jargon from your skipper;
Or get an unexpected spank
Straight in the centre of your flank
From some inordinately rank
Holiday-tripper.

Those coaches you shall come to know,
That trot with caution to and fro
And wish their knowledge of the chase were larger;
Your valour shall divert the way
Of Nestor-Jones’s* blinkered grey,
And draw a compliment from J.
B. ** on his charger.

Eventually you will land
Triumphant after trials, and
Talk frankly like a father from the saddle
You have the makings of a tar,
And should, with fortune, travel far;
Meanwhile you might get forward. Are
You ready? Paddle!”

‘Nestor-Jones’ (*) was of course Henry Trevor-Jones, described by Seaman in a footnote as the ‘popular and perpetual coach of Trinity Hall’. In a second footnote Seaman wrote that ‘J.B.’ (**) was ‘J. B. Close, President of the C.U.B.C., 1894-5’ which demands an explanation. James B. Close rowed in three winning Cambridge crews in 1872, 1873 and 1874. The latter year, he was president of Cambridge University BC. For the 1895 Light Blue crew, Close was elected president again because he lived in Cambridge, but he did not row that year. With a non-rowing president, the cox Francis Begg undertook the captaincy of the crew. James B. Close’s one-year-older brother, John B. Close, also rowed for Cambridge, earning his Blue in 1871 and 1872. A third brother, William B. Close, earned his Blue in 1875, 1876 and 1877. In a second edition of Horace at Cambridge, which was published in 1902, the stanza in which Trevor-Jones and Close was mentioned was removed.

Cambridge Trial Eights 1896: Comparing Jackets and Socks

Sixteen oarsmen and two coxes proudly wearing their 'Trial Caps' for the Cambridge Trial Eights Race on 5 December, 1896. Back row, left to right: (unidentified), C. R. Pattison-Muir (Caius), S. V. Pearson (Emmanuel), Sultan (the horse), D. E. Campbell-Muir (Trinity Hall), Henry Trevor-Jones (coach; on the horse), (unidentified), J. E. Payne (Peterhouse), H. E. Oakeley (Jesus) and G. A. Crane (First Trinity). Front row, left to right: G. T. Bullard (Trinity Hall), B. H. Howell (Trinity Hall), C. M. Steele (Trinity Hall), (unidentified: 'old oar'?), A. S Bell (old oar, Trinity Hall), W J. Fernie (old oar, Trinity Hall), C. D. J. Goldie (Third Trinity), (unidentified), R. B. Etherington-Smith (First Trinity) and H. G. Brown (First Trinity). Sitting in the very front, left to right: W. H. G. Woodroffe (Emmanuel), P. Cave-Moyles (Caius) and F. E. Foster (Trinity Hall). (Photography courtesy NRF)
 
On 13 November, I wrote about the 1897 Oxford crew - 'The Finest Crew that ever Rowed'. I then mentioned that I am doing research for a booklet about Benjamin Hunting Howell, the American who rowed at Trinity Hall and in the 1897 Light Blue crew. I thought it might interest you HTBS readers to see a unique photograph from December 1896 showing Cambridge's two 'Trial Eights'. The oarsmen and two coxes are wearing their 'Trial Caps', the cap that indicates that they were selected for a seat in one of the two crews who are going to race on the Boat Race course between Putney and Mortlake. To help them with their practice are some 'old oars' who have rowed in the Boat Race before.

The first time I saw this photograph, I only recognised a few of the persons in the picture: Hunting Howell, Henry Trevor-Jones (and his horse, Sultan, which was said to be as old as his owner; Trevor-Jones was 42 years old when this photo was taken), Arthur Bell, William Fernie and Raymond Etherington-Smith. How was I to find out the names of the other oarsmen and coxes? Well, I was lucky to find an old issue of The Cambridge Review from 26 November on the web. The unsigned article gives us the names of the two eights. The first boat had the following crew: bow H. E. Oakeley (Jesus), 2 J. E. Payne (Peterhouse), 3 P. Cave-Moyles (Caius), 4 H. G. Brown (First Trinity), 5 S. J. Selwyn (Third Trinity), 6 G. A. Crane (First Trinity), 7 S. V. Pearson (Emmanuel), stroke C. M. Steele (Trinity Hall) and cox W. H. G. Woodroffe (Emmanuel). In the second boat rowed: Bow D. E. Campbell-Muir (Trinity Hall), 2 J. Sutherland (Jesus), 3 R. B. Etherington-Smith (First Trinity), 4 P. L. May (L.M.B.C.), 5 B. H. Howell (Trinity Hall), 6 C. R. Pattison-Muir (Caius), 7 G. T. Bullard (Trinity Hall), stroke C. D. J. Goldie (Third Trinity) and cox F. E. Foster (Trinity Hall). The second boat won the Trials.

Having all the names does not necessarily mean that I know who is who. So, I looked in books about the Boat Race for photographs of crews around the year 1897. I looked in some of the colleges' boat clubs' books. I compared club jackets, scarves, socks, caps (in the picture above A. S. Bell is wearing his Trinity Hall cap; he got his 'Trial Cap' in 1895, then also going on to row in 1896, 1897 and 1898 - losing all four races). It took me a week to connect the faces with the names, and I am still missing three names of the 'Trial Caps' and one old oar (sitting between Steele and Bell). And I have to confess that I might have messed up a couple of them - you see, I do not know how scientific it is to nail down names for people who are wearing a special kind of striped socks...

It is also interesting to see who is not in the photograph. One oarsman, who had not rowed for Cambridge before, did not have to row in the 'Trials' to get a seat in the 1897 Light Blue boat: William Dudley-Ward. His reputation as a 'good oar' at Eton had preceded him when he came to Cambridge in 1896. At this time, Cambridge was eager to get 'wet bobs' from Eton. In Sport and the British: A Modern History (1989; 1992), Richard Holt writes: 'The long domination of the dark over the light blues in the Boat Race of the 1890s was put down to the fact that more Etonians went to Oxford than to Cambridge.' This is true, but looking back in the record books, Cambridge had had one or two Etonians in every crew since their last victory, in 1889. Besides Dudley-Ward, Bell had also rowed at Eton.

Below is a photograph of whom eventually made up the 1897 Light Blue crew. Only two of the oarsmen who went through the Trials got their Blue: Howell and Campbell-Muir.

Here is a photograph of the Light Blue crew who would eventually row against the Dark Blues on 3 April, 1897. Back row, left to right: B. H. Howell (4 Trinity Hall), E. J. D. Taylor (3 Caius; dark jacket), W. J. Fernie (stroke Trinity Hall; sitting) and D. E. Campbell-Muir (bow Trinity Hall). Front row, left to right: W. A. Bieber (5 Trinity Hall), A. S. Bell (2 Trinity Hall),  E. C. Hawkins (cox; Caius), W. Dudley Ward (7 Third Trinity) and D. Pennington (6 Caius).

Anyone who has more information about who is who in the photo on top, or corrections are very welcome to contact me!