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London: Longmans & Co.

E. Weller

HENLEY, PAST AND FUTURE.[24]

[24] From the Field, July 5, 1886.

The inauguration of a new era in the history of Henley Regatta naturally tends to make the mind wander into vistas of the past, perhaps even more than into speculations of the future. There are oarsmen living who can recollect when Henley Regatta did not even exist, and yet we are within an appreciable distance (three years) of the ‘jubilee’ of the gathering. There are sundry old Blues of the 1829 match still hale and hearty, and the regatta was not founded until ten years after that date. Apropos of that 1829 match, we have never seen it officially recorded that in the race Cambridge steered up the Bucks and Oxford in the Berks channel of the river, where the island divides it. Yet we have heard the Rev. T. Staniforth, the Oxford stroke, relate the fact. For some strange reason, the general opinion of habitués of the river prior to that match was that the Bucks channel gave the better course. The boughs of the island trees obstructed the Berks channel more than now, and this may explain the delusion. However, the Oxonians doubted the soundness of local opinion, and tested in practice the advantages of the two channels by timing themselves through each. They naturally found the inside course the shorter cut. In the race they adopted it, while Cambridge, so we hear, took the outside channel; and the previous lead of Oxford was more than trebled by the time that the boats came again into the main river.

Times and ideas of rowing have changed much since the first regatta at Henley opened and closed with contests for the Grand Challenge Cup, the only prize at its foundation. The ‘Town’ Cup seems to have been the next addition, under the name of the ‘District Challenge’ Cup, in 1840; but it does not figure again until 1842, and in 1843 takes the name of the Town Cup. There were first class fours ‘for medals’ in 1841, but the Stewards’ Cup was not founded till the following year. The ‘Diamonds’ appeared in 1844. ‘Pairs’ came into existence in 1845, styled ‘silver wherries,’ and the then winners, Arnold and Mann, of Caius, have ever been handed down by tradition as something much above the average. The prize became ‘silver goblets’ in 1850, and the first winners of them were Justice Sir Joseph Chitty and Dr. Hornby, provost of Eton. The Ladies’ Plate was called the ‘New’ Cup when it appeared in 1845. At that time it was open to the world, like the Grand. Clubs from the Thames won it on sundry occasions. In 1857 it was restricted to schools and colleges as now, copying the ‘Visitors’ Cup’ for fours, founded upon parallel principles in 1847. The Wyfold Cup dates from 1847, though it does not figure in the local official calendar of the regatta as a four-oar prize until 1856. In the latter year it became a four-oar prize, open to all, and the Argonauts won it and the ‘Stewards,’ with the same crew. Later on it obtained its present qualification. As to the forgotten functions of the ‘Wyfold’ between 1847 and 1856, we venture to record them. The cup originally was held by the winner of the trial heats for the Grand. If the best challenger won the Grand also, or if the ‘holders’ did not compete, then the same crew would take both Grand and Wyfold for the season; but the Grand holders were ineligible to row for the Wyfold. This latter anomaly in time induced the executive to obtain leave from the donor to alter the destination of the cup and to devote it to fours. Local races flourished in the forties and fifties. Besides the Town Cup, there were local sculls, sometimes for a ‘silver wherry,’ and sometimes for a presentation cup. Local pairs existed from 1858 to 1861 inclusive. The Thames Cup began life in 1868 as a sort of junior race, but later on obtained its present qualification. There was a presentation prize for fours without coxswains in 1869, but the Stewards’ Cup was not opened for fours of the modern style till 1873; and the Visitors’ and Wyfold were similarly emancipated a year later. The advent and disappearance of the Public Schools’ Cup need no comment.