27 MARCH 1926, Page 34

NEWS OF THE .COMPETITION The Editor has offered a prize

of £5 for a quotation applicable to the University Boat Race. The award will be announced in next week's SPECTATOR.

WE are not quite sure whether " Discretion," in her quotation from William Cowper- . " Earth shakes beneath theni, Heaven roars *above, But nothing scares them from the course they love" ---was venturing on a peculiarly dismal weather prophecy, or had in mind the many-throated crowd ; at least she succeeds in setting a most grandiose scene for the race. Some quota- tions, on the other hand, have been almost too literally appo- site. The passage from Gibbori. that " Charon " chooses might really have come from a newspaper report, if such mas- siveness of style survived in newspapers :—

" The impatient crowd rushed at (lawn of day to secure their places.. . . '. Careless of the sun or of the rain the spectators re- mained in eager expectation, their minds agitated with hope and fear for the success of the colours which they espoused."

Probably some slyness of double reference is needed to make an ideal quotation. The entry of Mr. C. R. Haines certainly has slyness :—

" Strive mightily, but eat and, drink .(together) as friends." -TAMING OF THE SHREW I, 2,

But it can hardly be called fair to point the application by an inserted word.

There is enough in Mr. Reginald B. Sayer's quotation from Plutarch's Moralia to put his entry high in the list "They do like watermen, who look astern while they row the, boat ahead, still so managing the strokes of the oar that the vessel may., make on to its port. So these men '. . . . row hard' after' glory, but with their face another way."

• " Luscus " made a clever versification of a well-remembered absurdity ; but his poem is by no means a quotation :— " He eyed the goal, but nothing spoke ; 'Then, when their hopes of victory faded, Drove his men home, strong, silent Stroke, By rowing twice as fast as they did."

It seems, for the most part, that events make the truth of Mrs; Heygate's motto in this connexion rather hard to sustain :— • " It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing." Statisticians have made clear that, however unwelcome the thought may be, the weight of the crews is not without influence On the result of the race. Mr. Thomas Carr sends in an entry, from Emerson's Representative Men :— - " The heroes of the hour are relatively great : of a faster growth ;': or they are such in whom, at the moment of success, a quality is ripe' Which is then in request. Other days will demand other qualities.'

As the Spectator offices will be shut on Saturday afternoon and Sunday, we will count as eligible all entries which reach us by the first post on Monday.

NOTE.

- Competitors may send in as many entries as they, wish, but each entry must be accompanied by one of the coupons to bt>1651-id -on page- 618 of this issue: - - - - • – -