Mauvais Quart d'Heure ?
" Today it takes," the Dean of Worcester College had said in an unguarded moment, " three men to do what one man used to do-"; and he cited as an example of something beyond the capacity of modem youth the feat performed by Henry Kingsley (Charles's younger brother), who was up at Worcester a century ago. This consisted of running a mile, riding a mile and rowing a mile, all within the space of fifteen minutes. The challenge had been taken up by one of the undergraduates present, Mr. Peregrine Pollen; and last week I found myself on the banks of the Isis in Port Meadow charged with the duty of seeing fair play in this pleasantly Osbaldestonian endurance test. Under a grey sky peopled intermittently by peewits, two small knots of people assembled at the start and the finish. Mr. Pollen's plan was to scull down, run' back, and finish the course on horse- back. Half way down the course I put up a snipe; this I took to be a good omen for the challenger, who under the terms of a side-bet with his father stood, if he was successful, to win his expenses on a wild-fowling expedition to the Outer Hebrides.
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