Record of the University Boat-race, 1829-1880. Compiled by G. G.
T. Treherne and J. H. D. Goldie. (Bickers and Son.)—In 1881 a great boating festival was held, at which some two hundred "Old Blues "—i.e., oarsmen and coxswains who have taken part in the University contests—attended. The total number on the list was, at that time, 485. Oat of these, 014 survived. These statistics suggest the fact that rowing does not seem to shorten life. "Old Blues," indeed, appear to realise more than the average "expectations- of life." To be a coxswain, indeed, seems to conduce strongly to longevity ; only four out of forty-eight of these gentlemen are marked as "deceased." The earliest race represented at the festival was that rowed at Henley in 1829. Of that contest, Bishop Wordsworth, of St. Andrew's (who was represented by his jersey, as the Queen is sometimes by her robes), was the hero. Besides achieving numerous academical honours, he played in the University eleven ; and we are told that he never lost a race or a match. The crews contained not a few other men who were to achieve distinction. Oxford was steered by a future dean (Fremantle), and a future bishop (Selwyn, of Lichfield), and a dean (Merivale) rowed for Cambridge. Distinctions have not been wanting to these great oarsmen. At Oxford they have achieved an average, and at Cambridge more than an average of honours. And in after-life they seem to have done well. Some, as Lord Justice Brett and Justices Chitty and Denman, have risen to high place, and very few, much fewer than an average proportion of University men, are "missing." Any one who wishes to see what sort of character this "bodily exercise" (which is of a kind that does "profit" some- thing) helps to develop in a fine and kindly nature, should read the account (pp. 119-120) of the late W. R. B. Jacobson. He died in.his
prime, unknown to the world ("Opera in medio defixa reliquit aratra," as the epitaph, chosen by himself, puts it), but the East End, in whose service he spent himself, loved him. This volume is not a mere record of athletic feats. It gives, indeed, every detail of the 'contests which it commemorates, and it suggests a good deal more.
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