SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



are interested in tracing back their modern 

 institutions to their origins in the dawn of English 

 history, assert in their school song that in the 

 days of Aldhune 



. . . down below where waters flow, 

 They learnt in coracles to row, 

 While Fxho flung from crag and scar 

 Their ' Floreat Dunelmia.' 



This may be so ; but, leaving untouched the 

 possibilities of early centuries, we find that 

 Durham Regatta was first held in 1834, some 

 years earlier than Henley, and we may conjecture 

 that rowing had flourished at Durham for some 

 time before the first regatta. 



Durham Regatta was established by Mr.William 

 Lloyd Wharton, the squire of Dryburn ; and the 

 name is still preserved by the Wharton Cup, 

 presented in 1877 ^Y *^^ Right Honourable 

 John Lloyd Wharton, to be competed for by 

 crews from the various clubs in the city of 

 Durham. 



One of the most popular features of the early 

 regattas was the procession of boats with which 

 the regatta concluded. There is a sketch by 

 * Cuthbert Bede,' the author of Verdant Green,^ 

 of such a procession in the year 1848. This 

 procession of boats continued to be one of 

 the attractions of the day till comparatively 

 modern times, and was only discontinued when 

 the programme of races became longer, and boats 

 became more frail and more liable to receive 

 damage in a crowd. 



The details of the early races do not seem to 

 have been recorded, but in 1886 the Reverend 

 Robert Beaumont Tower, M.A., presented to 

 the Museum of Durham University a silver medal 

 which he won for sculling at the regatta in the 

 year 1835. There is also in existence the oar 

 with which a member of one of the crews of 

 these early days used to row. It is a wonderful 

 implement, the work of a local carpenter, and 

 one feels that the Virgilian nunc, nunc imurgite 

 remis must have been very applicable to the stout- 

 hearted men who with such oars and in such 

 boats — for one can deduce the boats from the 

 oars — had to race from 'Ash Tree' to 'Counts 

 Corner.' 



It is on record that, in 1838, there were on 

 the river two University four-oar wherries named 

 the St. George and the St. Cuthbert, and a four-oared 

 wherry from the school named the yirgo. The 

 stroke of this latter crew was J. R. Davison, 

 afterwards member for Durham City, Judge 

 Advocate-General, and a Privy Councillor. 



The course, not quite a mile and a quarter in 

 length, between 'Ash Tree' and 'Counts Corner' 

 is as well known in the north of England as the 

 Thames between Temple Island and Henley 



' Although FerJant Green is a story of Oxford life, 

 the author was an undergraduate of Durham Univer- 

 sity. 



Bridge is known in the south. Well known as 

 this reach is, and many as are the gallant races 

 which it has seen, it cannot be described as an 

 ideal course for racing. The river at Durham 

 is tortuous and, except when swollen by floods, 

 shallow and sluggish. Between the starting 

 point and the finish there are two long corners, 

 and about half way over the course the river is 

 spanned and well-nigh barred by Elvet Bridge. 

 The quaint narrow arches of this beautiful and 

 historic structure barely leave room for the oars 

 of a racing boat. It is a spot which tests a 

 coxwain's skill and nerve, and at Elvet Bridge 

 some crews meet with disasters which are fatal 

 to their chances, but accidents are not as common 

 as one might anticipate. To equalize the corners 

 the course is always buoyed out for races. Thus 

 the crew which gets the advantage of the inside 

 turn early in the race is driven far out at the 

 second corner, which bends round to the finish. 

 The result is that it is not uncommon to see a 

 lead of two or three lengths over the earlier part 

 of the course wrested from a crew in the last two 

 minutes of the race. Those, therefore, who are 

 taught their rowing at Durham learn, from the 

 conditions under which their races are rowed, 

 that a race is never lost till it is won, and that it 

 is never won till the winning-post is passed. 

 They learn to row races out to the bitter end ; 

 and Durham Regatta encourages the kind of 

 'stroke' who is good at leading a forlorn hope 

 and at snatching a race out of the fire. 



As eight-oared rowing has never been seriously 

 cultivated either on the Wear or the Tyne we find 

 that the principal race at Durham Regatta is the 

 Grand Challenge Cup for Fours, instituted in 

 1854, and that date may be taken to mark an 

 epoch in the history of the regatta. Up to that 

 time the programme of amateur races had not 

 attracted much outside competition, the interest 

 in them being probably subordinate to that 

 aroused by professional races. The institution 

 of the Grand Challenge Cup opened the principal 

 amateur race to all comers, and from this time 

 onwards the regatta tended to become an event of 

 attraction to first-class crews from all rivers. 



The Grand Challenge Cup did not, however, 

 at first draw entries from an extended area. 

 Between the years 1854 and 1862 University 

 College, Durham, won the Challenge Cup seven 

 times ; but the opposing crews, were, as a rule 

 drawn from Hatfield Hall and Durham School. 

 In 1857, however, a crew appears from the Lady 

 Margaret Club (St. John's College, Cambridge), 

 and carries the Challenge Cup away from 

 Durham, for the first time. Next year the cup 

 returned to University College, but the crews 

 against them were both from Durham, one from 

 Hatfield Hall, one from the School. In 1859 

 University College was again victorious ; but 

 this year saw extended entries. The Lady 

 Margaret Club was again represented, and crews 



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