SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



nineteenth century it appears to have been 

 entirely professional. 



It must not, however, be forgotten that the 

 Thames watermen were the first exponents 

 of the art of rowing, 48 and that amateur oars- 

 manship is only the development on more 

 scientific lines of the craft from which they 

 derived their livelihood. 46 The oldest rowing 

 fixture on the Thames instituted nearly 

 three centuries ago is the annual race for 

 Doggett's Coat and Badge. The prize is a 

 waterman's coat and silver badge given to be 

 rowed for by six young watermen on the 

 first anniversary of George I, I August, 1715, 

 by Thomas Doggett, an eminent actor of 

 Drury Lane, who, at his death in 1722, 

 bequeathed a sum of money for the continu- 

 ance of the custom. 47 The first regatta is 

 stated in the Badminton volume on Rowing 48 

 to have been rowed in front of Ranelagh Gar- 

 dens in 1775 'presumably by professionals;' 

 and there is a reference to a similar event on 

 6 August, 1795, in the Sporting Magazine ot 

 that year where it is described as ' the contest 

 for the annual wherry given by the Proprietors 

 of Vauxhall by six pairs of oars in three heats." 

 Coming to the next century, during 1822 we 

 find reports in Bell's Life of ' the anniversary 

 of the Grand Aquatic Regatta of the inhabi- 

 tants of Queenhithe,' when ' a handsome 

 Wherry ' and other prizes were contended for 

 on 31 July by 'six of the free watermen belong- 

 ing to those stairs ; ' 49 and of a similar contest 

 on 30 June between eight watermen belong- 

 ing to the Temple Stairs for ' a prize wherry 

 given by the gentlemen of the Inns of Court.' 50 

 Another report in the same paper during this 

 year 51 is deserving of notice on account of its 

 allusion to amateur oarsmen. It relates to a 

 ' match ' on 8 July 



between seven pairs of oars for a prize of thirty 

 pounds which was given by ' The gentlemen of the 

 Frederic and the Corsair,' or in other words by 

 the Amateur Rowing Club, which is composed ot 

 noblemen and gentlemen nearly the whole of whom 

 are in the Life and Foot Guardi. 



48 While they practised rowing as a pastime as 

 well as a profession, they could also, as Stow tells 

 us, at the close of the sixteenth century have at 

 any time furnished 20,000 men for the fleet. 

 Numbers of them served both in the Walcheren 

 Expedition in 1809 and in that of Lord Exmouth 

 in 1816. Humpherus, op. cit. iii, 8 1, 114, 136. 



46 Both Eton and Westminster crews were in 

 early days coached by watermen. Ency. Brit. art. 

 ' Rowing ' by Edwin D. Brickdale. 



47 Reports of this race are given in the Sporting 

 Magazine for August 1795 and Bell's Life, August 

 1822. 4> p. 3. 



" Belt's Life 1822, 183, 4. 



"Ibid. 143. "Ibid. 1 60. 



The course for the first heat of this race 

 was 



from Westminster Bridge to the Sun at Battersea 

 round a boat moored off there and back to a boat 

 moored off the Red House ; and for a second heat 

 from Vauxhall Bridge round a boat moored off the 

 Red House and back to a boat moored off White 

 Hall. 



The patronage of the Amateur Rowing Club 

 and the fact that the competition was not 

 limited to the watermen of any particular 

 ' Stairs ' seems to have made this regatta of 

 exceptional importance, and we are told that 

 ' the river was literally covered with boats and 

 cutters, and the duke of York was present on 

 the Frederic.' 



Boating at this period was already begin- 

 ning to become a popular sport among 

 amateurs. We hear of 'long distance' rows, 

 such as that of i oo miles rowed by ' six 

 gentlemen of the Amicus Cutter Club crew ' 

 from Westminster to Gravesend, from 

 Gravesend to Twickenham, and from 

 Twickenham to Westminster in 1821 ; and 

 another in the following year of eighty miles 

 from the Tower Stairs to the Nore Light by 

 eight members of the same club, performed 

 in eighteen hours nineteen minutes with only 

 half an hour's rest. 52 A four composed of 

 officers of the Guards, stroked by the Hon. 

 John Needham, afterwards tenth Viscount 

 Kilmorey, rowed from Oxford to London in 

 a day ; and the Westminster Boys on St. 

 George's Day, 1825, rowed the Challenge to 

 Eton and back, only fourteen of the twenty 

 hours occupied in covering the 115 miles 

 being spent in the boat. 53 Four amateur 

 clubs are known to have been in existence 

 early in the nineteenth century the Star, 

 the Arrow, the Shark, and the Siren which 

 rowed races among themselves in six-oared 

 boats, generally over long courses. 64 The 

 members of the Temple seem, too, like the 

 officers of the Guards, to have formed some 

 sort of rowing club, for Mr. Sargeant, in his 

 Annals of Westminster School, says that the 

 Defiance the first racing boat which the 

 school put on the river 'in 1818 lowered 

 the unbeaten colours of the Templars.' S8 



It is stated in the Westminster Water Ledger ; 

 which is probably the oldest contemporary 

 record in existence with respect to rowing on 

 the Thames in London, that the school had 



" Bell't Life (1822), 159, 160. 

 M Sargeant, Annals of Westminster School, 226. 

 44 Rowing (Badminton Library), 3, 4. Ency, 

 Brit. art. ' Rowing ' by Edwin Brickdale. 

 " Op. cit. 225. 



287 



