OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE ROWING. 161 



ginning of the stroke, followed by a gradual increase, and 

 ending by a sharp lift through the water. On the contrary, 

 the Oxford style, in which arms and body apply all their 

 strength at once to the oar, would probably, as in the case 

 of our im aginary fixed boats, result in the fracture of the oar. 

 If the boat were not fixed, but very heavy and clumsy, con- 

 clusions very different from the above would be arrived at. 

 The Oxford style would be unsuitable to the propulsion of a 

 heavy boat, because, although the oar would have very little 

 slip through the water, yet the boat itself could not be 

 moved in so sudden a manner as to make the applied force 

 available. On the other hand, the Cambridge style would 

 be very suitable ; because, although there would be con- 

 siderable ' slip/ this would in any case be inevitable, and 

 the force would be applied to the boat (as well as to the oar) 

 in the gradual increasing manner best suited to produce 

 motion through the water. Hence we can understand the 

 long series of victories gained by the light-blue oarsmen in the 

 old fashioned racing eights. But when we come to consider 

 the case of a boat like the present wager-boat a boat which 

 answers immediately to the slightest propelling force we 

 see that that mode of rowing must be the most effective 

 which permits the oar to have the least possible motion 

 through the water, which lifts the boat along from the water 

 as from an almost stable fulcrum. Hence it is that that sharp 

 grip of the water which is taken by London watermen, and 

 by rowers at Oxford, Eton, Radley, and Westminster, is so 

 much more effective than the heavy drag followed by a rapid 

 and almost jerking finish which marks the Cambridge style. 

 The mention of public-school rowing leads me to urge 

 another consideration. There are public-school oarsmen at 

 Cambridge, and they hold, as might be supposed, a high 

 position amongst university rowing-men. In general they 

 form so small a minority of college racing-men, that 

 they have to give up their own workmanlike style, and 

 adopt the style of those they row with. But there is one 

 club the Third Trinity Club which consists exclusively 



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