xiv WAYFARING NOTIONS 



''There were my orders to be first. I had 

 to get there somehow — and I did. I couldn't 

 do it now — at least, I think not, though I can 

 always run with a boat-race so long as I am 

 allowed to shout. Once that day I was fairly 

 beat, or looked like getting so. I hired a man 

 with a wherry, or cobble, or whatever the boat's 

 name is, and put him on a fiver to come to the 

 umpire's steamer as soon as she got to Scotswood 

 Bridge and take me off, and no one else. He 

 was there all right. I did a wild jump from the 

 paddle-boat and landed in his craft somehow. 

 What did he do — pull like blazes to the shore to 

 earn his fiver (it was worth a pound a second to 

 get a start) ? Not a bit of it. He backed to 

 the side of the steamer and took all my rivals off 

 at a shilling a head. Beautiful, was it not ? 

 Truly beautiful. He collected eight shillings, 

 but never a stiver of the five pounds has he got 

 from me to this day, for I was first ashore and 

 running for dear life to the telegraph office, and 

 would not have paid him had I waited. 



''Very many old rowing men recollect Billy 

 Winship, the Tyneside boat-builder, long with 

 Johnny Clasper at Putney. Billy did me a fine 

 turn that day, and I have heard him tell the story 

 about it many a time and oft. I ran that time 

 like as if the Devil was after me. Please note 

 that I never could run fast with any comfort 

 or precision, not being built for it, but needs 

 must when the Devil drives. I was in the 

 same position as a butcher's horse — I had to go 

 somehow. Of I went to the best of my ability 

 from Scotswood Bridge, with one of the opposi- 

 tion crowd, a Sheffield pro., left a hundred yards 

 at the landing-stage — a nice start for me. And 



