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BOATING IN ENGLAND.

The Saturday Review contains some remarks on the prospect of boating in England, which will be read with interest by those who are interested in that sport in America :

"Many changes have been introduced since the first university race was rowed in 1829, and since the amateur sculling championship was founded in the following year. The old tub boats have developed into very different looking craft. Outriggers, sliding seats, self-acting rowlocks and steering sails, have all been successfully added, with divers other refinements of the boatbuilder's art; but the science of rowing remains after all, essentially the same, and the same bodily shape and muscular conformation are still usually to be observed in the most successful oarsmen. If we could confine our attention solely to the great clubs and the two universities, there would be little cause for finding fault with amateur sculling or rowing. Unfortunately, the prospect is by no means so limited or so gratifying. The increasing taste for "boating," as it is very advisedly termed-that is to say, of going in a boat-has led to the formation of a host of third, fourth and fifth rate clubs, as well as to an enormous amount of rowing in hired boats by people who think they would like to learn the art all by themselves. Now, rowing is, of all things, that which a man finds most impossible to learn by himself. There is nothing, perhaps, in which unaided practice is so certain to make a man develop a bad style. If any person doubts this, let him look at the River Thames on a Saturday afternoon. From Teddington to Wadsworth it is covered with boats, which are being rowed and sculled by persons exhibiting every possible fault that an oarsman can commit. The round back, the hanging head, the wriggling body, these are only a few of the hideous distortions observable on every side. How are they to be accounted for? Simply by this, that the wretched creatures who indulge in them are too proud to take a lesson. Go and suggest to one of the tradesmen's' clubs which is out for practice on a Saturday evening that one or two of its members would be all the better for a little coaching, and ten to one, both those individuals themselves and the bulk of the crew, if not even its captain, will feel insulted at any such suggestion."

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