records of the B.N.C. hook commenced, and for which charts of the races are published. Meanwhile we shall thankfully receive any infarmation on this subject frorn the heroes of those days who may now be alive and hearty.
HENLEY, PAST AND FUTURE.
THE inauguration of a new era in the history of Ilenley Regatta naturally tends to make the mind wander into vistas of the past, perhaps even more than into speculations of the future, There are oarsmen living who can recallect when Henley Regatta did nat even exist, and yet we are within an appreciable distance (three years) of the ‘jubilee’ of the gathering. There are sundry old Tilues of the 1829 match still hale and hearty, and the regatta was not founded until ten years after that date. Apropos of that 1829 match, we have never seen it officially recorded that in the race Cunvbridge steered up the Bucks and Oxford in the Berks channel of the river, where the island divides it. Yet we have heard the Rev, T, Staniforth, the Oxford stroke, relate the fact. For some strange reason, the general opinion of Aaéztués of the river prior to that match was that the Bucks channel gave the better course. The boughs of the island trees obstructed the Berks channel more than now, and this may cxplain the delusion. However, the Oxonians doubted the soundness of local opinion, and tested in practice the advantages of the two channels by timing themselves through each. They naturally found the inside course the shorter cut. In the race they adopted it, while Cambridge, so we hear, took the outside channel ; and the previous Jead of Oxford was more than trebled by the time that the boats came again into the main river.
Times and ideas of rowing have changed much since the first regatta at Henley opened and closed with contests for the Grand Challenge Cup, the anly prize at its foundation. The ‘Tewn’ Cup seems to have been the next addition, under the name of the ‘District Challenge’ Cup, in 1840; but it does not figure again until 1842, and in 1843 takes the name of the Town Cup. There were first class fours ‘for medals’ in 1841, but the Stewards’ Cup was not founded till the follawing year. The ‘ Diamonds’ appeared
1 From the F¥e/d, July 5, 1886.
