the system of college eights seems to have been instituted, according to the testimony of Dr. Merivale, still Dean of Ely, and a member of the C.U.B.C. crew of 1829. Trinity were head of the river on that occasion, and there seems to have been also a Westminster club, of an independent nature in Trinity. The records of college racing at Cambridge seem to be unbroken since their institution ; whereas those of Oxford were for many years unofficial and without central organisation, -and consequently without official record, until 1839. The Brasenose Club record dates from 1837.
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Bumping races (Old Style).
The next occasion in which a University eight figured was in a match which somehow seems to have slipped out of public memory, though it occurred several years later than the first match between the Universities. The writer was talking to old George West, the well-known Oxford waterman, in 1882, at the L.R.C. boat-house, while waiting for the practice of the U-B.C. crews of that year. Casually old George remarked, ‘I steered a University eight once, sir.’ ‘he writer looked incredulous. ‘Yes, against Leander—Leander won,’ quoth George.. The writer had known West since his school days, and had heard him recapitulate his aquatic memories times out of mind, but
