THE SPORT OF ROWING formally recognized boating, already well established among the students on their own time, as an authorized school activity. Byrne: “There have been hitherto two epochs in our rowing, the first up to 1840 when it was disreputable and unrecognized, the second the score of years during which it was first acquiesced in and then recognized to the extent that by 1847 the Head Master did not disdain to witness a race. But this change came slowly.”123 In the two hundred meters of shoreline between Brocas Meadow and the Windsor Bridge, much of the land upon which wa- termen’s establishments had been construct- ed had always belonged to the College. During the course of the 19th Century, as businesses passed from father to son, con- solidations occurred, and by the early 20th Century, the College had taken over the ownership and maintenance of the boat- houses and boats, with watermen staying on as managers.124 Eton Boatman Andrew Cross, in 2008: “This area has long been known as Rafts, and much of the rowing at Eton below the team level still takes place here.”125 To the boys at Eton, rowing soon be- came a separate world with its own lan- guage, arcane rules and values along with elaborate customs, hierarchies and costumes. Surely for some, rowing was merely an escape from the cruelty of the public school caste system where each new arrival had to “fag” for one of the older boys. Fagging involved acting as a body servant and per- forming endless menial tasks like preparing breakfast in the morning and tea in the after- noon. One story goes that during the first dec- ade of the 19th Century, hurrying to escape from persecution by other boys, the future 122 Woodgate, p. 203 123 Byrne, p. ix 124 Byrne, pp. xvii-xxv. 125 Cross, personal conversation, 2008 The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford Portrait of Percy Bysshe Shelley after Amelia Curran poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) “would plunge down Brocas Lane, pass a hot den where clay pipes were made, dodge the curved beaks of boats under repair in a little crowded builder’s yard, scamper down a rickety staircase on a single plank that ran out into the river, undo the rope or the chain that held a skiff or a funny to the rail that was parallel to the plank, jump into his boat and shove off.”126 Eton School of Oarsmanship For others, however, through selection, the second process of population genetics,127 what began as idle play soon evolved into nothing short of the world’s first sophisticat- ed development curriculum for competitive rowing! In 1904, Ralph D. Paine, an American author of popular maritime books of the day, 126 Byrne, p. xix 127 See Introduction. 44
