men their favourite was beaten, and with considerable ease. The Tyne man was the bigger, and had a very long sweep with his sculls ; on that day he showed to great advantage, the more so because Kelley was not seulling up to his best form. De- feated men can always suggest exenses for failure, and Kelley, for years after that race, averred that he had not been beaten on his merits; he had been kept waiting a long time at the post, and was cold and stiff at the start. In those days, whether in University matches or in public sculling races, the lead was a matter of special importance. In the first place the old code of rules were in force, which enabled a leading sculler to take his opponent's water, to wash him, to retain the captured course, and to compel his adversary to row round him in order to pass him. Secondly, and even more important, was the action of the crowds of steamers which followed such races. The Thames Conservancy had no control over them, and they would lie half-way up Putney Reach waiting for a race, and then steam alongside of or even ahcad of the sternmost competitor. Their paddles drew away the water from him, and caused him literally 10 row uphill. Under such circumstances even the champion of the day would have found it next to impossible to overhaul even an apprentice sculler, if the latter were in clear water ahead of the steamer fleet and the former were a few lengths behind in the ‘draw’ of the paddles.
All this was well known, and could be seen any day in an important Thames race (the hollowness of the Oxford wins of 1861 and 1862 against Cambridge was undoubtedly owing tu the treatment which the Cantabs experienced from the steamers when once the Icad had become decisive). Kelley argued to his friends that all that could be said of the race was that he could not go as fast that day as Chambers for the first rnile, and that after this point, whether or not he could have rowed down his opponent was an open question, for the steamers never gave him a chance of fair play. However, for a long time ‘Kelley could not find backers for a new match. Meantime, Tom White and Everson in tum tricd their luck
