ROWE ROWING 455 Ions of sorghum molasses. There were 2,654 horses, 899 mules and asses, 3,529 milch cows, 4,294 other cattle, 7,669 sheep, and 18,028 swine ; 5 manufactories of carriages and wag- ons, 1 of freight and passenger cars, 1 of chew- ing tobacco, and 3 wool-carding establish- ments. Capital, Salisbury. II. A N. E. coun- ty of Kentucky, bounded "W. by Licking riv- er, and drained by several tributaries of that stream ; area, about 500 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 2,991, of whom 32 were colored. The sur- face is uneven and hilly, and a large portion of it is covered with forests. The chief produc- tions in 1870 were 2,786 bushels of wheat, 112,040 of Indian corn, 15,950 of oats, 56,275 Ibs. of butter, 7,072 of wool, 11,295 of tobacco, and 552 tons of hay. There were 721 horses, 720 milch cows, 1,125 other cattle, 3,521 sheep, and 2,900 swine. Capital, Morehead. ROWE, Elizabeth, an English authoress, born in Ilchester, Sept. 11, 1674, died at Frome, near Bristol, Feb. 20, 1737. She was the daughter of a dissenting minister named Sing- er. She published " Poems on Several Oc- casions, by Philomela" (1696); "Friendship in Death, or Twenty Letters from the Dead to the Living " (1728) ; " Letters, Moral and Entertaining, in Prose and Verse" (1729- '33); "Joseph, a Poem" (1736); and "De- vout Exercises of the Heart," published after her death by Dr. Isaac Watts. Her " Miscel- laneous "Works, in Prose and Verse," were published in 1739 (2 vols. 8vo). ROWE, Nicholas, an English dramatist, born at Little Barford, Bedfordshire, about 1673, died Dec. 6, 1718. He was educated at West- minster, and studied law. When 25 years old he composed a successful tragedy called " The Ambitious Stepmother." In 1702 appeared his tragedy of "Tamerlane." In 1703 he brought out " The Fair Penitent," founded upon "The Fatal Dowry" of Massinger, and in 1706 the comedy of "The Biter," which failed. Afterward he produced the tragedies "Ulysses," "The Royal Convert," "Jane Shore," and " Lady Jane Grey," and transla- ted the Pharsalia of Lucan. In 1709 he pub- lished an edition of Shakespeare (7 vols. 8vo), with the first biography of the poet. In the reign of Queen Anne Bowe was under sec- retary of state for a short time. On the ac- cession of George I. he was created laureate. He was buried in Westminster abbey. ROWING, the art of propelling a boat by means of oars. In the Greek and Roman galleys the oars were arranged in banks, of which different galleys had from 2 to 12, and more. (See GALLEY.) In all civilized coun- tries for a long period boating was merely a means of living to those who rowed people for pleasure, ferried them across rivers, or transported goods. It was not till the 18th century that boat racing became popular, es- pecially on the Thames, the watermen test- ing their superiority in rowing in the clumsy boats then built. In 1715 Thomas Doggett, the comedian, offered the prize still known as " Doggett's coat and badge " to the waterman's apprentice between Gravesend and Oxford who was the fastest sculler of the year, and this prize is still annually conferred. In Eng- land 50 years ago the racing boat was 85 ft. long and 6 ft. beam, weighed 700 Ibs., and car- ried two oarsmen of 200 Ibs. weight each, with two spare men to act as ballast and assist at the oars. Now four men weighing 150 to 160 Ibs. each propel a shell of 17 in. beam and 41 ft. length, weighing but 94 Ibs., over a six-mile course, at the rate of 9 m. an hour. The first notable improvement in racing boats was re- moving the oar from the rowlock on the gun- wales to the outriggers. In a match race on the Tyne between the Fly of Scotswood and the Diamond of Ouseborn, Anthony Brown narrowed the Diamond, and by placing vari- ous pieces of wood on either side, now known as false outriggers, secured an easy triumph. Harry Clasper of Newcastle substituted for this rude device, not the light and graceful outrigger of to-day, with its rowlocks tightly blocked and wired, but something much near- er it than the original. It was not till 1844, when he won the 50 prize of the Thames na- tional regatta in a four-oared outrigged gig of his own building, that the merits of the out- rigger were generally acknowledged. He also remodelled the racing oar. Forty years ago it was an unwieldy stick " of prodigious size and loaded with lead at the loom end," while the blades were flat and straight, like those of the ash oars of to-day, and very wide. A London crew on the Tyne, with scoop or spoon oars, had beaten Clasper's crew, and Clasper did not rest until he had improved the spoon oar. " The progress and success of Tyne boating now became universal; crew after crew sprang up ; boats underwent still further alterations ; light men were substituted for the rollicking, over-fed, fourteen-stone keelmen ; and the Clasper crew gained a notoriety which has long since been developed." The Thames Sub- scription club threw open yearly races, and the " Sons of the Thames crew," " Pride of the Tyne crew," and " Pride of the Thames crew " soon came to be familiar names. While the professional rowers were thus ad- vancing, the amateurs were in no way behind. For some time prior to 1825 eight-oared row- ing had been in vogue at Oxford, while the first eight-oared boat at Cambridge belonged to St. John's college, and was built in 1826 at Eton, which organized its boat club in 1825. On June 10, 1829, the chosen eights of Oxford and Cambridge first met on the course, 2J m. long, from Hambledon lock to Henley bridge on the Thames, and Oxford won easily by 60 yards. The two universities next met in 1836, and rowed from Westminster bridge to Put- ney bridge, Cambridge noAv being the winner. They next met in 1839, and since then have nearly every year kept up the now famous rivalry. In 1874 Cambridge had won 15 times
