3-021-639 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Oxford and Cambridge Boat-Race: the Cambridge crew training on Barnes-Common, [south-west London], 1868. '...who is there - high and low, rich and poor - that does not take a deep interest in this annual struggle for what has been aptly termed the "blue ribbon" of the river? From the Heir to the Throne down to the driver of a hansom cab who sports his bit of dark or light blue attached to his whip, all who are within reasonable distance flock down by road, or rail, or river to Putney to see the "Varsity match"...independent of the interest excited among all classes as to the result of the University boat-race, it has an additional claim upon the public, inasmuch as it encourages physical education. All who have studied the subject will admit that without exercise the body becomes diseased or feeble and the mind loses its tension; that a disposition to inactivity generates imbecility; while those who indulge in manly games find their mental powers increased and their spirits invigorated; hence their use has been strongly advocated not alone by ancient but by modern writers'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.