A good coxswainless four-oared crew represents skill and watermanship, as distinguished from mere brute strength, in their highest development. I may lay it down as an axiom that any man who can row well in a coxswainless Four will row equally well in an eight-oared crew. The converse of this is, however, by no means true. A man may do good work in an Eight, and yet be incapable of doing himself justice in a Four, or, indeed, of helping the pace of the boat in any way. Rowing of a more refined order is requisite for a Four. Greater power of balance is needed, and a more perfect sense of that rhythm which goes far to secure uniformity in rowing. You may have in your Eight a clumsy heavy-weight, who at No. 5 can use his strength to wonderful advantage, in spite of various aberrations from correct form. But if you put this man at No. 3 in a Four, the results are sure to be disastrous. An easier style of movement is required for a Four. A strenuous application of all the body-weight at the beginning of the stroke is still, no doubt, necessary. The beginning must, of course, be gripped, and that firmly; but the best four-oared rowing I have seen always gave me the impression that a sort of "oiling" method of progression, in which steady leg-pressure plays a prominent part, was best suited to a Four which is not encumbered with the weight of a coxswain. Over and over again have Eights been defeated at Henley for the Grand Challenge Cup, and yet Fours, selected from their members, have been able to beat all comers in the Stewards'. From 1868 to 1878 the London Rowing Club won the Grand five times. In the same period of eleven years their Four was only once defeated for the Stewards', proving, if any proof were needed, that an inferior Eight (I use the term merely relatively) may contain a first-class victorious Four. On the other hand, from 1891 to 1897, a period during which Leander won the Grand five times, they were able to win the Stewards' only once, and that was this year, when their Eight was defeated. Instances of this kind might be multiplied.

But besides skill in oarsmanship, another element, which adds greatly both to the difficulties and pleasures of a Four, has to be considered. This is the necessity that one of the oarsmen should not only row, but also guide the course of the boat by steering with his foot. It is evident that watermanship of a very high order is needed for this feat. The steerer must know the course and all its points perfectly. The ordinary oar often finds it difficult to keep time when his eyes are glued on the back of the men in front of him, but the steerer in a Four has to keep time and regularity, even though he may be forced to look round in order to ascertain the true direction of his boat. An oarsman in an Eight has both his feet firmly fixed; a steerer of a Four must keep one foot constantly ready for movement. And all this he has to do without making the boat roll, or upsetting the harmony of his crew. These difficulties, no doubt, are great; but when once they have been overcome, and the crew has shaken absolutely together, there can be few pleasures in the world of exercise comparable to that of rowing in a Four.

During a long period the London Rowing Club had almost a monopoly of good Fours. Their crews showed a degree of watermanship which in those days University oarsmen despaired of attaining to. Gulston, Stout, A. de L. Long, Trower, and S. Le B. Smith were not only names to conjure with, but showed in their rowing that perfection of apparently simple ease which lies at the root of success in four-oared rowing. Who that ever witnessed it can forget the sight, once well-known at Henley, of Mr. F. S. Gulston as he rowed and steered his Four to victory? As a recent Cambridge versifier said of him—

As a matter of record it may be stated that Mr. Gulston won five Grand Challenge Cup medals and ten Stewards' Cup medals, Mr. A. de L. Long five Grand Challenge Cup medals and eight Stewards' Cup medals, and Mr. S. Le B. Smith four Grand Challenge Cup medals, and seven Stewards' Cup medals. No oarsman of the present day can boast of anything like such a record in these two events.

The art of four-oared rowing, then, was brought to perfection by the crews of the London Rowing Club many years ago; but there is no danger that it will be forgotten by oarsmen of the present day. Indeed, the rowing of the Leander Four that won the Stewards' Cup this year was about as good as four-oared rowing can be. They were absolutely together, they rowed with most perfect ease, and in the race they beat record time by seven seconds, and might have beaten it by still more, had they not easied a length or two from the finish. Their weights were as follows:—

From the above remarks it will be gathered that the great points to be insisted upon in four-oared rowing are uniformity, and again uniformity, and always uniformity. A coach should insist, if possible even more strenuously than he insists in an Eight, on bodies and slides moving with a faultless precision and perfectly together. Let him devote his energies to getting the finish and recovery locked up all through the crew, and let him see to it that the movements of their bodies shall be slow and balanced on the forward swing, and strong and not jerky on the back swing. More it would be difficult to add.

When a Four is practising for a four-oared race alone—that is to say, when its members are not rowing in an eight-oared crew as well, their course of work should be similar to that laid down for an Eight. But when, as often happens at Henley, a Four is made up out of the members of an eight-oared crew, it will always be found better to allow its members to do the bulk of their work in the Eight, and to confine themselves in the Four principally to long and easy paddling, varied by short, sharp bursts of rowing. It may be necessary for such a Four to go over the full course once at top speed, but that ought to be enough. Their work in the Eight should get them into condition; all that they really need in the Four is to be able to row perfectly together. The Brasenose Four that won the Stewards' in 1890 had never rowed over the full course before the day of the race. Their longest piece of rowing, as distinguished from paddling, had been a burst of three minutes. Their men acquired fitness by working in the Eight, and proved their condition by the two desperate races they rowed.

As to steering, it used to be said that anybody might steer in a Four except stroke, but Mr. Guy Nickalls has proved that a stroke can steer as well as row. He has won four Stewards' Cup medals, has stroked and steered in every race, and his boat has always been kept on a faultless course.

In the case of the ordinary oar, however, the old saying, I think, holds good. Bow naturally is the best place to steer from, not only because in turning his head he can obtain a clear view of the course, but also because he has a considerable advantage in leverage, and ought to be able to control the direction of his boat merely by relaxing or increasing the power applied to his oar. The best part of the stroke for looking round is, I consider, towards the finish. A turn of the head, accompanied by an outward movement of the outside elbow to suit the slightly altered position of the body, while keeping pressure on the oar, is all that is necessary. Yet I have seen Mr. Guy Nickalls look round in the middle of his forward swing without apparently disturbing the equilibrium of the boat. In any case, the best thing a steerer can do is to learn his course by heart, so that he may be able to steer for the most part without looking round at all, judging the direction she is taking by her stern and by well-known objects on the bank as he passes them. Personally I prefer, and I think most men prefer, to steer with the outside foot. The captain of a Four should always look carefully to his steering-gear to see that the wires and strings are taut, and that they move properly and without jamming over the wheels. I have seen more than one race lost by accidents to the steering-gear that might have been avoided by a little preliminary attention.

Pair Oars.

This, too, is a very pleasant form of rowing, both with a view to racing and merely for casual amusement. The main elements for success are similar to those laid down in the case of Fours. In pair-oared rowing, however, there is one important point which distinguishes it from all other forms of rowing. It is absolutely essential that the two men composing a Pair should not row "jealous," i.e. neither of them must attempt to row the other round in order to prove his own superior strength and ability. Such a course of action not only makes progress circuitous and slow, but also ends by entirely destroying the tempers of both oarsmen. In a Pair, even more than in a Four, the bow oar has a considerable advantage in leverage, whence it comes that a lighter and less powerful man can often row bow in a Pair with a strong and heavy stroke. The most surprising instance of this occurred in the Oxford University Pairs of 1891, which were won by the late Mr. H. B. Cotton, rowing bow at 9 st. 12 lbs., to the stroke of Mr. Vivian Nickalls, who weighed close on 13 st. An instance to the contrary was afforded by the winners of the Goblets at Henley in 1878. These were Mr. T. C. Edwards-Moss, bow, 12 st. 3 lbs., and Mr. W. A. Ellison, stroke, 10 st. 13 lbs. The Goblets at Henley have been won six times by Mr. Guy Nickalls, and five times by his brother Vivian.

Swivel Rowlocks.

There has been, during the past year, a movement in favour of using swivel rowlocks, not only in sculling-boats, but also in Pairs, Fours, and Eights, though the majority of English oarsmen, even when inclined to use them in Pairs and Fours, set their faces against them for Eights. The advocates of swivels contend that by their use the hands are eased on the recovery, and the jar that takes place when the oar turns on a fixed rowlock is absolutely abolished. These advantages seem to me to be exaggerated, for, though I have carefully watched for it, I have never seen an Eight or a Four retarded in her place for even a fraction of a second by the supposed jar due to the turning of the oar on the feather in fixed rowlocks. On the other hand, I am convinced that for an ordinary eight-oared crew the fixed rowlock is best, and for the following reasons:—

The combined rattle of the oars as they turn constitutes a most valuable rallying-point. The ears are brought into action as well as the eyes. This advantage is lost with swivels. In modern sculling-boats a man must use swivels, for the reach of the sculler extends to a point which he could not reach with fixed rowlocks, as his sculls would lock before he got there. As he moves forward he is constantly opening up, his arms extending on either side of his body; but in rowing, one arm swings across the body, and unless you are going to screw the body round towards the rigger, and thus sacrifice all strength of beginning, you cannot fairly reach beyond a certain point, which is just as easily and comfortably attained with fixed rowlocks as with swivels. Moreover—and here is the great advantage—you have in the thole-pin of a fixed rowlock an absolutely immovable surface, and the point of application of your power is always the same throughout the stroke. With a swivel this is not so, for the back of the swivel, against which your oar rests, is constantly moving. To put it in other words, it is far easier with a fixed rowlock to get a square, firm, clean grip of the beginning, and for the same reason it is easier to bring your oar square and clean out at the end of the stroke. A really good waterman can, of course, adapt himself to swivels, as he can to almost anything else in a boat, but his task will not be rendered any easier by them. For average oars, and even for most good oars, the difficulties of rowing properly will be largely increased, without any compensating advantage, so far as I am able to judge. In the case of novices, I am convinced that it would be quite disastrous to attempt to make them row with swivel rowlocks.

Measurements of Racing Four built by J. H. Clasper.

(In this boat Leander won the Stewards' Cup, 1897.)

Measurements of Oars used.

This boat is some three feet shorter than the average of Fours nowadays.

The oars used by the New College Four measured over all 12 ft. 6 ins.; in-board, 3 ft. 8½ ins.; breadth of blades, 5½ ins.

Measurement of a Pair Oar built by Sims, of Putney.