sympathies of Great Britain would yet be ed to the prognostications for that aquatic on his side. The union of North Germany Derby, the Oxford and Cambridge race at is not offensive to Englishmen, and the lib- Putney, with a mass of detail about the eration of Venice is decidedly satisfactory, form of the rowers, the style of their stroke, while it is not forgotten that Austria is now the respective weights of the two crews; the great Catholic power. There is, too, a but we find a whole column or more taken curious dislike in the British_middle-class up with the description of the university mind for the little German States which athletic sports, and these narrated in the would be heartily gratified by their complete true scientific style which used to be the extinction. Why it should exist as it does, exclusive property of the sporting papers, among people who never travel and know but which we have learned to look for in next to nothing of Germany, is inexplicable; the most staid and sober journals. Nor is but it does, and might under other circum- this all, for there is a ready welcome given stances be a strong impelling force. The by the press to events of more local inteBritish mind is actually irritated at hearing rest, such as the doings of individual colpeople whose territories are scarcely larger leges upon the river and at their own than a Scotch Duke's estate called ruling athletic games. We may be sure that these powers, and they would hear of the absorp- feats would not thus be immortalized unless tion of Hesse or the annexation of Olden- it was well ascertained that the accounts of burg with a mysterious sense of glee. For them were acceptable to the public. But the moment, however, a dislike of Prussia, one cannot be astonished at this; the advoborn of her conduct during the Danish war, cates of physical education and the misoverbears the chronic suspicion of Catholics, sionaries of muscular Christianity have not the usual favour for audacity, and even the been preaching for nothing. Indeed, the otherwise permanent sympathy with the Ital- popular idea of a student has undergone a ians. Austria, it is evident, will at the be- wonderful transformation. We have got ginning of the war receive the moral sup- tired of the pale cheek, and the midnight port of Great Britain, and will, we hope, for oil, and the green tea; what we look for the sake of Europe, benefit by it as much now is the youthful Milo who is an athlete as Denmark did. She does but pay for even in his reading, studying fiercely and her sins, and her victory would at once then taking fierce exercise, and then comthreaten Italy, reinvigorate the Papacy, and ing home and being fiercely carnivorous, place the constitution of Hungary once and going to bed early-all this to a conmore in hopeless abeyance. She is almost stant accompaniment of "tubs," which for the first time in her history in the right form the most important item in the ritual in this struggle, but to sympathize deeply of muscularity. But of all this, only the with a Power which has been for centuries Christianity is new, the muscular element the consistent foe of freedom, which even in its connection with education is a timenow holds down three of her countries by honoured institution. Our readers will mere terror, and which has only been pro- scarcely need to be reminded how so grave voked to battle by fear of losing her share a master as Plato himself divided the whole of unjust spoil, would be, for Liberals at all science of education into two parts, one of events, a grave political error. They can- which he called music (although it meant a not sympathize with Count von Bismark, great deal more than our use of the word), but they can at least wish that in the con- and the other gymnastic-the intention of flict of Powers Italy may regain her own, the two combined being to produce the that while the ruffians squabble fair Una mens sana in corpore sano. So we may may escape. fairly say that we have made a step back to the wisdom of our forefathers in thus glorifying the gymnastic side of education; and our excitement at the competition in the various athletic sports is only a new phase of that old feeling which assembled whole tribes and peoples together to witness the Olympic games, and which made a victor feel that the simple green crown was the highest guerdon he could obtain.

From The London Review.
GOING INTO TRAINING.

NOWADAYS one can scarcely take up the morning paper without finding in one column at least some allusion to an athletic contest either just decided or about to come off. Not only is a considerable space devot

But probably the majority of those who take so much interest in these encounters have no idea of the rigorous discipline to which the competitor subjects himself in

order to "get into training." The young ladies who wear dark or light blue ribbons at Putney never think of the lives that their heroes have led for the last five weeks, the work they have gone through, and the diet to which they have been restricted to give them firmness of muscle and soundness of wind.

Modern ideas of training are widely removed from the ancient practice. They agree in the essentials of prescribing particular forms of ablutions and a regular dietary, but the details of the respective systems are strangely unlike. Instead of the ninteenth-century "tub," which, accompanied with a rough towel, ought to be the armorial bearing of every modern athlete, the classical trainers recommended the copious use of oil well rubbed in, and then dredged with sand, after which process the body was cleaned down with a scraper, wielded by a regular professor. We do not know how our university champions would like this very rough form of Turkish bath! The professor undertook the superintendence of the gymnast's diet also. It is hardly credible that originally meat formed no part of this diet, but that it consisted principally of cheeses fresh from the strainers, but we have the authority of Pausanias for it, and we can only marvel at the superhuman powers of early Greek digestion. Nor shall we be likely to think that they improved matters by adding dried figs to the cheese, which was the next step. And when by-and-by the more intelligible practice was introduced of eating meat during training, we shall surely stare with astonishment to find Dr. Galen recommending pork. However, in time the ancient system came much nearer to the modern, and beef and goat's-flesh formed the staple of the athlete's diet; and it would seem that the good people were at first astonished at the result, for a worthy Greek of the name of Cleitomachus tells us that he once saw a Theban athlete who easily conquered all his opponents, because he had lived on a course of goat's-meat.

We are told that there was a minimum of food which every one in training was bound to take, but whether there was a maximum or not is not so easy to say. At any rate, hear what that old gossip Athenæus has to tell us of some of the famous Greek athletes. Theagenes, the Thasian, is supposed to sing

"Once I agreed to eat up a whole Meonian bullock,

For my small Thasian isle could not have kept

me in meat.

When that was done I cried, 'More!'-for that is the diet which makes me

Stand like a tower of steel, squaring my terrible fists."

When Milo, the Crotoniat, was in training he is said to have eaten, at a sitting, twenty pounds of meat, twenty pounds of But this bread, and three gallons of wine. feat was wholly eclipsed by the Etolian who "breakfasted on a bull." And if this gives anything of a true picture, even allowing for palpable exaggerations, it is no wonder that Euripides called the whole race of athletes the greatest curse to society; "for how," he says, 'can that man live decently who is nothing better than

Slave of his teeth and minion of his maw ?

We

In our day we cannot call our athletes the curse of society, they are often among the pleasantest members and the brightest ornaments of it; but then it is true it would take them a good many breakfasts to get through a bull. Still they are under very strict discipline during training, and some of our readers may be amused to have an idea what this training consists of. cannot profess to give an exhaustive account of it, nor, in all probability, one which every training-master will endorse, for each one has his own ideas and his own traditions to follow. But to take a single instance out of the many forms of training, we may fairly say that no trained crew goes down the river without some taste of such bondage as the following:- Pipes, pastry, and pudding must at once be abjured; desserts must be repudiated, and muffins are unmentionable. The captain of the boat will go the round of his crew in the morning, and see that they are all up in good time and availing themselves of the great panacea, "tub," after which they will take a good spin over some level ground, and then come like lions to breakfast, which will consist of mutton-chops, not overdone, or beefsteak, ditto, accompanied with stale bread and dry toast, and not a superabundance of tea. They will perhaps be allowed a couple of biscuits and a glass of port wine for luncheon, and at two o'clock a leg of mutton or more steak will await them, with not more than a pint of ale and a limited quantity of potatoes. After their various spins up and down the river during the afternoon, they will probably stretch their legs with a good run in their boating jackets. Supper is generally light, some trainers swearing by gruel, others giving all their support to

jelly; and at an early hour the crew must "Training" affects men very differently. be in bed. Sundays are generally diversi- To some it is a period of intense mental as fied by a walk of a dozen miles or so, which, well as bodily activity; it exactly agrees beside its genial effect, keeps the crew from with their constitution, and they are thoridling in their rooms, and perhaps hanker- oughly happy under it. To others it brings ing after the surreptitious pipe. (The Sun- a sort of heaviness, which is only shaken day question hardly touches a training crew.) off during exercise, and which returns irTo this routine many disciplinarians add resistibly every evening in the shape of drowtheir own fancies. Some like, following siness. Other men, again, who at other the example of Mrs. Squeers, to dose their times have the sweetest and most unruffled crew all round, in order that they may tempers, are so pettish and touchy that they commence, as it were, ab integro; others can only be approached with the extremest love to vary the toujours gigot or toujours caution-they have probably rather overbiftek with an occasional fish, or a boiled trained. And the bondage is at its height fowl, or a little green vegetables if the men when the crew is in the boat; they are the are showing symptoms of over-training, absolute slaves of him who is "coaching" But whether you are in the hands of a rigid them; they must go fast or slow, stop and or a liberal master, there is no doubt that start just when he pleases, and occasiontraining is a severe discipline, and one ally they must be prepared for a torrent of which no men would undergo who were invective from an energetic coxswain if a not touched by vagrant eye wanders from the back of the man in front to the most interesting object on the bank, or if an oar is in the water a fraction of a second too long, or if any other such misdemeanour is committed. Lastly, let us record the noble sacrifice that has to be made, when, as often, the hard and unyielding rowing-bench claims a tribute of human skin. Then self-denial has its work cut out for it indeed, and mind has to triumph over matter, while we may fancy the victorious crew rowing gallantly in to the glorious finish, each man inwardly chanting the almost Virgilian refrain,—

"Fame, the spur which the clear spirit doth raise."

Indeed, it ought to add a thousand-fold to the interest of spectators looking on at some keenly contested match, to know that the youthful strength which they admire is the result of something better than mere English blood and bone-that it is the creation of good, hard, English determination, of honest self-denial, of a steady resolution, for a while at any rate,

No. 1146. Fourth Series, No. 7. 19 May, 1866.

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