For purposes of passing,' the master in charge associates with himself a few other masters who are interested in the matter. The practice of passing' is carried on as follows. As soon as the water becomes warm enough, generally about May zo, notice is given that a passing' will be held at Cuckoo Weir. Thither go all the boys who have come since the previous summer, and who think that they can pass the test, which consists of swim ming on the chest a distance of about 250 yards, treading water, and swimming on the back. Much attention is paid to style, and many boys pass' at once, for the teaching at some of the preparatory schools is now extremely good. The same per formance is repeated once or twice a week during the summer schooltime, and by degrees a large number of those who could not swim at the beginning of the ' as they are technically called—succeed in passing. The average number of those who pass in any given summer is about two hundred: It must be admitted that the systern established in r839 has proved successful, for since that date only one Eton boy has met his death by drowning, and in that instance the boy, a strong and expert swimmer, was drowned from causes which no care could have either foreseen or provided against. This
is the more remarkable because the pleasure traffic on the Upper Thames has now reached proportions which, twenty years ago, would have seemed impossible, and the presence of so many people of both sexes unable to manage a boat, ignorant of their own danger and of the danger they cause to others, con stitutes a real peril, which is largely increased by those plagues of our Upper Thames, carelessly managed steam launches.
At present there are four recognised bathing places fot Eton boys : Boveney Weir, perhaps the best bathing place on the river, but one which should be used only by good and practised owing to the strength of the stream and the uncertain set of the eddies ; Athens, where the mass of the big boys bathe ; Upper Hope ; and Cuckoo Weir, which has already been described. The taking of headers' has always formed a characteristic feature of Eton swimming, and the tradition of good headers handed on for fifty years or more has always been maintained. A famous exponent of this art as a boy, in recent years, was Lord Harris, the well-known Kent County cricketer.