THE SCHOOL BATHING PLACE They've done with the mud and the muddle, The rubbish is all cleared away Once more are the waves of Duck-puddle Restored to the light of the day. The sweep of her waters is widei; Her basin is full to the brink, And the seats all round and beside her Are marble,—I think..
The bath of the stars in the ocean, The tub of Achilles in Styx, - And those we still view with emotion rn Rome, and her ruins of bricks • Each temple of human detergency, Each new ablutional throne, (Except in some case of emergency) Yields to our own.
There's islands, and arbours, and bridges, And branches to shade from the sun, And palings to keep out the midges, And sheds where you munch at your bun,.
And ladders exalted for diving, And corners for perching you up At ease, while your neighbours are striving ' In vain for the Cup.
How sweet, when the Summer rejoices The heart with the glow and the breeze, To plunge in the pool while the voices " Are ringing from under the trees.
Ah I long in the sober hereafter • Shall linger in ears far away The sound of that innocent laughter, The splash of the spray.
The present competitions carried out at Harrow were mainly inaugurated by Mr. Watson. As .should be the, case, the Royal Humane Society's medal for the boy who exhibits the best knowledge of the methods of life-saving is, considered • the highest award, and his name figures above the Dolphins' on the annual printed list given to the boys whose times appear on it, ,and posted in bathing sheds, -houses, &c. HouSe races are held betiveen teams of three from the Various houseS. TheSe representatives, who are drawn in pairs for the races, are termed 'Ducks.' The same plan is adopted in the: Juni&
House races, the representatives in this case being under sixteen years of age, and distinguished as Ducklings.'.
There. are various ordinary races, senior and junior, and competitions in diving, headers, and diving for china, eg0. The chief race is that for the Ebrington ' challenge Cup:, The best swimmers are called Dolphins,' and to 'attain this distinction, to which special privileges are attached, a, very stiff series of tests has to be passed,. ` They are as, follows 1. Header from high running-board.
2'. Swimming five lengths of the bath, distance about half a Mile. 3. Swimming in twenty minutes.
This swim must be in three styles, viz: : (a) Breast-stroke.
.(b) Back-stroke.
(c) Side-stroke.
(d) Diving under a hurdle during the swim.
(e) Climbirtg out on to the lowest running-board (without touching the side of the bath), and taking a fair standing header in again during the swim.
(f) (At a different time.) Diving for, and bringing to shore a dummy, to represent a drowning man.
Failure in any one or comparative failure in any two of these tests involves a pluck.' Many of the Dolphins' have afterwards figured prominently in the swimming world, and it is interesting to note that the names of the Cantabs, Messrs. H. W. Allason and J. B. Hoare, who afterwards so ably repre sented their University against Oxford, both appear in the Dolphin ' list of 1889.