Downstream

The Victorians, and later
the Edwardians, loved public
feats of skill and endurance,
the more bizarre, dramatic
and potentially fatal the
better, whether at fairs, music
halls, seaside piers,
agricultural halls or
aquariums. Competing for a
challenge and a wager were
admirable things to do, while
swimming as an organised
event, with rules on
everything from distances to