Downstream

reached Greenwich after two
hours and forty-three
minutes. ‘Ladies who would
learn to swim, take lessons of
Miss Beckwith!’ reported one
paper. But it then added
disparagingly, ‘Miss Agnes,
now you have given such
ample proofs that you are a
duck of a girl, stick to your
proper vocation – that of
teaching your sex to swim.’
Beckwith did just that,
forming her own ‘talented