Downstream

Parker gracefully
acknowledged, the young
swimmer plunged quietly into
the Thames.’ The river police
kept the Thames free from the
obstruction of seventy or
eighty wherries ‘as well as
they were able’, while Harry
stood in the accompanying
boat ‘with all his natatory
honours thick upon him’.
Parker used a ‘vigorous
breast stroke’ and never
showed ‘the slightest sign of