Downstream

‘professor’ to the North
London Swimming Club.
Then, on 16 September 1888,
at the age of thirty-one,
Gautier tried his hand at
something a little different,
swimming three and a half
miles in the Thames with his
wrists and feet tied. ‘Our old
enemies the French are at us
again,’ reported The Licensed
Victuallers’ Mirror, ‘This
time Waterloo went the other
way. For the “fight was fit”