Downstream

drowning has occurred for
many years; and this, at a
place where everybody seeks
the river as his natural out-of-
doors home, makes Eton
probably the first gymnasium
for swimmers in the world.’
The next River Master was
Walter Durnford, who
reigned over the bathing
places from 1885 to 1899,
during which ‘trouble became
rather acute with the Thames
Conservancy owing to the