Downstream

age from fifteen into their
forties and ‘probably even
older’, all wearing ‘slight
bathing drawers’. One
competitor from Coventry did
well up to Mortlake, ‘when
the poor lad was handed in
half dead’. Many ‘struggled
on until they were dead beat’
and were hauled out of the
water ‘in a very exhausted
condition’. Similar races,
commented the press, ‘are not
likely to become popular’.