We have alluded to the doubts at first in the minds of old Etonians about the eight going to Henley, and the great changes effected at that time. No one now will say that it was anything but unmixed good for the school. The convivial entertainments of Check nights and Oppidan dinners had already become institutions of a past age. Drinking and smoking had died out, and all that was wanted to stir the boys from lounging about in their skiffs under willow bushes and back streams was the excitement of a great annual race and the effort to qualify for a place in the eight. There have almost always been Eton men in the University crews, and since 1861 there have sometimes been as many as five in one crew, and certainly as many, if not more, in every 'Varsity' race. Eton has always had its full share of the Presidentships. Third Trinity, Cambridge, has never ceased to hold its own in a high position on the Cam, and we have never heard a word of any deterioration, and much the other way, of the moral effect on the boys of being coached during their training. The special advantage of having the river as a recreation place in addition to the playing fields puts Eton to the front in athletics among our public schools; and the use of varieties of boats from early life, under all sorts of difficulties, on a rapid stream, and having to keep his proper side to avoid other craft, makes the 'Wet bob' a first class waterman. _Floreat Etona._ CAPTAINS OF THE BOATS AND NOTABLE EVENTS. +----+------------------------+-------------------------------------+ |Year| Captain of the Boats | Notable Events | +----+------------------------+-------------------------------------+ |1812| G. Simson | -- | |1814| R. Wyatt | -- | |1815| T. Hill | -- | |1816| Bridgeman Simpson | -- | |1816| M. Bligh | -- | |1817| J. O. Secher | -- | |1818| J. H. Tuckfield | -- | |1819| R. Tuckfield | -- | |1820| Lord Dunlo | -- | |1821| M. Ashley | -- | |1822| J. A. Kinglake | -- | |1823| P. J. Nugent | -- | |1824| W. Carew | -- | |1825| A. Leith | -- | |1825| M. Clifford | -- | |1826| T. Staniforth | -- | |1827| T. H. Taunton | -- | |1828| T.