The outstanding event in rowing circles during these years was the famous race between the Oxford and Harvard fours on August 27, 1869. _Punch_ celebrated the victory of Oxford in a notice giving the names of those who took part in the contest, congratulating Oxford, and wishing health to both crews, the accompanying cartoon representing a gigantic brawny John Bull shaking hands with a muscular but comparatively slim Uncle Sam, both in rowing trim, with the legend "Well Rowed All!" _Punch_, as umpire, remarks: "Ha, dear boys, you've only to pull together to lick all the world!" The sentiment is better than the treatment. Unluckily the race led to some acrimonious comment in the New York papers on British sportsmanship, and _Punch_, in his rejoinder, was more vigorous than polite. River "aquatics" have not always been free from recrimination. The origin of the famous retort to bargees, "Who ate puppy pie under Marlow Bridge?" is obscure; but it is mentioned as far back as the Almanack for 1858. [Illustration: PRACTISING FOR A MATCH LEONORA: "Dear! Dear! How the arrow sticks!" CAPTAIN BLANK (with a sigh of the deepest): "It does, indeed!"] [Sidenote: _Croquet and Flirtation_] "Golf Sticks" are alluded to in January, 1858, but during the rest of this period I find no further mention of golf. Of social pastimes archery is still in favour, but croquet is by far the most frequently referred to. To judge from the pictures, croquet, then in its unscientific infancy, was played on lawns innocent of mowing machines or scythes. It was mainly an excuse for flirtation between Charles and Clara; and the cheating earlier mentioned was regarded as quite fair game. _Punch_ dealt with it in a serial poem of heroic proportions in the year 1863. This epic--for it was little less--ran to seven numbers, but it is not memorable apart from its length. When the Croquet Tournament was held at Wimbledon in 1870, _Punch_ was ready to acknowledge the presence of Queens of Beauty, but could not accord the men players a higher title than that of Carpet Knights. [Illustration: CROQUET CHORUS OF OFFENDED MAIDENS: "Well! If Clara and Captain de Holster are going on in that ridiculous manner--we may as well leave off playing."] [Illustration: LAWN TENNIS MISS MAUD: "How do we stand?" CAPTAIN LOVELACE: "They are six to our love; and 'love' always means nothing, you know." MISS MAUD: "Always?"] [Sidenote: _Lawn Tennis_] "Aunt Sally"--alleged to have been introduced by the Duke of Beaufort--is portrayed as a novel adjunct to the amenities of garden parties in 1860 by Leech. Roller-skating came in about 1873, and about the same time lawn tennis having survived its early name of "Sphairistikè," began to attract the attention of _Punch's_ artists. The implements employed have a prehistoric appearance, but the pastime, thought still in its insular, garden-party and "pat-ball" stage, inspired some graceful lines in 1874:-- LAWN TENNIS