conclusion a plate was sent round to collect for the benefit of the artist. Chelsea Regatta was a grand day, usually about Whitsuntide, when rowing took place for various prizes, subscribed for by the inhabitants, the publicans being the most active promoters, and the leading gentry patrons and liberal subscribers; first among them the Bayfords and the Owens, great rowing men and very liberal to the watermen. I think one of the Bayfords was the first winner of the silver sculls. The amount collected at a time would be as much as fifty or sixty pounds. There was a grand prize, a boat to cost twenty pounds, and various money prizes. The limit of entries was twelve, to be drawn by lot by Chelsea watermen, with certain restrictions. The race was in two heats, six in a heat, the first and second in the two heats to row in the final; the course from a point opposite the “Yorkshire Grey” stairs, round a boat moored opposite the “Adam and Eve,” back and round a boat moored opposite the Brunswick Tea Gardens at Nine Elms, and back to the starting point. The waterside on a regatta day was like a fair, as there were always two or three mountebanks, a circus and a dancing booth on the various pieces of vacant ground in the neighbourhood of the river. Some of the performers, dressed as clowns, played a kind of river tournament, sitting straddle-legged on beer barrels afloat, tilting at each other with long poles; the fun was to see them tumble each other into the water. Then there was the old woman drawn in a washing tub by four geese. After each display the performers would march with a band to their different places of entertainment. From out of the fund provided, there were prizes given for running in sacks, and climbing the greasy pole for a leg of mutton fixed at the top, and a prize for running along a greased pole placed horizontally from the stem of a coal barge, and extending over the water some twenty feet. On a barge moored opposite the end of the pole were four spars radiating with a basket at the end of each from a capstan that revolved, containing a prize, and just within reach of the end of the greased pole. One was usually a small live pig, others a fat goose or a live duck with its wings cut. The “running the pole” was most difficult, for as soon as you got near the prize at the end of the pole it would be dipped by the weight and slip you off into the water; while if you got to the end of the pole and touched the basket as it revolved it would fly away from you. The live prize was the most difficult to contend with, for you had to fight with it to get it on shore. The proceedings all finished up with a grand display of fireworks. On the following day the boat decked with flags, in a van, would be drawn round the principal streets with the watermen who had been engaged in the contest, singing some doggerel verses composed for the occasion, and thanking the people for their liberal subscriptions.