Excerpt: ... later on he has recourse to a mentor, the labours of both pupil and tutor will be more arduous than if the pupil 179 were a complete beginner; the pupil will require first to be untaught from his bad style before he is adapted for instruction in good action of limbs and body. Moreover, all rowing becomes so mechanical that the polished oarsman is almost as unconscious of merit in his style (save from what others may tell him of himself) as the duffer is of his various inelegancies. The very best oarsman is liable insidiously to develop faults in his own style which he himself, or a less scientific performer, would readily notice in another person. Hence, where men row together in a club, each can be of service to the other, in pointing out faults, of which the performer is unconscious. So that half-a-dozen oarsmen or scullers of equal class, if they will thus mutually assist each other, can attain between them a higher standard than if each had rowed like a hermit. Still more is the standard of oarsmanship raised among juniors when the older hands of a club take them in charge and coach them. In addition to this system of reciprocal education, a club fosters rivalry, and organises club races; and, in like manner, a plurality of clubs stimulates competition between clubs, and produces open racing between members of the rival institutions. College clubs seem to be the oldest on record. Some of them go back as early as the concluding years of George the Third. The rise of British oarsmanship has been traced in a preceding chapter . The oldest 'open' rowing club is the 'Leander.' When it originated seems to be uncertain, but it was considered relatively to be an 'old' club in 1837. Mr. G. D. Rowe, Hon. Secretary of the Club, has kindly extracted the following memoranda from the Club's history of its records: