E. Johnson first edition - 1901
A year ago, I purchased a lovely copy of the above - in full blue morocco with red and brown morocco onlays to the upper board depicting a pair of crossed oars above a river motif in gilt - from Sky Duthie Rare Books of York. I am not particularly interested in rowing, but I have punted on both the Cam and the Cherwell. The book is a collection of short pieces of poetry and prose originally published in the Eagle - St. John's College, Cambridge annual review founded by the poet Thomas Ashe in 1859 and still going strong. It includes not only an overview of the previous academic year, but also articles and reports on sports activities and other features. The reason I bought Down by the River (I had searched for it for many years) was because it was written by Robert Henry Forster, an author I had been collecting for over thirty years . Born in March 1867 at Backworth, Northumberland, he was the fourth son of George Baker Forster, a mining engineer. Robert went to Harrow and then up to St. John's in 1885. He achieved a Law Tripos. As a student he rowed in the first Boat of his college's Lady Margaret Boat Club, between 1887 and 1888, at stroke and then at bow, not only at Cambridge but also in the famous Henley Regatta. His boat won the Thames Cup at Henley. His father had rowed for St. John's in 1852 and 1853. In 1890, Robert published the official History of the Lady Margaret Boat Club 1825-1890. My copy has on its fly leaf John Merivall fr G.B. Forster, July 1890. It is interesting to note that both father and son won the "Bateman" Pairs: in 1853 and in 1889 and 1890.
"Bill" (Vanity Fair Supplement)
Robert maintained his love for rowing by becoming joint secretary of the Thames Rowing Club in 1892 with his friend L.H.K. Bushe-Fox, Starting out with a legal career in mind, he was called to the Bar in 1892; however, his writing soon took precedence, to be joined by his archaeological interests. His fascination with the past was already evident in the papers that made up The Amateur Antiquary (1899). It was consolidated in his series of historical novels, nearly all set in the North-East, and by his academic papers, but found its greatest expression working on the Corstopitum excavations at Corbridge in Northumberland. Robert became Treasurer of the British Archaeological Association in 1905 and a vice-president in 1911.
He married Margaret Hope, quite late in life, and eventually settled in Devon. He died at Rest Dod, Combeinteignhead on 6th June 1923, aged only 56. The last of his volumes of poetry, A Devonshire Garden (1923) was published posthumously. Despite their evident popularity in his day, Robert's books are relatively hard to come by (particularly in good condition). Fame is a transient thing!
What of Down by the River? I must admit I struggled with parts of it. The poetry, often mixed in with the prose, rarely rose above good amateur verse. The first two articles are set on the River Cam and would surely appeal to the rowing fraternity. Throughout the book, the prose is leavened with touches of humour: "There ain't a river in the land / I'd swop for my dear old Ditch".
In fact, it is just these peculiarities that constitute its principal charm, as supplying in the first place an inexhaustible source of what I may call grumbling material - without which no pleasure in life is complete - and secondly a never failing excuse for bad rowing, being efficiently aided in the latter respect by the eccentricities of boats and oars, and still more by the shortcomings of other people... (In The Eagle, December 1893).
And this poem concerning a fractious Pair:
Stroke.
"Why did I row in a pair?
Why wasn't I sooner beheaded?
Why is bow's oar in the air,
While mine in the mud is embedded?"...
Bow.
"Difficult 'tis top discern
Why o'er the stretcher stroke lingers.
Why does he bury the stern,
And bark on the gunwale my fingers?"...
And again:
"Ah!" murmured the poet,
"There once was a captain who steered,
But his second appearance is feared;
or two funnies, one whiff,
Three fours, and a skiff
Are said to have quite disappeared."
And this:
"His attitudes are quaint
His back is bent and flabby,
Suggestive of a saint
In some flamboyant abbey;
In weird spasmodic jerks
He does his clumsy toiling,
As though his rusty works
Most sadly wanted oiling."
Other pieces are more 'miss' than 'hit' with me - e.g. The Debutante and Grandfather Nile, the latter trying to prove the earliest use of oars was in ancient Egypt. It ends: To the Egyptians may be ascribed the honour of being the inventors of rowing; but it was the Phoenicians who rescued the art from Egyptian conservatism, and had the largest share in its extension and development.
The penultimate piece (from The Eagle for March 1901) the story of Ag the Boatman, and his desire for wedded bliss with Isca, who lived on the other side of a wide river with her grudging father Urt, is the most interesting section in the book - to the non-rower, that is. His trials and tribulations until he works out how to construct a boat from logs etc. is quite well done. The final article, On the Tideway (the only one not to have featured in the College magazine) is a simple story of the Thames and its river users.
Down by the River now joins the rest of my R.H. Forster collection; I am pleased I finally tracked it down and quite enjoyed reading a book on a subject I did not have much interest in!
First editions in my Library:-
Historical Novels:
1898: The Hand of the Spoiler
1902: A Tynedale
1903: The Last Foray
1904: In Steel and Leather
1905: Strained Allegiance
1906: The Arrow of the North
1907: The Mistress of Aydon
1908: A Jacobite Admiral
1909: Harry of Athol
1911: Midsummer Morn
1913: The Little Maister
Poetry:
1903: Idylls of the North
1905: In Old Northumbria
1914: War Poems of a Northumbrian 1st series
1915: War Poems of a Northumbrian 2nd series
1920: The Double Realm
1922: Two Romances in Verse
1923: A Devonshire Garden
Miscellaneous:
1890: The History of the Lady Margaret Boat Club
1895: The Postgraduates, A Suggestion for a Comic Opera
1899: The Amateur Antiquary
1901: Down by the River
+ several papers in Journals on Archaeology.
Those in red I have not been able to collect yet.
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