Ideas of Leisure, Pleasure and the River in Early Modern England Karen V. Lykke Syse Introduction From the earliest stages of human development, rivers have been central to the way in which we perceive life. From the Ganges to the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates, rivers have been worshipped and venerated. Civilisation has grown up around rivers, tied societies together and kept cultures apart. Rivers have always been highways and frontiers. They have had, and continue to have, multivariate uses. They are sources of water and energy, and the basis of social power. Their importance as networks for transport and travel is undisputable. Although the actual materiality of the river has always been useful to humans, rivers are also associated with a rich symbolism. Rivers have been used as metaphors for most aspects of being human. They symbolise birth and rebirth, life and death, the passage from life to death. Rivers are borders, not only material borders between properties, counties or countries, but also borders between life and death. In western mythology, the river Styx is perhaps the best known example of this. The river is a body of water that is forever flowing and never the same; as such, it is the embodiment of liminality. In many cultures, rivers are divine. In Britain, the Druids worshipped rivers, something which has been noted by historians like Gildas as early as the 6th century (Gildas, 1841:355‐360). In Celtic culture, the river deities were often female. The Anglo‐Celtic goddess Latis was associated with water. She was originally a lake goddess who fell passionately in love with a salmon. Most Gallic rivers are named after mother‐goddesses, and most Celtic river names are also female (Rekdal, 2006). Other British rivers, like the Thames, for instance, were male deities. As such, British rivers are also liminal with regard to the gender 35 with which they are associated. The rich symbolism and liminality of rivers can be used to explain why, historically, they have played such interesting roles as venues for leisure. Beyond this, the leisure activities particular to the vicinity of rivers had many unique characteristics. For example, leisure centred around rivers involved more fluid borders between class and gender than that which one would otherwise expect to find in early modern England (Walton, 1983). During early modern times, rivers were considered dangerous. If the role of water in everyday life is taken into account, this is not surprising. People needed to be in direct contact with rivers, streams and other open sources of fresh water in order to carry out their daily activities. Buckets and tubs of water were needed for animals to drink, and for various household chores in and around the house or farm. Children were warned to stay away from rivers and their treacherous currents; the risk of drowning was great, making riverbanks dangerous places. Coroners’ records from the sixteenth century show that as many as 53 per cent of all accidental deaths were caused by drowning (Towner and Towner, 2000:102‐105). Rivers themselves gave rise to damp chills, vapours and fog, all of which were considered unhealthy and dangerous. Flood records show that even meandering rivers, although most of the time fairly benign, could suddenly swallow up fields and houses and tear away bridges (Ackroyd, 2007:183 and 221). People who worked on rivers were also considered dangerous. Not only did they occasionally master something that frightened other people, but they also had the river as an arena for their everyday lives. The ferryman, although engaged in a most practical job, was also a symbol of the crossing from the land of the living to the land of the dead. River people knew where the treacherous currents were, and they had the power to extend or withdraw services on which many people living by the river were dependent. Bargees, watermen and river gypsies existed as a separate and exclusive caste, which, to outsiders, had a reputation for violence and theft. Their members married and intermarried. They were known for their unconventional fishing practices, they knew where 36 medicinal plants grew along the riverbeds, and were often referred to in the same way as witches. Perhaps this was because they held knowledge about the river that most people feared as an unknown entity. The river was physically unstable, and it eluded social control. An example of this lack of social control is that on the river everyone felt free to swear, and a term for swearing was actually ‘water‐language’, comparable to ‘gutter language’ – another metaphor linking class and water. One of the best‐ known references to the river’s questionable effect on one’s vocabulary is perhaps in Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat: ‘The mildest tempered people, when on land, become violent and blood­thirsty when in a boat. I did a little boating once with a young lady. She was naturally of the sweetest and gentlest disposition imaginable, but on the river it was quite awful to hear her’ (Jerome et al., 1998:151). Although the river was perilous, it was also purifying; not because its water was necessary for washing, but in a more spiritual way. During witches’ trials, it was widely held to be possible to assess whether or not the accused was guilty by seeing whether she would float or sink when thrown in the river. It is perhaps less well known that the river was also used to purify bad language. A so called ducking chair (fig. 1) was attached to a rope, and any foul mouthed ‘scold’ would be tied to the chair and ducked in the water three times to ensure her purification (Fletcher, 1995:273, MacFarlane, 1847:68). Even if the river was, in this sense, considered purifying and sometimes benign, it was mostly regarded as hazardous, and the people who mastered it were viewed as disreputable (Wiggelsworth and Foot, 1992:43). There was, however, one exception; lock keepers were looked upon as jovial and amicable characters. During the early period of industrialisation in Britain, in cases where the river was directed, held, sluiced and thereby tamed, it became less dangerous, and the people responsible for harnessing it were similarly considered less threatening. This 37 might also be connected to the period in which the river became an important arena for leisure in early modern England. Although use of the concept ‘leisure’ in pre‐ modern historiography is contested and often referred to as an anachronism (Burke, 1995, Rabinow and Rose, 2003), the first definition of leisure is actually to be found in the early fourteenth century. It had the same meaning as today, which is freedom from work. Furthermore, the term ‘weekend’ entered the English language as early as 1638 (Merriam‐ Webster, 2004). Even if many people had little freedom from work, if any at all, Sunday had more or less been a day of leisure since Fig. 1. Image of Ducking chair from Curious Punishments of Bygone Days Christianity arrived in (Earle, 1896). England in the third century. If we take a long‐term perspective, we can in fact see the slow evolution of leisure‐ consciousness emerging amongst the privileged classes sometime between 1300 and 1800. This development might be related to social control and civilising processes (Elias and Howell, 1999). Whatever the fundamental dynamics might be, there were undoubtedly a range of specific arenas in which leisure activities began to take place. The special lure of riverine and riparian landscapes was clearly evident from the medieval 38 period onwards. Although Britain is an island, more people had access to its rivers than its ocean. River swimming was well established before the growth in resorts and spas by the sea (Hembry, 1990). Certainly, benign rivers were necessary for these early leisure pursuits. What happened when the river became an increasingly popular venue for recreation, and what kinds of recreation evolved? Below, I present three leisure activities conducted alongside the river, on the river and in the river. Angling Perhaps the most well known recreational pastime undertaken alongside the river is angling. The first significant surviving work we know of in relation to angling is the Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle, purportedly written by Dame Juliana Berners in 1496. The book contains beautiful illustrations of tackle, and a sharp woodcut of an angler using a rod with line and float, which is probably the first British illustration of the sport. Contemporary sources argue that Dame Juliana did not write the text herself. Even so, this is the first work that is a real manual with detailed instructions on all the important aspects of making tackle as well as using it. There are instructions on bait, hooks, floats, and on the construction of lines and rods. She even provides templates from which to make flies associated with the different months of the year. Although Dame Juliana’s authorship is questionable, her name is associated indisputably with this first record of British angling (Radcliffe, 1921). There are other works on fishing, such as John Dennys Secrets of Angling (1613) and Gervase Markham’s section ‘The Art of Angling’ in Cheape and Goode Husbandry (1614 ) but, nevertheless, the most significant early modern book about fishing is Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler (1653). In fact, well outside the angling community, The Compleat Angler is considered to be one of the most important English books ever written; only the Bible has been published in more editions. Through his main character, Piscatore, Izaak Walton conveys Renaissance ideals built on the concept of the pastoral. Piscatore, 39 Izaak Walton’s angler, approaches the river as both a philosopher and scientist. One of his many philosophical contemplations lingers on the pleasure and importance of leisure. ‘Twas an imployment for his idle time, which was not idly spent’ (Walton, 1653:33) . The ideal angler is a wise man, just as Bishop Joseph Hall describes in 1631: ‘he is both an apt scholler and an excellent master; for both everything he sees informes him, and his mind enriched with plentiful observation, can give the best precepts. His free discourse runs backe to ages past(…)’ (Joseph Hall after Røstvig, 1954:159). For Walton, angling was not only the idle pursuit of catching fish. Rather, it was an occasion for contemplating nature, and obtaining supporting evidence for observations and reflections on nature through engagement with the natural sciences. Nature, as God’s creation, was explained to the reader through science. This connection between the theology of nature and natural science makes The Compleat Angler particularly interesting; understanding nature was an acknowledgement of the significance of God’s creation (Mostue, 1999:53). As such, engaging with the river and explaining it through natural science became both a pleasure and a calling. Walton also justifies angling as a form of idleness that can be justified as contemplation as well as food‐gathering. Following this, we might ask who is going fishing, as the constituency for the book in class terms is evidently Isaak Walton’s circle of literate contemporaries rather than one of fishermen or milkmaids. Walton’s choice of genre reflects his own and his reader’s social placement and literary knowledge. It is perhaps fitting that he uses the pastoral genre while explaining how a utilitarian task such as fishing for food can become the epitome of leisure. Isaak Walton regarded angling as the perfect compromise between the social need for peace and civility, and the individual need for excitement and fraternity (Franklin, 2001). This perfect compromise is conducted beside the water but nonetheless involves significant interaction with it (fig. 2). 40 Fig. 2. Angling by the river. From Walton’s The Complete Angler (1808). Although the gendered term ‘fraternity’ was often used in texts, angling was considered a suitable riverside pastime for both men and women. Even if the early literature on angling only hints at this, there are several other sources that emphasise female 41 participation in angling in Britain from the early seventeenth century onwards. This is discussed thoroughly in Nicholas D. Smith’s article ‘Reel Women: Women and Angling in Eighteenth‐ Century England’ (Smith, 2003). Smith’s historiography of female anglers extends back to mid‐ seventeenth‐century England and offers the basis for an understanding of the social milieu of eighteenth‐century angling culture. Smith’s work demonstrates the existence of an essential ambivalence regarding the social and cultural position of female anglers. He argues that the legitimacy of angling as a leisure pursuit for women began to be questioned towards the end of the eighteenth century. The questions that evolved related to the idea of humanity towards animals and whether women in general ought to partake in cruel amusements. Sentiments like this were, according to Keith Thomas (1984), part of the transition to a more modern perception of nature. Without dismissing either questions of sensitivity towards nature or the evolving differences between ‘suitable’ leisure activities for men and women, it is possible to argue that, through angling, the river was mastered by both sexes in early modern England, and that female angling has been common for a long time (Smith, 2003). As discussed, it is accepted that the river has long been a place for food gathering by different classes and both genders. However, early modern sources also demonstrate how the river became an established venue for contemplative leisure in pre‐industrial England. Swimming Learning how to swim was another leisure‐time way of mastering the river. In the present, swimming is an activity readily associated with sunny holidays and rural venues. In what ways were rivers used for swimming in the past? Sources that might help unveil the cultural and social history of swimming in pre‐industrial England are difficult to locate. This is surprising, because swimming is such a widely practiced activity. In an attempt to remedy the situation, the historian Nicholas Orme conducted some impressive ground research in 1983 with Early British Swimming (Orme, 1983), but few others have been 42 inspired to augment the historiography. The next major work on swimming was Christopher Love’s A Social History of Swimming in England 1800­1918. Although Love fills in many gaps in our understanding of swimming during this later period, the swimming habits of the English during in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are still relatively unexplored. Early literary sources such as Ovid and Cicero describe swimming as a healthy and manly activity, and a pleasurable way of passing time (Orme, 1983:5). Anglo‐Saxon and Viking sources show that the Roman tradition of swimming continued to be practiced in England. However, by the medieval period there was probably a decline in the number of people who mastered the skill. Throughout this period, it seems as if swimming was mainly a male activity, even if there are occasional references to female participation. In the sixteenth century, the Renaissance stimulated interest in swimming, and it is in the same period that we get the first treatises on swimming (Orme, 1983:6‐40). Swimming techniques and venues did not seem to change during the centuries that followed the Roman period, but the interest in swimming grew. According to Orme there are three reasons for this new interest. One was biblical scholarship, which allowed more people to understand and interpret biblical references to swimming. Secondly, overseas expansion leading to contact with cultures and nations where swimming was practised also supported the new interest in mastering aquatic skills. Finally, and probably most importantly, classical studies reemphasised swimming as a skill one ought to master (Orme, 1983:51). Heroes swim, and warriors swim. In Utopia (published 1516‐17), Thomas More refers to the armour of Utopia’s soldiers, which was so light and strong that it was possible to swim in it (More et al., 1852:168). Only two years later, the headmasters of Eton and Winchester published a series of sentences that were considered easy for boys to translate to Latin; one of them was Children do learn to swim leaning upon the rind of a tree, and another was learn to swim without a cork (Orme, 1983:51). The River Thames was probably the closest venue for teaching young Etonian boys to swim. Later, during Tudor times, the tutor Sir J. 43 Elyot advised young boys to take part in various forms of amusement including tennis, wrestling, running and swimming (Thornbury, 1856:402). Nevertheless, the earliest swimming manual written in English is by Everard Digby who wrote A short Introduction for to learne to Swimme in Latin in 1587. An English translation followed in 1595 (Digby, 1587, Digby and Middleton, 1595). For the purposes of this chapter, the beautiful and at times amusing illustrations and commentaries in A short Introduction for to learnne to Swimme are perhaps just as interesting as the actual swimming instructions themselves. In all of the plates, the venue for swimming and swimming instruction is a river. In fact, there are no references to the sea at all. Digby is exhaustive in his explanation of the ideal place in to learn to swim: ‘In the place is two things especially to be respected. First, that the banks be not overgrown with rank thick grass where oft­ times do lie and lurk many stinging serpents and poisoned toads; not full of thorns, briars, stubs or thistles which may offend the bare feet, but that the grass be short, thin and green, the bank beset with shady trees which may be a shelter from the wind and shadow from the parching head of the sun. Next, that the water itself be clear, not troubled with any kind of slimy filth which is very infectious to the skin; that the breadth, depth and length thereof be sufficiently known; that it be not muddy at the bottom, lest by much treading, the filth rising up from the bottom thicken the water, and so make it unfit for that purpose’ (Digby and Middleton, 1595:15­16). Digby’s riparian venue is also the pastoral ideal. Indeed, the illustrations show both men in ruffs pulling off their garments and cattle grazing along the riverbanks. 44 Fig. 3. Swimmers from Percey’s Compleat Swimmer in 1658. 45 In the seventeenth century, judging by the number of sources that mention swimming, it seems as if the delights of the river were becoming increasingly popular. Digby’s A short Introduction for to learnne to Swimme was in part plagiarised by William Percey, who published the Compleat Swimmer in 1658, an unacknowledged English translation of Digby’s manual that included some of Percey’s own comments (fig. 3): ‘To proceed to declare the ends of swimming, they are many: some delight herein, to cool themselves from the parching beams of the Sun, to clearifie their bodies of sweat, to whiten and purifie the skin: others use this excellent Art for the delight and pleasure of the exercise, others practise this Art to fortifie themselves for the danger of waters (…)’ (Percey, 1658:3) The passage above identifies three aspects of the river (and of swimming). Firstly, there is a recreational value associated with delight, pleasure and exercise. Secondly, that the clearifying, whitening and refreshing water itself has purification qualities, and finally, that it is dangerous. However, Percy also shows how, if one follows the rules set out in the book, it is possible to conquer the dangerous aspects of the river. These rules include timing; only swim during the months of May, June, July and August (ibid:9) and only swim during daytime ‘because the Devil lurks in deep waters, and other dangers do also occur’ such ‘as fumes and thick poisonous vapours in the Air by reason of the absence of the Sun’ (ibid: 11). One must not swim every day, nor when it rains. The days and hours of the change or new moon are also particularly bad for swimming. Like Walton before him, Percy conveys how natural science, and acute observation of one’s surroundings, can be used to understand and overcome the dangers of the river. Percy also emphasises the importance of finding the right sort of riverbanks. He argues that they should be of gravel rather than sand or mud, which was dangerous, and that they should preferably be adjacent to pleasant meadows of green grass. This is because after one’s swim, it is beneficial to run around in the 46 grass while chewing on a piece of bread to satisfy the hunger one always gets from swimming. The texts conveys how ‘many things may be done in the water, that cannot be performed on land’. Fig. 4. Paring ones toes in the river. From Christofer Middleton's 1595 translation of Everard Digby's De Arte natandi (1587). 47 The author has tried to kiss his toes while standing on the land and found it impossible, yet he claims it can be done with ease in the water. This is depicted, along with instructions on using the river as a place in which to cut toenails (fig. 4): ‘holding a knife in your right hand, lift up your left legg, and with it draw your foot to your right knee: being thus ordered, take hold of it with your left hand; and being thus held, take hold of your Toes with your right hand; touch them and handle them as you please, and pare them at pleasure; for you may safely do it, and without danger’ (ibid:62). Although Percey’s swimming was a leisure activity, the action described above also integrated an aspect of utility. Water was an aid to cleanliness and hygiene in a hands‐on, practical way. Moreover, the passage above reflects how the art of swimming provides total control of both the element and the body. Reading the Compleat Swimmer shows how the river has been used as a place of enjoyment by children and adults unable to swim, but nonetheless able to bathe in it. Although we have no statistics of swimming ability in early modern England, it was arguably not general knowledge. Texts like the Compleat Swimmer and the Art of Swimming contain the first written traces of an ideology aimed at physically mastering nature. Swimming was literally a full immersion of the river. Such immersion was also considered beneficial to health, and so the history of swimming cannot be isolated from the ongoing discourse regarding the benefits of water in general. The physician Sir John Floyer (1649‐1734) recorded the remedial use of certain springs by the countrymen in his neighbourhood, and explored the history of coldwater bathing. In 1702, he published Psychrolousia, Or, the History of Cold Bathing, both Ancient and Modern. Interestingly, the book makes a rational connection between religious ideas of healing and evidential science, tracing the history of both medicinal and magical, or sacramental, healing to ancient times: 48 ‘Natural Religion, invented by our Rational Faculties, and grounded on the Vertues of Cold Immersion, which might by some accident be then discovered; the use of Water being so frequent, and the most natural and easy Method for cleansing of the Body, and that was thought by the Common People to cleanse away Sin; but by the Philosopher to represent and produce an inward Purity in the Mind; for which reason all Mankind used to wash themselves before their Sacrifices, and both Religious and Medicinal Immersions must be as ancient as Sacrifices themselves’ (Floyer and Baynard, 1715:2). Floyer’s evidential historiography became popular. Within a few years, the book ran through six editions. Other writers continued the tradition. Dr John Summers of Bath wrote A short account of the success of warm bathing in paralytic disorders (Summers, 1751). Dr John Fothergill set up his Rules for the Preservation of Health Being the Result of Many Years Practice (Fothergill, 1762). Dr James Currie (1756‐1805) of Liverpool followed with his Medical Reports on the Effects of Water, Cold and Warm, as a Remedy in Fevers and Other Diseases (1797). Currie also discussed scientifically the benefits of water. Societies to promote the benefits of water immersion were by this point being formed across Britain. Hydrotherapy became highly popular, and, in the eighteenth century, a vast number of water‐ based health regimes evolved. Whole towns were erected on the basis of the health‐giving properties of water, most of which were located in southern England. Epson was highly popular between 1690 and 1710, as was Tunbridge Wells. Scarborough and Bath came into vogue in the 1720’s (Hembry, 1990:355‐ 360). A series of spas were established in the early eighteenth century, with sea‐bathing emerging as an elite practice in the 1720s (Pimlott, 1947:51‐52). By the end of the seventeenth century, even the philosopher John Locke could extol the health benefits of swimming in terms of its provision of exercise and exposure to the open air (Locke, 1693). During the early eighteenth century, practical and scientific discussions on the benefits of swimming were coupled with a new literary interest in the ‘noble savage’ living in barely 49 explored territories across the globe (Orme, 1983). By the early eighteenth century, the river was well established as a place for bathing and swimming, with bathing stations and bathing machines easing access from the riverbanks. The fashion‐ conscious had followed the river’s current out towards the seaside resorts, and swimming in the sea became all the rage. The health benefits of salt water lured the leisure‐seeking public towards the coast, while rivers, if not polluted by industry, remained a venue for bathing, dipping and swimming for a cross‐ section of social classes. Water was now controllable not only by the human mind, as with the building of bridges, mills and canals through engineering, but by the body. Previously, most bathing had been passive ducking, but through swimming the element was more actively embraced. On entering the liminal element of the river, one showed full mastery of the natural world. English rivers seemed perfectly suited for swimming, and perhaps this is why swimming as a sport was first established here. In the nineteenth century – the high period of sporting development – formally organised swimming emerged in England ahead of any other country. As early as 1837, the first swimming competitions were established (Love, 2007). The first Women’s Championship was instituted in 1901, and, in the 1912 Olympics, female swimmers competed for the first time. Women’s swimming did much to advance women’s rights, as many early female swimmers set overall world records, overtaking their male counterparts in terms of both speed and distance, something that put extra emphasis on the question of equality of the sexes. Rowing and Sculling The first reference to a ‘regata’ appeared in Venetian documentation; Venice’s dependence on water transport provided a natural venue for the evolution of medieval and Renaissance water festivals. By 1315, the Venetian regatta included boat races amongst other forms of aquatic display and entertainment (Dodd, 1992). Although a great number of rivers intersect England, and although these rivers were imperative for transport in mediaeval and early modern times, boating for 50 leisure was established later than either angling or swimming. In other words, rowing for leisure differs from the two other activities described above. Although both angling and swimming were useful activities of sorts, they did not develop out of a profession. As explained above, angling was a well‐established pastime in the late fifteenth century, and swimming and bathing were relatively common pastimes in the late sixteenth century. Yet it was probably not until the eighteenth century that rowing emerged as a leisure activity, certainly in terms of being organised in any formal way (fig. 5). Rowing was an activity connected to transport (and fishing) across the sea and on rivers. There are several references to such transport in English history throughout Roman, Saxon and Viking times. King Harold’s defeat at Stanford Bridge is well known, and in later sources there are many references to the importance of rowing. In the sixteenth century, the inland waterway trade was already thriving, and extra navigation channels had been cut to ease access throughout the island. London’s river‐based transport system was expansive in comparison to other British cities. It was the biggest city in Europe, a Venice of the North. The River Thames had its own estuarine peculiarities. Even so, the technology and usage that developed here was not isolated from the rest of the island. Samuel Pepys’ diary shows how the Thames was used as a highway; there are more references to Pepys ‘going by water’ than by coach on his various businesses. On the 1st of May in 1664 he wrote: ‘(Lord's day). Lay long in bed. Went not to church, but stayed at home to examine my last night's accounts, which I find right, and that I am 908l creditor in the world, the same I was last month. Dined, and after dinner down by water with my wife and Besse with great pleasure as low as Greenwich and so back, playing as it were leisurely upon the water to Deptford, where I landed and sent my wife up higher to land below Half­way house. I to the King's yard and there spoke about several businesses with the officers, and so with Mr. Wayth consulting about canvas, to Half­way house where my wife was, and after 51 eating there we broke and walked home before quite dark. So to supper, prayers, and to bed’ (Pepys and Latham, 1985:382). Fig. 5. Explaining rowing. From Walker's Manly Exercises (1856). Rowing was first described in the third edition, from 1835. Samuel Pepys and his contemporaries were utterly dependent on the watermen and barges for transport. Even so, we hear of no recreational races in the late sixteen hundreds. However, in 1715 Thomas Doggett established a race for watermen on the Tideway in London, with a prize of a coat and a special badge (Halladay, 1990:8). The race established by Doggett was for the professional watermen themselves to participate in, in competition against each other. ‘Dogget’s coat and badge race’ is still held annually. Not until 1775 do we find sources that refer to a major water festival and regatta in England. This first formal regatta with open participation for amateurs took place in 1775, and the participating boats were referred to as ‘vessels of pleasure’, which means that these were not working boats (ibid:254). In 1793, the first recorded Procession of the Boats 52 was held at Eton College, and the custom of organizing groups of boys from the same master’s house to obtain a boat for pleasure, exercise or to compete with another house, was institutionalized. Rowing races became festive occasions and rowing itself became a spectator sport. The Henley regatta, established in 1839, is perhaps the best known of these races. Since the amateur rowers had no chance of beating the professional watermen at racing, they formed their own clubs, excluding those who performed manual labour. Although class bias excluded watermen from participating in these particular races, they still raced against each other, as they could not be excluded from the river itself. ‘Wager’ racing could supplement a waterman’s income, and as they were paid about the same as household staff, they would supplement this income by extra gratuities for fast passages (Wiggelsworth and Foot, 1992:17). As early as 1814, only 40 years after male amateurs started competing formally, a regatta held in Chester included a race for women. The following year, the first college boat club was organized at Oxford University, and in 1829, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge began to compete against each other. By 1839, the Henley Regatta was formalised by the newly‐ established Amateur Club. (Wigglesworth, 1986:205). Interestingly, these amateurs ‘took on’ the suspect and dangerous element of the watermen, and began to master the danger of the river while at the same time pursuing what had now become a laudable pastime. Rowing and sculling was healthy for body and soul, and did not involve drinking or other vices. In 1886, F.J. Furnivall founded the Hammersmith Sculling Club for Girls and Men due to his belief that ‘the exclusion of women from aquatic sport was pernicious’. He encouraged working‐class women to row, and espoused the merits of sculling over the moral perils of alternative pastimes such as gambling (Wigglesworth, 1986:107). In 1880, Lady Grenville believed it ‘essential that every English girl should learn to row since now that everything is changed it is seen to be the very best thing for her’ (Grenville, 1880). The date 1880 is significant, because women’s intellectual and political emancipation had 53 started to emerge in the 1870’s, most notably with the Women’s Property Act of 1870 and the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1878 (Wigglesworth, 1986:107). Even though it is easy to trace women’s entry into the sport of rowing, it is also easy to distinguish the prejudice and exclusion flagged up by the standpoint taken by various amateur rowing clubs. Nevertheless, women elbowed their way in, thereby challenging the biased ideological status quo. Conclusion With respect to leisure, the river has been a site of special social significance in many ways. However, it has been of particular importance where ideas of gender are concerned. A point worthy of consideration is that of the river’s symbolic liminality and its ‘otherness’, which might have served to enable its use as an arena for leisure across established social structures. The river was, and is, the front to another world, a world where social class and gender are differently ordered. The river was central to the way in which the idea and ideologies of leisure unfolded in Britain from the 1300s onwards. This has not been sufficiently recognised, and the omission needs rectifying, particularly since the examination and contemplation of the extent and nature of river‐based leisure activities can shed new light on the wider socio‐cultural landscape of Britain. References ACKROYD, P. 2007. Thames: sacred river, London, Chatto & Windus. BURKE, P. 1995. The Invention of Leisure. Early Modern Europe Past and Present, 146, 136‐140. CURRIE, J. M. D. 1797. Medical Reports on the Effects of Water, Cold and Warm, as a Remedy in Fever, and Febrile Diseases; whether applied to the surface of the body, or used as a drink: with observations on the nature of fever; and on the effects of opium, alcohol, and inanition, pp. x. 252. 45. vii. Printed by J. 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