M'Cormick, now Rector of St. James's, Piccadilly, are reproduced in
'The Note-Books of Samuel Butler' (1912).

He also steered the Lady Margaret first boat, and Canon M'Cormick
told me of a mishap that occurred on the last night of the races in
1857. Lady Margaret had been head of the river since 1854, Canon
M'Cormick was rowing 5, Philip Pennant Pearson (afterwards P.
Pennant) was 7, Canon Kynaston, of Durham (whose name formerly was
Snow), was stroke, and Butler was cox. When the cox let go of the
bung at starting, the rope caught in his rudder lines, and Lady
Margaret was nearly bumped by Second Trinity. They escaped, however,
and their pursuers were so much exhausted by their efforts to catch
them that they were themselves bumped by First Trinity at the next
corner. Butler wrote home about it:


11 March, 1857. Dear Mamma: My foreboding about steering was on the
last day nearly verified by an accident which was more deplorable
than culpable the effects of which would have been ruinous had not
the presence of mind of No. 7 in the boat rescued us from the very
jaws of defeat. The scene is one which never can fade from my
remembrance and will be connected always with the gentlemanly conduct
of the crew in neither using opprobrious language nor gesture towards
your unfortunate son but treating him with the most graceful
forbearance; for in most cases when an accident happens which in
itself is but slight, but is visited with serious consequences, most
people get carried away with the impression created by the last so as
to entirely forget the accidental nature of the cause and if we had
been quite bumped I should have been ruined, as it is I get praise
for coolness and good steering as much as and more than blame for my