[100 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]

and Wadham were very shady, and not doing the things that were
expected of them. Great excitement too was caused by the
announcement, that the Balliol stroke had knocked up, or knocked
down, or done some thing which Mr. Verdant Green concluded he ought
not to have done; and that the Brasenose bow had been seen with a
cigar in his mouth, and also eating pastry in Hall, -things shocking
in themselves, and quite contrary to all training principles. Then
there were anticipations of Henley; and criticisms on the new eight
out-rigger that Searle was laying down for the University
crew; and comparisons between somebody's stroke and somebody else's
spurt; and a good deal of reference to Clasper and Coombes, and
Newall and Pococke, who might have been heathen deities for all that
our hero knew, and from the manner in which they were mentioned.

The aquatic desires that were now burning in Mr. Verdant Green's
breast could only be put out by the water; so to the river he next
day went, and, by Charles Larkyns' advice, made his first essay in a
"tub" from Hall's. Being a complete novice with the oars, our hero
had no sooner pulled off his coat and given a pull, than he
succeeded in catching a tremendous "crab," the effect of which was to
throw him backwards, and almost to upset the boat. Fortunately,
however, "tubs" recover their equilibrium almost as easily as
tombolas, and "the Sylph" did not belie its character; so the
freshman again assumed a proper position, and was shoved off with a
boat-hook. At first he made some hopeless splashes in the stream,
the only effect of which was to make the boat turn with a circular