RECREATIONS.
It is a good thing to have a "hobby." Perhaps in these days we have too
many, and pursue them with too much intensity, to the neglect of more
important matters. To this I must, to some extent, plead guilty. I have
devoted much time and thought to boating and to gardening.
My boating days commenced in the 'sixties, when I frequently sailed with
my uncle, Alfred Bower, who owned some of the crack yachts belonging to
the Birkenhead Model Yacht Club--the "Presto," "Challenge," "Enigma,"
etc. They were large beamy boats, of about eight to ten tons, with
centre boards. Our racing was mostly in the upper reaches of the Mersey,
lying between Eastham and the Aigburth shore.
In 1866 I made my first venture, buying the American centre-board yacht
"Truant," which had greatly distinguished herself for speed, and taking
her up to Windermere. She was not, however, of much use on that
expansive but treacherous sheet of water. The heavy squalls were too
much for her huge sail plan. I also owned and sailed on the Mersey the
"Glance," eight tons; "Satanella," fifteen tons; "Saraband," fourteen
tons; and "Leander," twenty tons.
I then for a time gave up yachting on the Mersey, and in 1868 bought a
racing boat on Lake Windermere, the "Spray." She was most successful,
winning in 1870 every race we sailed.
In 1871 I was induced to build a twenty-ton racing cutter for the sea,
and called her the "Playmate." She was built by Ratsey, at Cowes, and
was the first boat to carry all her lead ballast on her keel, and in
consequence her advent was watched with considerable interest. I sailed
her for two years in the various regattas round the coast, on the Solent
and on the Clyde, but she was only fairly successful. The competition in
the class was very keen, and the boats built by Dan Hatcher carried away
most of the prizes.
This was the time when yachting, I think, reached its highest point of
interest, and the matches of the forty, twenty, and ten ton classes were
watched with great keenness throughout the country. In the forty-ton
class we had the "Norman," "Muriel," "Bloodhound," "Glance," etc.; and
in the twenty-ton class the "Vanessa," "Quickstep," "Sunshine," etc. We
had also some very fine sixty-tonners, and an excellent class in
schooners. Our regattas were conducted with much keenness, and created
great enthusiasm. Locally we had many active yachting men, Mr. David
MacIver, M.P., who sailed the "Sunshine," the "Shadow," and the
"Gleam"; Mr. Gibson Sinclair, Mr. Astley Gardner, Mr. Coddington, Mr.
Andrew Anderson, Mr. St. Clair Byrne, and others.
It is always wise, and I am sure in the long run pays best, to do
everything thoroughly, even although it is only for sport or pastime;
and when the Board of Trade allowed yacht owners to present themselves
for examination and obtain their certificates as master mariners, I
entered my name, and was the fourth yacht owner to qualify, Lord Brassey
being the first. My sea experience was, of course, of great service to
me. I afterwards found my Board of Trade certificate as a master mariner
gave me increased pleasure in yachting, and my crew great confidence in
my skill as a navigator.
Selling the "Playmate," I returned to Windermere; indeed I had never
left it, but sailed the regattas each year, and in the year 1908 I
completed my forty consecutive years' racing upon the lake, winning, for
the second year in succession, the Champion Cup. The competition for
this cup is limited to yachts which have won first or second prizes. My
yacht, the "Kelpie," was designed by Mr. A. Mylne, of Glasgow. She is
quite one of the smartest boats on the lake, particularly in light
weather.
During my forty years' sailing upon the lake I have witnessed great
changes in the designs of the competing yachts. The boats starting with
a length of 20 feet on the water line, were gradually enlarged by being
designed to immerse the whole of the counter, making the water line
length 26 feet 6 inches. We carried about 750 feet area of sails,
including in this a huge foresail. The boats were large and powerful,
but difficult to manage, and it is a wonder no accident took place. We
afterwards introduced a load line length of 22 feet with overhangs, with
the result that we have established a very smart and useful class of
boat.
I built many yachts on the lake--the "Althea," "Truant," "Charm,"
"Brenda," "Playmate," "Breeze," "Pastime," and "Kelpie"--and several
boats for the smaller class. I also built in 1881 the steel launch
"Banshee." She was designed by Alexander Richardson, and is to-day the
prettiest launch on the lake. I have raced on Windermere with varying
success, but it has been the source of enormous enjoyment, and the days
spent on Windermere are among my happiest. When we first visited Bowness
we were content to reside in lodgings, but in 1879 we rented
"Fellborough," a charming little house on the lake shore below the
ferry. After remaining here three or four years, we occupied for longer
or shorter periods Wynlass Beck, Loughrigg Brow, Ambleside, High Wray
Bank; and in 1889 I took on a long lease "Wykefield," at the head of
Pull Wyke Bay, a charming house with lovely gardens, and furnished also
with a boathouse and pier. Here we remained until 1902, and since that
time we have occasionally occupied Wray Cottage, a pretty dwelling
nestling under the shadow of Wray Castle.
[Illustration: YACHTING ON WINDERMERE, 1909.]
It would indeed be very difficult to describe the enjoyment Windermere
has afforded us during all these years. Our long walks, mountain climbs,
picnics on the lakes, fishing, and last, but not least, our regattas,
filled our days with pleasure, and we look back upon our holidays with
sunny memories of great happiness.
In 1904 I wrote a history of the Royal Windermere Yacht Club. The Rev.
Canon Rawnsley added an interesting chapter descriptive of the lake, and
the book was illustrated by some excellent photographs.
As a thankoffering to God for permitting us to enjoy such great
happiness, in 1908 we placed a stained-glass window in the Parish Church
at Bowness representing the _Te Deum_.
In 1880 we built at Lymington a fifty-ton yawl, which was named the
"Leander." In this we cruised for three summers off the west coast of
Scotland and south coast of England; but I found I could not spare the
necessary time, and was obliged to give up sea yachting for good in
1885.
I was elected rear-commodore of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club in 1879, and
was for a time also commodore of the Cheshire Yacht Club.
YACHT RACING ASSOCIATION.
In my early days of sea racing, being much impressed by the want of a
central authority to regulate all matters connected with yacht racing, I
brought the question under the notice of Mr. Dixon Kemp, the yachting
editor of the _Field_. He consulted Colonel Leach, a very leading and
influential yachtsman, with the result that we formed the Yacht Racing
Association. We secured the Prince of Wales as our president, and the
Marquis of Exeter as our chairman, and very speedily recruited a large
number of members.
I was elected a member of the Council and subsequently chairman of the
Measurement Committee, which had very important work to do in connection
with the rating of yachts for racing purposes. The old Thames rule was
played out; yachts had become of such excessive length and depth that a
new rule of measurement became necessary. We took a large amount of
expert evidence, and finally drafted a rule which was adopted and
remained in force until the present international rule superseded it.
ROYAL CANOE CLUB.
This club was founded in the 'sixties by "Rob Roy" Macgregor, who had
built a small decked canoe, in which he had navigated the principal
rivers in Europe and the Holy Land. Macgregor was not only an
enthusiastic boating man, but he was a good Christian worker and
philanthropist, well known in the East End of London. "Rob Roy" appealed
to me and others to form a Northern branch of the Canoe Club on the
Mersey. We did so in 1868, establishing our headquarters at Tranmere.
The club was very flourishing, and the upper reaches of the Mersey
formed a very attractive cruising ground; but the increase in the number
of steamers destroyed canoeing on the Mersey as it has destroyed
yachting. Living, as we did, at Seaforth, I was able to run my canoe
down to the shore and enjoy many pleasant sails in the Crosby Channel.
Finding an ordinary "Rob Roy" was too small and very wet in a seaway I
designed and built a sailing canoe with a centre board, which was a
great success and was the pioneer of sailing canoes.
GARDENING.
There can be no more delightful pastime than gardening. I may claim this
to be my pet "hobby." Other pastimes are evanescent and leave behind
them no lasting results or afford no more than a passing pleasure; but
in gardening we have seedtime and harvest, all the pleasures of sowing
and planting, watching the gradual growth, training, and nurturing the
young plant, and in due time gathering in the flowers or fruit, and in
these days when so much is done in "hybridising" we have the added charm
of experimenting in raising new varieties. We began to import orchids
in 1866, bringing them from the West Indies and Central America in large
wooden boxes, thinking it necessary to keep them growing, but we lost
more than half on the voyage. They are now roughly packed in baskets or
bales and a very large percentage arrive safely.
When in India in 1907, at Darjeeling, I hired two men and two donkeys to
go down into the valleys of Bhutan to collect orchids. They returned in
about ten days with four large baskets full, chiefly denrobiums. Among
them there was a good deal of rubbish, but also many good plants, which
I sent home, and which have since flowered and done well. There are no
plants more difficult to kill than orchids; but, on the other hand,
there are no plants more difficult to grow and to flower. Their habits
must be known and studied, and, above all, they must be provided with
the exact temperature and degree of moisture they have been accustomed
to. But the reward of successful cultivation is great and worth striving
for. No flowers can be more lovely in form and in colour, and they have
the great merit of lasting for days and even weeks in all the wealth of
luxuriant beauty. They are the aristocracy of flowers.
[Illustration: _Photo by Medrington._ William B. Forwood]