Note 4 — Chapter IV · THE THAMES CLUBS AND WINDERMERE

In the year of grace 1775 the first rowing regatta that was ever held in England took place upon the Thames—on June 23. Previously to this, however, a meeting of 'several very respectable gentlemen, proprietors of sailing vessels and pleasure boats on the river,'[4] held their annual meeting at Battersea, and resolved that on the regatta day they would draw up in a line opposite Ranelagh Gardens, so as not to be in the way of the competing rowing boats. On July 6 of the same year an advertisement appears in the 'Advertiser,' that his Royal Highness Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland (a brother of George III., and an admiral in the British Navy) was about to give a silver cup[5] to be sailed for on July 11. The advertisement is as follows:—