The Cruise of the Branwen

THE GAMES IN ATHENS sufficient international competition to make it fair to other nations that the result should be scored against them in the total. To have no opportunity of even meeting the winners in an unfamiliar event, and yet to lose all chance of scoring anything for that event when the successes of each nation in the whole Games come to be counted up, this is obviously contrary to the whole principle of international sport at these meetings ; and we have to recognise that the principle involved is more important than any detail which is lost. The first great function of the Athenian Games was the formal welcome of the competitors in the marble stadium. The British athletes were led by their official chief and representative, Lord Desborough, in a top hat and frock-coat; and as a consequence of this the English Fencing Team, clad in equally ceremonious attire, were in the first rank of a column which contained many more famous athletes than ourselves. We stood on the left of the front line when the whole body had been massed together. King Edward and the Prince of Wales had lunched with Sir Francis and Lady Elliot at the British Legation, the party including Sir Charles Hardinge, the Mayor of the Piraeus, the two official British representatives, Commander the Hon. Seymour Fortescue, R.N., Major Ponsonby, and Earl Howe. His Majesty afterwards changed into the uniform of a British admiral to escort the Queen, who was in deep mourning, to the stadium. For hours before, an enormous crowd 63