The Cruise of the Branwen

PREFACE nourished concerning our efforts by national committees who are assisted by the subsidies and the formal recognition of their Governments, we have to depend entirely upon private munifi– cence and upon the generous support of indi– vidual citizens. The writer of these pages will consequently be well repaid if any friend into whose hands they may fall will at least take his due share in explaining to our cornpatriots the necessities and the obligations of an athletic year which is unprecedented in this country and will remain unparalleled in our lifetime. These obligations may in part be conveniently dis– charged by addressing a subscription to the care of the Honorary Secretary of the British Olympic Council, 108 Victoria Street, Westminster. This modest volume has no pretensions to be a very serious contribution to the history either of sport or travel. But it contains the notes of our voyage in the Branwen from Naples to Athens, and back again, by way of Ithaca, Corfu, Ragusa, and Spalato, to Venice; and I make no excuse for dwelling, here and there along the stages of our journey, on questions of history or literature or art which were suggested by the scenes we visited. For they are more germane to the whole conception of the Olympic Games than has sometimes been appreciated by the critics of our revived Olympiads. This revival is, in its best ideals, far from being the mere apo– theosis of athletic strength and skill, either in one country or in the modern world, which is sometimes imagined : it strives to reprodu<:e lX