The Cruise of the Branwen

PREPARATIONS held the amateur championship of both foil and epee. Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, though rarely seen in fencing tournaments, held a very high place in the estimation of the best judges on both sides of the Channel for a characteristic style of fencing which is far more deadly than it looks at first sight. Entirely abandoning the orthodox methods necessary to swordsmen with less natural talents, he has a sureness of eye and a rapidity and neatness of attack which have frequently baffied the finest epeistes in Europe when they have first encountered him. He fully justified his membership of the Athens team by being the first Englishman who ever hit four Frenchmen consecutively in the final heat for a team championship. Lord Howard de Walden, already a fine exponent alike of the foil, the sabre, and the ipee, was only at the beginning of a reputation for first-rate swordsmanship which will go far if he has time and inclination to pursue his practice in first-rate conditions. He contributed very greatly to the enjoyment of the team by going out to Athens on his yacht Branwen, in which he started from Naples on April 17, with Lord Desborough, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, and myse fas his companions. This team was stronger than it may have ap– peared to those who did not know the enormous value in epee fencing of experience, strength, and the confidence against strangers which these qualities engender. But an excellent proof of the 23