28 MAY 1937, Page 21

"NONE SO FAST AS STROKE" [To the Editor of THE

SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It would need a life-time of research to look in all the books said by your correspondents to enshrine the above witticism. I incline to believe those who place it in Desmond Coke's skit, Sandford of Merton. But I write now on behalf of the authoress of another literary aquatic achievement. Neither Ouida nor any male undergraduate must have the credit of the feat with a college barge referred to by Mr. Clive Parry. It occurs (unless I was gravely misinformed when 3oung) in a novel written by Annie S. Swan, about Oxford women students. After watching the Eights, "the girls jumped on to their college barge and skulled it down the river." The book's heroine, I believe, was called "Inky Annie." I