An illustration from the book 'London: a Pilgrimage' by Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Doré, 1872, showing a mixed group of people sitting under some trees, watching the Boat Race. Jerrold commented that 'if there was anything to regret in this close and prodigious meeting of class with class - it was not the absence of gaiety'.
The first Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race was held on 10 June 1829 at Henley-on-Thames. From 1845 the race was held between Putney and Mortlake, and it became an annual event eleven years later.
