The Eton Boating Song is the best known of the school songs associated with Eton College that are sung at the end of year concert and on other important occasions. It is also played during the procession of boats. The words of the song were written by William Johnson Cory, an influential Master at the school. The music was composed by an Old Etonian and former pupil of Cory, Capt. Algernon Drummond. It was first performed on 4 June 1863. The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a public school (privately funded and independent) for boys, founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. It is located in Eton, near Windsor in England, north of Windsor Castle, and... William Johnson Cory (1823 - 1892, born William Johnson) was a poet, born at Torrington, and educated at Eton, where he was afterwards a renowned master, nicknamed Tute (short for tutor) by his pupils. ... is the 155th day of the year (156th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Lyrics

Ordinarily only the first, sixth, seventh and eighth stanzas are sung (as shown here):

1.

Jolly boating weather,

And a hay harvest breeze,

Blade on the feather,

Shade off the trees,

Swing swing together,

With your bodies between your knees,

Swing swing together,

With your bodies between your knees.

2.

Rugby may be more clever,

Harrow may make more row,

But we'll row for ever,

Steady from stroke to bow,

And nothing in life shall sever,

The chain that is round us now,

And nothing in life shall sever,

The chain that is round us now.

3.

Others will fill our places,

Dressed in the old light blue,

We'll recollect our races,

We'll to the flag be true,

And youth will be still in our faces,

When we cheer for an Eton crew,

And youth will be still in our faces,

When we cheer for an Eton crew.

4.

Twenty years hence this weather,

May tempt us from office stools,

We may be slow on the feather,

And seem to the boys old fools,

But we'll still swing together,

And swear by the best of schools,

But we'll still swing together,

And swear by the best of schools.

Cachet

The traditional status of Eton as the training grounds for Britain's wealthy elite endowed the song with a peculiar cultural cachet. For instance, writer George Orwell, an Old Etonian himself, wrote in his famous autobiographical essay 'Such, Such Were the Joys' that: Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 [1] [2] – 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. ... Such, Such Were the Joys is a long autobiographical essay by English writer George Orwell, probably written in 1946 or 1947 but not published until 1952, after the authors death. ...

From the whole decade before 1914 there seems to breathe forth a smell of the more vulgar, un-grown-up kind of luxury, a smell of brilliantine and crème-de-menthe and soft-centred chocolates — an atmosphere, as it were, of eating everlasting strawberry ices on green lawns to the tune of the Eton Boating Song.

Other uses

In the 1960s, the tune was adopted by Coventry City as their club anthem. The lyrics were rewritten by Jimmy Hill and Derrick Robbins in order to be relevant to the club, and the song is still regularly sung by City fans today. In an interview on Bravo, Hugh Laurie, a graduate from Eton sang, with great embarrassment, the first verse of the Eton Boating Song. He also dryly commented on the homoeroticism of the phrase 'With your bodies between your knees.'[1] Coventry City Football Club, otherwise known as the Sky Blues due to the traditional colour of their strip (which itself is sky blue in honour of the sky blue cloth traditionally made in the city), are a football team based in Coventry, England. ... This page is about the English footballer and television personality. ... James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE (born June 11, 1959) is an English actor, comedian and writer. ...

See also

• Eton College

The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a public school (privately funded and independent) for boys, founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. It is located in Eton, near Windsor in England, north of Windsor Castle, and...

External links

• The Eton Boating Song Eton College