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smaller craft, aboard which they did not live, expressly for racing purposes. At the same time, in every bay, estuary, or sheltered piece of water in the kingdom, clubs had sprung up to encourage local small-yacht racing. The middle classes took passionately to the sport ; 5, 3, 2, 1, and ½ raters swarmed everywhere. At the end of 1891 it seemed almost as if the racing of big vessels would become a thing of the past. Only Mr Jameson's great cutter Iverna, sole representative of a once mighty fleet, appeared ready to hoist her flag in 1892, and the sporting forty-raters seemed likely to become actually the first class. For many reasons it might have been better had it been so. But the unexpected happened. The German Kaiser, a lover of the sea, suddenly reconciled to his English relatives, sought an excuse for frequent summer visits to pleasant Osborne, and a means of earning popularity from the British public. He bought the Thistle, cut her spars down to reduce her sail area, and called her the Meteor. All last season she and the Iverna sailed a series of ding-dong duels along the coast. Such an example was sure to be followed.

At the end of last season Lord Dunraven, who previously owned a beautiful cutter called the Valkyrie, queen of British waters three or four summers ago, gave Mr G. L. Watson the commission to design another vessel of the same class and name to bear his flag. Hard on this followed the resolve of the Prince of Wales, who had already owned the Hildegarde and Aline schooners, and Formosa, 100-ton racing cutter, himself to take the seas against his imperial nephew, and consequent commands to the same fortunate designer for the Britannia. The infection spread. A syndicate of Glaswegian yachtsmen, anxious to see what Mr William Fife the younger could do with a big ship against his celebrated rival, gave him instructions for a third first-class cutter; and so this spring saw a trio of magnificent new vessels launched on the Clyde—the Britannia, 151 rating; the Valkyrie, 148 rating; and the Calluna, 140 rating. Nor did matters end here. Mr A. D. Clarke, owner of the famous light-weather forty, Reverie, caused the still bigger Satanita, 162 rating, to be constructed in the Solent, to defend the honours of the South. Meanwhile Mr Jameson once more fitted out the Iverna, 114 rating, to do battle against the latest achievements in naval architecture. Thus may it very fairly be averred that the first class in British yacht-racing was saved by the initiative and energy of the German Emperor, a deed for which a nation of sailors should hold the Imperial Teuton in high gratitude.

The new boats once more make a new departure, and once again they are found approximating the fashionable models on the other side of the Atlantic. As is perhaps natural, they all more or less resemble the Queen Mab, the crack centre-board forty of last year, now owned in America the vessel which placed her name triumphantly at the head of the winning list with prizes amounting to £1130, showed herself unrivalled in her class, and too fast in a true wind for either of the big vessels to give her her time. This year's ships are all very much cut away at the forefoot—the slaver bow superseding the clipper or schooner bow, even as that superseded the straight stem. Indeed they assume at first sight much the appearance