Leahy Sergeant John Corbitt (1 results)

Front., fold. plate, 2pp ads for 'Ladies' Swimming and Bathing Saloon' supervised by Leahy, with 'times and terms'. Orig. purple cloth, blocked in black, blind and gilt, lettered in gilt; spine sl. faded otherwise v.g. Ownership stamps on leading f.e.p. & title of the London School Board, the first indicating it to have been at one time in the 'Teachers' Reference Library', struck through in pencil 'Out of Date'. Irish-born John Corbitt Leahy, 'Champion Swimmer of the Red Sea', served in the British army in India and was swimming-master at Eton College, 1868-1889. He describes the "Eton style" of swimming including kicking out with the flat soles of the feet, the importance of floating, of trying out different positions on dry land. The frontispiece shows Athens, a bathing-place at Eton, and the folding plate shows different swimming positions, floating, lady's bathing costume, learner in swimming belt. The two-page preface by Mrs Oliphant is one of her more obscure ventures into print; as she says herself, 'It is, I fear, somewhat inappropriate to confide the preface of a book about swimming to a person entirely ignorant of that healthful and graceful art'. She justifies herself through 'love of the river' over which 'the gallant sergeant is one of the presiding spirits or good angels of the Thames.'.…