An elderly gentlemen member of an unknown rowing and sculling club looks at activity at the annual Henley-on-Thames boating festival. The elderly man stands slightly stooped wearing an exclusive blazer with his unknown club’s badge on the breast pocket. He looks the quintessential Englishman, an aristocrat from a well-bred family whose heritage may well be from the highest of English society. This annual festival allows the high-society to watch serious rowing and general clowning around on the rural Thames. In 1829 a boat race challenge was held between teams representing the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Now held July it is one of the main dates on the sporting calendar and social season for the hoi polloi.