3-074-510 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Water Polo, 1883. 'The officers of British Cavalry regiments and Horse Artillery, within the past ten or fifteen years, have become much addicted to "Polo," a species of pastime which is said to have been imported from the North-west Frontier of India, and to have originated, many ages since, among the nimble horsemen of Persia, or the neighbouring Turcomans and Afghans...A curious and amusing scene, represented in our Illustration, was lately exhibited on the ornamental water of one of the London parks by a party of gentlemen in canoes, who got up an aquatic variation of Polo, setting a football afloat, and contending in two hostile parties to drive it this way or that, by the strokes of their paddles. It is evident, however, that the disturbance of the water by so many blows, and by the movements of the canoes, must cause an infinity of cross-currents and eddies, which would prevent the ball going far in any certain direction, from the best-aimed and most forcible stroke. There is a good deal of fun to be got out of Water Polo, with many chances of an upsetting and a ducking; but it can hardly be raised to the rank of a scientific or artistic game'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.