interest in rowing till the end of his life. With John Beesley in 1845, he introduced the new type of narrow sculling boat, and in 1886 started races on the Thames for sculling fours and sculling eights. In 1896 Furnivall founded the Hammersmith Sculling Club (now called Furnivall Sculling Club), initially for working-class girls, and he "entered into its activities with his usual boyish enthusiasm, for it brought together two of his favourite activities: vigorous outdoor exercise and enjoyment of the company of young women". Furnivall the sculler may have been the original of his acquaintance Kenneth Grahame's character Ratty in The Wind in the Willows and it has also been suggested that he inspired the portrayal of the god Pan in the same work. References Sources External links 1825 births 1910 deaths Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Anglican socialists Chaucer scholars Chief editors of the Oxford English Dictionary English agnostics English Anglicans English book and manuscript collectors English Christian socialists English lexicographers English philologists Fellows of the British Academy Former Anglicans People from Egham