Volga Boatmen's Song

For a chap who hadn't rowed anything except a light canoe since he was up at Oxford, he considers he did dashed well, especially when you take into account the fact that he was much hampered by the Mothers. They would insist on singing that thing about 'Give yourself a pat on the back', and, apart from the fact that Barmy considered that something on the lines of the Volga Boat-Song would have been far more fitting, it was a tune it was pretty hard to keep time to.

Young Men in Spats. 2 Tried in the Furnace

In a weak moment at Oxford, misled by my advisers, I once tried to do a bit of rowing, and Stilton was the bird who coached us from the towing path. I could still recall some of the things he had said about my stomach, which – rightly or wrongly – he considered that I was sticking out. It would seem that when you are a Volga boatman, you aren't supposed to stick your stomach out.

Joy in the Morning. Chapter 3

He was pacing the terrace with bent head and leaden feet, like a Volga boatman.

And if anyone might excusably have impersonated a Volga boatman, it was Cosmo Wisdom at this juncture.

Cocktail Time. Chapter 22