ALTHOUGH figure-skating is no doubt the highest development of the art, speed-skating came first in order, and it has been thought well to begin this volume with the following chapters on that branch of the subject. Many persons capable of keenly enjoying the pleasure of skating when it is brought to their doors are content to disport themselves on the nearest pond, practising figures for which they, perhaps, have no special taste or qualification, having never realised that an hour's journey by rail may enable them to vary their recreation by an alternative form of exercise less complex in character, but equally exciting and invigorating. I have, therefore, endeavoured to show how the pleasures of straight-away skating can be most readily cultivated, and at the same time to afford instruction and amusement to the general reader by a short history of the development of skating, by some hints and reflections that may be of service to beginners, and by a few anecdotes suggested by the reminiscences of nearly half a century.
I am fortunate in having secured the assistance of a colleague, Mr. C. G. Tebbutt, whose successes on the racing track have enabled him to write with exceptional authority on these matters. To him, therefore, in the first place my thanks are due ; but I wish also to express my indebtedness to. Professor Skeat for the assistance he has given me in my attempt to trace the etymology of the word skate, to Mr. W. F. Adams, the Hon. Secretary of the London Skating Club, whose practical illustration of the art of sailing on skates was especially valuable to me, to Mr. T. Maxwell Witham, to Mr. James Drake Digby, late Hon. Secretary of the National Skating Association, and to his son Mr. Newton Digby, the present Hon. Secretary, who have given me access to the earliest minute-books of the transactions of the association ; to the editor of the ' Stamford Mercury,' from which almost prehistoric journal I have derived much valuable information, and to the many professional and amateur skaters who have rendered me material assistance.
PERHAPS the reader will ask, why is a skate so named ? but when he recalls the many inconsistencies which abound in the English language, he will not be startled when he learns that the very word is an etymological anomaly. Professor Skeat tells us that it should be 'a skates,' with a plural of ' skateses,' but that the final s having been taken for the plural suffix has thus gradually fallen into disuse. He quotes similar instances of 'apocope,' as 'cherry' which was formerly 'a cherris,' derived from Kepatroc, cerasus, North French cherise ; and 'pea,' once 'a peas' which may be traced to 'pisum'. The word is not really English, but was borrowed from Holland ; the Dutch equivalent for a skate is schaats, and for skates is schaatsen, where en is the plural suffix ; but as early as the seventeenth century we notice the adoption of the modern form, skeates, scheets, and scates being used in the plural.
Professor Skeat also tells us that the etymology of the word is obscure, but that, as t and k are often interchangeable, it is possibly derived from the Low-German schake, a shank or leg ; and he thus traces the word to its Teutonic base skak. It is remarkable that the modern German schlitt-schuh (a slide-shoe) and the Swedish skridsko should owe their origin to another source ; but the Low-Latin scatia (a stilt) and the Danish skoite are probably derived from the same root, as is also the French echasses which is explained by Cotgrave as ' Stilts with scatches to go on, a contrivance to lengthen the stride/ This is also evidently the first meaning of the modern French equivalent for a skate, patin (whose root is given by Littre, as patte) which formerly signified a thick-soled boot, a clog, a patten, a snow-shoe, This word was introduced into our own country by French or Flemish refugees who fled from the fury of Philip and Alva in the sixteenth century, and it is still a common expression in the fen country. Five and twenty years ago to ' put on pattens ' was as frequently used as to ' put on skates,' nor indeed has it yet entirely fallen into disuse. Passing through Whittlesea in December of last year (1890), I observed an advertisement displayed by an enterprising but imperfectly educated mechanic of that town announcing, ' Pattons grond here ! '
The inference that necessity was the mother of the art of skating may be drawn with as much confidence as that the requirements of man supplied the first cause of hunting, archery, and many of our sports and pastimes. When snow had obliterated the rude tracks along which primaeval men were wont to propel their still ruder vehicles, the substitution of a sledge for a wheeled carriage may have occurred to travellers, and the adoption of wooden, bone, or iron runners would naturally be suggested with the view of reducing friction.
In the museum at Cambridge may be seen the combined ulna and radius of a red deer, and bones evidently ground down by friction are shown in the British Museum and also at Guildhall. These bones may have been sledge-runners, or they may have been bound on to the ankles of men, like the talares, or winged sandals of Mercury, and used as aids to locomotion on snow or ice. Fig. i represents bone 'runners,' which are exhibited at Guildhall. These were discovered in April 1869, in the site of Gooch and Cousins' warehouse, London Wall, and with them were found two Roman sandal shoes. The Curator of the Museum states that excavations frequently bring to the light of day bones of a similar character, and, although he can offer no positive evidence of the truth of his hypothesis, he is strongly of opinion that these bones were used as skates. But in what century or in what country these or similar contrivances were first adopted, must remain to some extent a matter of conjecture. Scandinavian archaeologists claim an antiquity of 1600 years for the art of traversing snow and ice in this manner, to which frequent reference is made in early Runic poetry and mythological song. In the first chapter of ' A System of Figure-Skating ' [1] the author brings under the readers' notice information which he received from Stockholm through the kindness of a friend, Mr. Kreuger, a native of Sweden, which I will venture to quote in extenso.
[1 H. E. Vandervell and T. Maxwell Witham. London : H. Cox, 346 Strand. ]
Remarks on the Origin of Skating, translated from the Swedish.It is certain that some contrivance for locomotion on ice was common in England in the twelfth century, for we read in an early translation of FitzStephen's ' Description of London, which was written in Latin, and published in 1180 :When this exercise was originated is unknown, for, as far back as we have any account of it, it was perfectly well known and practised in the whole North. Its origin, however, unquestionably belongs to the people of the North that is, to the Scandinavarians and Germans, amongst whom it is in most common use because the Greeks and Romans knew nothing of this science, nor have they any special terms in their language to express skates or skating. The origin of skates in their present form cannot be reckoned further back than the so called Iron Age, or about 200 years after the birth of Christ, because iron first came into general use then throughout the North.
The art of sliding with snow-shoes or runners, from which skating is derived, is still older, and belongs to the inhabitants of the North. But these shoes were made only of wood, and resembled our present form of snow-shoes, which are used by the inhabitants of the most northerly parts of Sweden and Norway in the mountain tracks on their journeys across the immense snowfields. These were used originally by the Finnish people in the North, for which reason they were called from this time ' Skrid finnai ' (sliding Finns), a common name for the most ancient inhabitants of Sweden both in the Norsk Saga and by foreign authors. After iron became known and was worked in the North, iron runners were put under these snow-shoes ; and in this way the present form of skates was developed, as well as proficiency gained in skating on the ice- a proficiency in which the Northern people early excelled, and which was reckoned as one of their chief accomplishments, and about which the Norsk Saga speaks with pride. But as amongst these Northern people also were Anglo-Saxons who in the year 450 A.D. subdued the south part of Britain, together with Danes and Normans who the former in 1015, and the latter in 1066 conquered the whole of England, probably the use of skates was introduced by these people into England, together with other Northern customs. On these grounds the origin of the present form of skates and skating maybe attributed to the Northern people about 200 years after the birth of Christ.
When the great fenne or moore (which watereth the walls of the citie on the North side) is frozen many young men play on the yce . . . some striding as wide as they may doe slide swiftlie ; asome tye bones to their feete and under their heeles, and shoving themselves with a little picked staffe do slide as swiftlie as a birde flyeth in the aire or an arrow out of a cross-bow.That history reproduces itself is practically illustrated by the smock-frocked Sussex peasant, who, when the flooded meadows adjoining the rivers Ouse and Adur are covered with hard, smooth ice, can attain a very high speed with no other assistance than two sharp-pointed sticks, and hobnails in his boots.
There is no historical evidence that iron blades were used in mediaeval times, but it is recorded that in 1572 A.D. the Dutch fleet, being frozen in the Y at Amsterdam, Don Frederick, the son of Alva, sent a body of men to take the vessels, but the Dutch musketeers sallied forth on skates, and successfully routed the aggressors. We are told that in Norway and Sweden hunters equipped with skates can successfully avoid and pursue wolves on the ice, and the following legend illustrates the important part played by a pair of skates in a dramatic incident in the backwoods of America. A Canadian settler, who having been taken by Indians was about to be subjected to the fate which usually befalls such captives, chanced to observe among the spoil of a recent raid a pair of skates. Affecting an interest in, and some knowledge of the implements, he persuaded his captors to allow him to illustrate their use on an adjacent lake, which was then covered with ice. In order to avert suspicion, he was careful to conceal his familiarity with his newly acquired auxiliaries until a possible chance of escape should present itself. The chance came at last ; the accomplished skater started off at full speed, and was able to baffle his pursuers.
The art and practice of skating has been more constantly located in the Netherlands than in any other country. Communication between important centres of commerce is maintained chiefly by canals, and when these became closed to navigation by ice, the frozen surface afforded a ready and rapid means of locomotion. Dutch men and women habitually made use of these ice highways ; young Dutchwomen have been known to skate to market, carrying their infants and baskets of eggs.
So far, the relation of skating to utilitarian objects has alone been considered, but we find that the devotion of our countrymen to sports and pastimes on ice began to assert itself in the time of Charles II., as may be seen by the following extracts from the diaries of Pepys [l] and Evelyn :
Dec. 1. To my Lord Sandwich's, to Mr. Moore and then over the Parke, where I first in my life, it being a great frost, did see people sliding with their skeates, which is a very pretty art. Dec. 15. To the Duke, and followed him into the parke, where, though the ice was broken and dangerous, yet he would go slide upon his skates, which I did not like, but he slides very well.And, [2]
Dec. 1, 1662. Having seen the strange and wonderful dexterity of the sliders on the new canal in St. James' Park performed before their Ma ties by divers gentlemen and others with scheets, after the manner of the Hollanders, with what swiftness they passe, how suddenly they stop in full carriere upon the ice, I went home by water, but not without exceeding difficultie, the Thames being frozen, greate flakes of ice incompassing our boate.1 Pepys Diary, vol. i. , pp. 345, 347. London. 1829. 2nd ed.
Macaulay tells us [1] that Monmouth, Charles II.'s son, learned from the Dutch ladies the art of skating on the frozen canals in their country, and that he in return gave them instruction in the English country dance.
1 History of England, chap. v.
Little is recorded of the development of skating in the eighteenth century, but scenes of life and character, and representations of races and games, are immortalised in the works of Antony Beerstraaten, Vanderneer, Ostade, and other Dutch artists, while the ' Illustrations of Fairs held on the frozen Thames in 1716 and 1740 ' prove the popularity of the exercise of skating in our own country.
At the present time there is no exercise more cosmopolitan than skating. We should hardly expect to find it in any part of the ' Dark Continent,' but perhaps some future explorer of Kilimanjaro or Ruwenzori may find in their neighbourhood a suitable arena. The ' mild Hindoo ' is not likely to be a firstrate exponent of the art, but even India has its devotees. On frozen lakes at Nainithal, a hill station near Bareilly, and on large reservoirs at Murre Brewery, forty miles north of Rawal Pindi, enterprising English officers who may chance to be quartered in that neighbourhood make frequent expeditions for the purpose of skating. On one occasion the sport aroused the enthusiasm of the natives of what is now part of the Chinese Empire. In the winter of 1873-74 an English officer attached to Sir Douglas Forsyth's mission to Yarkand crossed the Himalayas from Cashmere, and spent four months at Kashgar, a town north of Yarkand. A lake four miles in length adjoined his residence, and being the fortunate possessor of a pair of ' Acmes,' he was accustomed to indulge daily in his favourite amusement. The Turcomans, who are of the strictest sect of Mahomedans, and who are wont to envelop their nether limbs in roomy pantaloons, were at first disposed to regard the exposition of even the male human leg encased in close-fitting integuments with feelings akin to those of the sternest of metropolitan stage-censors ; but, the Ameer having evinced a keen interest in the sport, curiosity after a time overcame their scruples. On one occasion, when Sir Douglas Forsyth's party were paying a visit to the Governor of Kashgar, my friend skated on the reservoir in his grounds, an object of wonder and admiration, and a ringing cheer broke from the spectators, more than two thousand in number, when accepting a cup of tea he skated away with it, taking an occasional sip without checking his career. The Ameer, on hearing of this, was so pleased that he ordered seven pairs of skates to be made forthwith. The task was entrusted to the most skilful local mechanic, who supplied a very respectable skate with a wooden foot-stock, and blade of the best procurable iron. Some young athletes were told off for instruction, one of whom, a mullah (priest), proved an intelligent pupil, and a credit to his instructor.
The passage in Thomson's * Winter,'
Batavia rushes forth, and as they sweepmust have been suggested by scenes which are of daily occurrence in Friesland, on the Amstel, and on the Dutch canals ; the thousands who frequent the ornamental water in the Bois de Boulogne indicate the interest taken in skating by the French ; indeed, there is no part of North America or of northern Europe except, perhaps, Russia where the art of skating is not entitled to be styled a national sport.
On sounding skates a thousand different ways,
The then glad world is maddened, all to joy,
These brief records of the development of skating would be incomplete if I did not allude to the attempts which have been made from time to time to ignore the sway of King Frost, and to enable enthusiasts to skate on a floor and under cover careless of the sample of climate with which they are favoured. The first attempt in this direction was made by Joseph Merlin, a native of the city of Huy, near Liege, who came to England with the Spanish Ambassador in 1760. He was a musical-instrument maker, and an ingenious mechanician, who for many years was accustomed to exhibit his inventions at Cox's Museum in Spring Gardens. Among his novelties was a pair of skates contrived to run on wheels.
Supplied with a pair of these and a violin, he mixed in the motley group of the celebrated Mrs. Cornelly's masquerade at Carlisle House, Soho Square, when, not having provided the means of retarding his velocity or commanding its direction, he impelled himself against a mirror of more than 5oo/. value, dashed it to atoms, broke his instrument to pieces, and wounded himself severely.[1]
1 Belgravia, December, 1879.
This catastrophe may have daunted inventors for a while ; but in 1819 M. Petitbled patented a skate furnished with three copper wheels ; and four years later R. Tyers, a fruiterer in Piccadilly, took out a patent for his 'volito's,' as he termed his invention. These skates were furnished with five small wheels in single line, and were used at a skating exhibition held in the tennis-court which then stood in Windmill Street, Haymarket. Twenty years later wheeled skates were used by M. and Mme. Dumas at the Theatre de la Porte St. Martin, Paris; and in 1849, frequenters of the opera witnessed with wondering admiration the Ballet des patineurs in Meyerbeer's ' Prophete.'
In 1857 skating-halls were opened in the Strand and in Covent Garden ; in 1859 Woodward's vulcanised india-rubber wheels supplanted the metal wheels heretofore used, but excessive friction enhanced the difficulty of executing any figures except those of the simplest character, and the problem was as far as ever from solution until the year 1863, when Mr. J. L. Plimpton patented in America his now world-renowned skate. This skate is furnished with two parallel sets of wheels, one pair under the ball of the foot, the other pair below the heel. These wheels are attached to two inclined axes at the toe and heel of the foot-stock, and are so arranged that lateral pressure of the foot-stock causes the wheel axles to converge to the side on which the skate-stock is tilted, and thus enables the skater to run on a curve. I was at one time a ' rincomaniac,' and can testify from experience to the affinity that roller-skating bears to skating on blades ; although an adept in the one art will not immediately attain proficiency in the other, they have so much in common that the aid afforded by each is reciprocal. The renowned fen-skaters, Smart and See, after a few weeks' practice, were able to illustrate how well-adapted to the attainment of high speed is Plimpton's skate, and any tiro whom assiduous practice has familiarised with roller-skating will realise the assistance he has derived therefrom when he attempts on a sheet of ice the ' pons asinorum ' of figure-skaters, his first 3. The rink at Prince's Club, near Sloane Square, London, was daily the resort of hundreds of its members ; on September 30, 1876, a marble skating-hall was opened in the Clapham Road, and at this period there was scarcely a town of any importance in England that could not boast of its rink with a floor composed of cement, asphalte, or wood. The extravagant popularity, however, of this exercise soon began to wane, and in the course of a few years most of these structures had ceased to exist, or had been converted into lawn-tennis courts. An improvement on Plimpton's invention has been effected by the addition of ball-bearings to the Raymond skate, which is now invariably used in the large skating-hall which was opened at Olympia, Kensington, on April 21, 1890. Maple and birch laid with the greatest possible care are the materials used in the construction of the floor of this excellent rink, and the result is a surface on which Curtis, Perkins, Delmont, and Buckhurst can attain a very high speed, rivalling, if not excelling, that of the cyclist or the skater on ice. Indeed, it is probable that if a straight course were constructed of carefully laid wood, or of marble, the records of speed attainable by any contrivance that has hitherto been suggested by human ingenuity for the augmentation of rapid motion might be not only broken, but wholly eclipsed.
The New York Clipper' of March 14, 1884, gives an account of a six-days' roller-skating contest at Maddison Square Gardens, in which the winner (Donovan) accomplished the extraordinary feat of skating 1,091 miles.
It may be questioned if six days' competitions in this or any other branch of athletics are deserving of encouragement, but they have at least served one purpose, inasmuch as they have shown the immunity from physical prostration enjoyed by the exponents of roller-skating, whose condition at the close of their protracted race contrasted favourably with the distressed appearance of a pedestrian or a cyclist after a similar achievement.
But these are not the only attempts that have been made to defy the clerk of the weather, and to enable skaters to find amusement at all seasons of the year. In the year 1842 Mr. Henry Kirk claimed to be the inventor of a process by which a surface sufficiently hard and slippery to meet the requirements of skaters and sliders could be manufactured. The materials mentioned in his patent are (i) crystallised alum mixed with grease or hog's lard, (2) salts of soda, (3) melted sulphur. Of these ingredients, alum is the least liable to be affected by atmospheric influences, but it will not give so slippery a surface as that which is produced by a preparation of salts of soda. Kirk's invention was used in the formation of a ' miniature Alpine Lake,' 70 feet long, 50 feet wide,[1] which was laid down in Baker Street, and for a time was the frequent resort of skaters and sliders, but it was found that this surface was soon cut up by skates, was quickly spoiled by wet or drought, and that a fall on a floor composed of such materials was attended by more than ordinarily unpleasant consequences.
1 North British Advertiser, Dec. 31, 1842.
The first production of real ice by artificial means is an event which merits the attention of all who are interested in the annals of skating. Although the fact that evaporation is an agent for producing intense cold had long been known, its properties had received little attention in scientific circles, but a paper read on December 17, 1812, [2] by W. H. Wollaston, M.D., Secretary of the Royal Society, mentions the experiments made by a Mr. Leslie to absorb vapour by means of sulphuric acid, and describes an instrument called a ' Cryophorus, or frost-bearer,' with which a small quantity of ice could be formed in a few minutes, by condensation through the agency of salt and snow.
2 Philosophical Transactions, vol. ciii., p. 71.
In 1865 A. W. Parker claimed to have discovered a process by which ' ice could be produced offering a sufficiently substantial substance for skating or sliding.' The materials he used were carbonic acid and brine.
In 1870 William E. Newton, a civil engineer, adopted the invention of Matthew Julius Bujac, of New York, by which ice could be formed by the circulation of ammoniacal gas, ether, or carbonic acid, through tubes placed below the surface of the water, and he designed a building suitable for a skating club.
In December of the same year Professor John Gamgee took out a patent for making ice by artificial means. In his specification he claimed to have effected an improvement on refrigerators which had heretofore been used by the general construction and arrangement of his apparatus, by the adoption of a vacuum and condensing pump in order to quicken the evaporation of the liquid used in the production of cold, and the substitution of (i) formate of methyl, (2) acetate of methyl, and (3) a mixture of ether and protoxide of nitrogen, for ether, air, or ammonia, which had been used as the medium for the abstraction of latent heat. In 1875 Professor Gamgee patented his ' Improvements applicable to the formation and maintenance of skating rinks,' the most important of which appears to have been the substitution of glycerine, or some solution which will not congeal above o Fahrenheit, for brine, which when stagnant will freeze at 18. The Rusholme Ice Rink, Manchester, whose floor was formed by Gamgee's process, was opened in 1876, and for rather more than twelve months met with some support from skaters and curlers, [1] but the inelastic character of its surface and its intense cold, which in some atmospheric conditions caused a thick mist and subsequent condensation, were prejudicial to the comfort of the skaters. The hall is now occupied by the Salvation Army, and the adjoining premises are converted into a swimming-bath. Gamgee's principle was again adopted at the rink at Southport, a watering-place on the Lancashire coast, about sixteen miles
from Liverpool, the foundation stone of which was laid by Lord Clarence Paget on April 5, 1877. This hall, 164 feet in length, 64 feet in width, which had been constructed at a cost of at least 30,0007., was opened on January 10, 1879, and was the school of many an accomplished skater ; but while conducing to the amusement of the few, it failed to appeal to the sympathies of the many, and, although the spirited efforts made by Mr. Holden, the chairman of the company, and Mr. Nightingale, the manager, made this unique real-ice rink available for a decade, it was found to be commercially unsuccessful, and was closed on May 18, 1889.
1 Graphic, March 24, 1877.
Before closing this chapter, I will make brief mention of winters of more than ordinary severity, which have been chronicled in the pages of history. The ' Encyclopaedia Perthensis' records a frost which lasted five months in the year 220 A.D., and tells us that in 250 the Thames was frozen for nine weeks. The winters in 359 and 508 are mentioned as unusually rigorous : we are told that in 859 carriages travelled on the Adriatic, and that in 923 the Thames was again frozen for thirteen weeks.
Further details have been collated in an interesting magazine article [l] by Mr. R. Heath. His researches show that the clearing of forests, the draining of marshes, and other results of the progress of civilisation have led to a diminution of the rigours of winter in Europe as well as in our own country. He tells us that ' In the great winter 974-75, the Bosphorus was frozen, and that one-third of the population of France is said to have perished from cold.' In 987-88 the frost lasted 120 days. The winters of 998-99 and 1020-21 are mentioned as exceptionally inclement seasons, and it is said that on Midsummer day, 1035, the temperature fell below freezing point. ' And this,' he says, ' goes on through the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, mention being made of more than forty remarkable winters, when the rivers of Europe, even the lagoons of Venice, were frozen.'
In the winter of 1410, ice remained on the Thames for fourteen weeks. In 1564 the Thames in London and the Rhone at Aries were blocked with ice ; in 1570 the French rivers were again frozen : mention has already been made of the Dutch fleet being ice-bound at Amsterdam in 1572. 1582, 1584, and 1591 are quoted by M. Renou, Secretary of the Meteorological Society in France, as winters of extreme severity. The winters in 1649, 1662, 1664, 1683, and 1688 may be described as Siberian atrocities in this country ; those of 1691, 1695 and 1696 on the Continent, so much so that we hear of wolves entering Vienna in 1691, and attacking not only cattle, but men. In 1708, 1716, 1725, 1726, 1728, and 1729 the winters were very cold, in 1740 abnormally so ; in 1762 the frost lasted ninety-four days; 1766, 1767, 1783, and 1788 were exceptionally inclement years ; on the last of these the Thames was frozen down to Gravesend, and a fair was held on its surface. January 25, 1795, is commonly supposed to have been the coldest day ever known in England. The temperature in London is said to have fallen to eight degrees below zero, and three hundred vessels to have been ice-bound in the Thames. The winter was also very severe in Northern Europe, for the Marne, the Scheldt, the Rhine and the Seine were frozen so hard that regiments of soldiers and heavy carriages could pass over them. The chronicles of this century record severe and protracted cold in 1802, 1805, and 1811 ; the winter of 1812-13 is memorable for its inclemency on the Continent, and that of the following year bore some resemblance to the season 1890-91 in our own country. We are told that, ' In London, a darkness that might be felt lasted a whole week, during which people in the streets only saw each other by the red glare of a naming link, or knew of each other's existence by the cries of alarm which rose on all sides.' Fog was succeeded by snow, and by a subsequent thaw of short duration, and a return of severe cold. In that winter the frost was so sharp that the river Cam was closed to navigation ; and Professor Sedgwick tells us that when his supply of coal was exhausted, he was obliged to burn his gun-case and some of his chairs for fuel. [1] The ice on the Serpentine was so strong, that Lord Ranelagh drove upon it in a Russian sledge drawn by brown Arabian horses. [2]
1 Life of Prof . Sedgwick , vol. i. p. 131.
2 Stamford Mercury, Jan. 1814.
In 1819-20 frost was continuous from November to March ; the Thames at Woolwich was frozen in several places to a thickness of five feet, while at Lambeth a piece of ice was found twelve feet thick. In 1822-23, tne annals of the fen-country record the passage of carts drawn by donkeys on Whittlesea Mere ; severe cold was experienced in 1827, 1829, and 1835, and the following extract from a letter written by Professor Sedgwick on January 30, 1841 'From Ely I went to Whittlesea, and saw thousands, and, I think, tens of thousands, whirling on the ice. There were certainly 10,000 persons assembled one day on Whittlesea Mere to see a match ' bears testimony to the inclemency of that winter.
The winter of 1844-45 was long and cold ; that of 1847-48 was remarkable for severe snowstorms and unprecedented changes of temperature, and still lives in my recollection, having given me frequent opportunities of seeing varied and interesting scenes on Whittlesea Mere. It is unnecessary to dilate on the rigour of the ever-memorable Crimean winter, which is now a matter of history. On Christmas Day, 1860 the temperature fell to zero, and the frost continued for several weeks, and it is somewhat remarkable that in 1870-71, 1879- 80, and 1 880-8 1, and again in 1890-91, the frosts have been more severe and protracted than any that had occurred in the intervening decades.
Perhaps we may look for a return of the 'good old times,' but the comparative immunity from severe cold which we have of late years deplored or welcomed suggests a reflection, which, however, will not find a ready response in the hearts of fox-hunters,
When they seldom come they wished-for come
