Doll's Wicker Coach
Advertisements of men's and boys' skates and of "Best Holland Scates of Different Sizes," show a constant demand and use. In an invoice of "sundry merchandise" to Weathersfield, Connecticut, in the year 1763, are twelve pair "small brass scates, @ 3/—£3, 16/." I do not know the age of the skates shown opposite page 346. No date less than a hundred years ago is ever willingly assigned to such relics. They are similar in shape to the ones shown on page 349, in the illustration taken from a book for children entitled Children's Sports, published a century ago, which ends its dissertation on skating with this sensible advice:—
"'Tis true it looks exceeding nice
To see boys gliding on the ice,
And to behold so many feats
Perform'd upon the sliding skates,
But before you venture there
Wait until the ice will bear,
For want of this both young and old
Have tumbled in,—got wet and cold."
It was not until October, 1771, that a pleasure-filled item appeared, "Boys' Marbles." In The Pretty Little Pocket Book are these lines:—
"MARBLES
"Knuckle down to your Taw.
Aim well, shoot away.
Keep out of the Ring,
You'll soon learn to Play.
MORAL
"Time rolls like a Marble,
And drives every State.
Then improve each Moment,
Before its too late."
Boys played with them precisely as boys do now. The poet Cowper in his Tirocinium says of the games of his school life:—