Skating is one of the finest gymnastic exercises, by which man, as Klopstock says, “like the Homeric gods, strides with winged feet over the sea transmuted into solid ground.” It is one of the healthiest exercises, bringing the body into action by a great variety of motions. The art is mentioned in the Edda, written eight hundred years ago, in which the god Uller is represented as distinguished by beauty, arrows, and skates.
SKATING.
It is not known at what period skating was introduced into England, but there are indications of it in the thirteenth century, for Fitz Stephen, in his History of London, says, that it was in that time customary, when the ice was sufficiently strong, for the young citizens of London to fasten the leg-bones of animals under the soles of the feet by tying them round the ancles, and then taking a pole shod with iron into their hands, they pushed themselves forward by striking it against the ice, and moved with a celerity equal to a bird flying through the air or an arrow from a cross-bow.
Fitz Stephen describes another kind of diversion on the ice in these words, which may be acceptable to the young reader. He says: “Others make a seat of ice as large as a millstone, and having placed one of their companions on it, they draw him along, when it sometimes happens that moving in slippery places they all fall down together, which is rare sport, provided no harm be engendered.” Ibral mentions, that in his time it was customary to use sledges, which being extended from the centre by means of a strong rope, those who are seated on them are moved round with great rapidity.
The use of the modern skate is supposed to have been brought from Holland, and for many years skating has been exercised with much elegance in England and in Scotland. Somehow or other, we do not of late years have those severe frosts which enable the skater to practise his art with vigour; but there is now a skating club in London who anticipate trips to Holland during the winter months, where the art may be practised in all its perfection.
In early days we were “prodigiously,” as Dominie Sampson would say, fond of the sport. Our first attempts were made during the great frost in 1813-14, which lasted eleven weeks, and during which time there was a fair on the Thames, and skating was practised in a most delightful manner. One of the finest and most beautiful skaters of that period was Robert Fergusson, a Scotchman, who had been a “gentleman of means,” in the early part of his life, but having shot, horsed, tandem’d, dog’d, and skated away his substance, was so reduced as to become a teacher of his favourite art, and near the water works of old London Bridge, on the west side, he pitched his tent during the frost, inviting “gentlemen,” who could afford a “crown” to become his pupils in the art of “Land flying,” as he termed it. He boasted of having taught the Prince of Wales, and he sported the three ostrich feathers and “Ich dien” over his canvas. To him in youthful ardour we repaired, and the substance of his teachings we subjoin for the special benefit of our young friends.
The first maxim of Fergusson to his pupils was, “Throw fear to the dogs;” the next, “Put on your skates securely;” and the third, “Keep your balance:” and premising this as a “start,” I shall now describe the various kinds of skates, and the methods of using them.
THE SKATE.
There are various kinds of skates. Some, such as the Dutch skates, are very large and somewhat cumbersome, but very safe for those who skate with heavy loads on their shoulders, as they do in Holland, Denmark, and Russia. In these the iron often projects above six inches from the wood, and curls up towards the shin-bone above a foot, that the skater may glide the more easily over the hillocks of snow common to large expanses of ice.