The art of skating : containing many figures never previously described ... / by George Anderson ("Cyclos")

Front matter

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Outside Forward.

Preface

left to work it out for himself, and certainly with less than half the falls.

Frequent instructions from a good master would be better than from a book, as the learner does not always know for himself whether he is really following instructions, and is the better of some one who knows, to point out his faults. But to be a good master it is not quite enough to be a good skater, if he has not also studied the best processes for attaining each given figure. I have often seen very fair skaters giving instructions so erroneous as to mislead a learner and start him on a wrong track.

Besides that, good skaters are rare ; away from the large towns they hardly exist, and those who have attained proficiency, having probably got at it with much labour, are usually content with the attainment, and do not trouble themselves to consider whether it might not have been got at with less labour in some other way. If good skaters would consider that, the modus operandi might be further simplified. The author only pretends to give the best modes he has seen or discovered ; these are not necessarily the best possible. He has no hesitation in saying, however, that good printed instructions, particularly if accompanied by diagrams to make them comprehensible, are infinitely better than an indifferent teacher ; and he is very confident that even country skaters, who have never seen good skating, could in a few years, by practising strictly up to a book, qualify themselves to shine in any company. To

VI PREFACE.

do this,, however, the directions must be studied from day to day as the learner progresses, and they must be attended to in their most minute particulars, as to attitude, position of the feet, &c.

To make still more frequent and general the attainment of this graceful, healthful, and exhilarating accomplishment, is the only aim of this treatise ; and the author hopes, if he has succeeded in making his directions and diagrams sufficiently lucid, that his work will be acceptable to many readers.

Chapter I. Skating

Pleasures of Skating .page 1

Antiquity of Skating 3

Skating in Northern Countries 4

Distance and Speed 5

Winter in Russia 5

Winter in Norway 6

Winter in America 6

Anecdote of Indians 6

Anecdote of Wolves .page 7

Winter in Canada 8

The Ice Rink 9

British Skating 10

London Skating 10

Edinburgh Skating 10

Glasgow Skating 11

Skating without Ice 14

Chapter II. The Skate

The Common Skate 15

The Spring Skate 16

The Glasgow Club Skate 17

General Considerations 19

New Varieties 21

My own Skate 21

The Alexandra 22

Mr. Francia's 23

Ibbetson's 23

Shirley's 24

Barber's 24

Harris's 24

Starr, Mann, & Co.'s 24

Boot Skates 26

Skating Boots 26

Chapter III. Instructions In Skating

Tivo Feet Movements.

Forward Striking or Running... 28

Frame for Teaching Ladies ...... 31

S erpentine 32

Shinty 33

Backward Motion 33

S Figure 34

Treading the Circle 35

Canadians 35

Canadian Grape Vine 36

Spread Eagle 37

Fencing Position 38 vm

CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Figure Skating

Single Foot Forward Movements.

Inside Edge Forwards .page 40

Outside Edge Forwards 41

Common Roll 42

Crossing Roll 46

Attitude 47

Travelling .page 48

Figure 8 49

Spiral Line 50

Canadian Compass Circle ...... 50

Sea Serpent 51

Chapter V. Figure Skating

Single Foot Backward and Mixed Figures.

Inside Edge Backwards 52

Outside Edge Backwards 52

Flying Mercury 54

Straight Line 55

Cork Leg , 55

Figure 3 56

Outside 3 , 56

Reverse 3 57

Shamrock 57

United 3s 57

Q Figure 57

Double 3 58

Double Reverse 3 58

United Double 3s 59

Canadian Loops 59

Sequence of the Lessons 60

Figures for Ladies 61

Chapter VI. Concerted Figure Skating

The Satellite 63

The Salutation 64

Combination of 3s 64

The London Club Figures 65

The Glasgow Club Figures ... 65 Conclusion 68

THE

ART OF SKATING.

Chapter I. Skating

Pleasures of Skating — Antiquity — Skating in Northern Countries — Distance and Speed — Russia — Norway — America — Anecdote of Indians — Anecdote of Wolves — Canadian Winter — The Ice Rink — British Skating — London — Edinburgh — Glasgow — Skating without Ice.

Of all the sports and pastimes of winter, of all the pleasures that are anticipated in the Christmas dreams of the emancipated schoolboy, or shine in the bright home visions of the athletic collegian — at that pleasant season of the year when the yule-log burns on the hearth, and the holly hangs in the hall, there is none that holds a higher place or is looked forward to with more keen enjoyment than the delightful pastime of skating. The pleasure may be partly owing to the bracing atmosphere of a fine frosty day, when the very winds seem to have been frozen in the air for the purpose of covering the bare twigs and branches of the summerforsaken trees with a hoary foliage of silver, powdering with sparkling diamond dust the limp and scanty grass, and decking with fairy crystals each mean and withered waif from the summer' s wreck. It may be partly the exhilarating exercise, the sense of freedom, and power and speed, and the gaudia certaminis, the joy in difficulties

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overcome — all these seem to contribute to produce an exulting elasticity of spirit that dissipates the ordinary cares and crosses of life.

Suppose, in the first holiday of Christmas-tide, you have left dry studies or business cares, and run down to the country over night, with snow on the ground and the stars shining splendidly. Then comes the pleasant greeting of home faces, and dreaming once more on home pillows, and you waken to a bright, keen, bracing day, with fern-like fretwork on your window-panes, and feathering on the trees, and the lake covered with a strong sheet of glassy ice. There is the old home breakfast, with loving faces round the table ; and then what furbishing of skates, and turning of gimlets, and fitting of straps ; and at last you are off — gliding over those clear depths with the speed of a racer — dashing past the islands — wheeling round the bays, or, with more composed evolutions, carving snowwhite circles on the undimmed surface — ciphering the virgin page with an unfaltering calligraphy of 3s and 8s. And pleasanter still is all this if fair faces and bright eyes accompany and participate in the enjoyment, as seems the growing practice now — and long may it be so ; bright eyes will be all the brighter, and fair faces all the fairer, for the high health and vigour derived from such glorious exercise.

I have heard some invidious detractors sneer at skating, as rather a pastime for a schoolboy than for any man of mature growth. Skaters can afford to laugh at such remarks, which can only come from those who never were good skaters themselves. Narrow-minded people very often affect to despise accomplishments in which they are themselves deficient, for to praise would be to acknowledge their own deficiency, and that would engender a feeling of inferiority, the admission of which would be too great a

SKATING.

trial for their pride, and they find it much easier to slight what they have not, than to acquire it. That skating is something more than mere exercise for schoolboys, is best proved by the fact that to become a really good skater requires so much careful practice that in this climate boys do not attain proficiency. In Canada, probably, they attain it younger than is possible with us; but I have certainly never seen a mere boy who could be called a really good performer.

A pursuit that calls forth the energy and assiduity of a man to accomplish, particularly when not entirely exempt from personal risk, may fairly be called a manly exercise ; nor will its adoption by ladies at all detract from that character ; for, while much grace of movement and some really difficult figures are quite within their reach, in the nature of things they are precluded from the more hazardous wheels and balances.

As to the early history or remote antiquity of the art,

I can give the reader very little information. Blaine says :

Skating, although unquestionably a much more early practice among us, is first noticed in the description of London, by Fitz Stephen, who relates that " when the great fenne or moore (which watereth the walles of the citie on the north side) is frozen, many youngmen play upon the yce."

Again :

Some, stryding as wide as they may, doe slide swiftlie ; asome tye bones to their feete, and under their heeles, and, shoving themselves by a little picked staffe, doe slide as swiftlie as a birde flyeth in the aire, or an arrow out of a crossbow.

Certainly, this was skating of a very primitive description, and that would not, I think, indicate a much anterior invention.

Blaine also informs us, probably from the same old authority, that

One of their sports was, for two to start a great way off, opposite to

B2 each other, and when they met, to lift their poles and strike at each other, when one or both fell, and were carried to a distance from each other by the celerity of their motion.

And he further says :

Of the present wooden skates, shod with iron, there is no doubt we obtained a knowledge from Holland.

They seem to have been introduced into England in Charles the Second's time (about 1662), when the first notice of them appears.

In our own country, where the opportunities of skating are rare, and of short continuance, and where the distances that can be traversed on fresh water are so small, skating is purely a pastime, and is therefore cultivated more in the direction of elegance than practical utility.

But in more northern countries, where the roads are blocked up for months with deep snows, the frozen surface of the lakes and rivers forms the only roadway ; skating and sleighing are the only means of travelling and communication between rather distant places. In this way, the inhabitants, men and women alike, are skaters, and can travel their fifteen miles an hour with ease, keeping up the pace for several hours.

One of these skaters, however perfect in his own line, would make no appearance whatever in any of our British clubs; and, in the same way, I fear, our finest performers would be utterly distanced in the skating races of the North, where they contest for victory on a thirty-mile course.

A Dutch woman skating to market, will carry her baby, and a basket of eggs., forty miles of a morning ; and in winter, the Amsterdam market for country produce is mostly supplied by skaters.

Sleighs, pushed by skaters, or drawn by horses, or even impelled by sails, are used for the same purpose in those countries ; and Blaine says that in Lincolnshire something of this sort is done — that skating is put to a practical use. He also tells us that a Lincolnshire man, for a wager of a hundred guineas, skated a mile in three minutes.

In speaking of speed, he mentions another remarkable instance, that of an officer having skated from Montreal to Quebec in one day ! which, he says, " considering the state of the ice on these large rivers, was a wonderful performance." Wonderful enough, certainly, to make me somewhat sceptical, for, whatever might be the state of the ice, the actual distance is 180 miles.

I believe a mile in three to three and a half minutes is very quick work — even one in four minutes is not bad — and, for endurance, fourteen to sixteen miles in an hour ; though skaters practising for running may occasionally exceed that,

In this country we mostly make summer our holidaytime, for in winter we have so much wet weather, that a clear frosty day can never be reckoned on till it comes But in other countries, particularly where the employment of the people is wholly agricultural, the winter, which brings its repose to the soil, brings its rest and rejoicing to the people also. Labour has laid aside her sickle, and garnered its fruits, and the time for the plough is still distant ; why should she not feast and be merry ?

In Russia the winter is especially a festive time. The brilliantly illuminated and furnished ice palaces of the Neva, with their feasting, and music and dancing — the artificial twin ice hills, down one of which the sledge rushes thundering with such velocity as carries it entirely up the other — with skating, and sleighing, and all sorts of ice amusements, mark the progress of the Russian winter.

In Norway and Sweden, and round the shores of the Baltic, the hardy hunter follows the chase on skates ; and his speed and facility in turning, enable him to attack, and avoid retaliation from, the ferocious wolf, till the quarry is brought down with repeated wounds.

The American skater sometimes owes his preservation to his speed and endurance on the irons. There is a well-known story of a settler in the Far West, who was taken captive by the Indians, and, after some days of bondage and torture, was shown a pair of skates that had been included in the plunder of his village. His captors, ignorant of their use, asked him to show them ; a beam of hope cheered his despairing heart as, with trembling hands, he proceeded to fasten them on. He soon got on the ice, and commenced shuffling and tumbling about fantastically, but taking care gradually to move farther from the shore, the unsuspecting Indians laughing at his awkwardness.

They were then upon the far shore of one of the immense lakes of that vast continent : and the sheet of ice that stretched before the skater's gaze, ended only in the horizon.

When he thought himself far enough away, he fell for the last time, and bound the skates more firmly to his feet, then, rising, he stretched out at full speed, while the Indians scarcely recovered from their astonishment in time to send after him a few random bullets, which bounded and tinkled along the ice harmlessly.

Still, though free, he was not out of danger ; he had a vast desert to traverse without food or shelter, exposed to the chance attack of wolves, or still more remorseless Indians; and frequently turned from his course for miles, by some wide crevasse, till he could find a spot narrow enough to leap over. But after journeying in this manner

SKATING.

for two days and nights, when exhausted and despairing, he fortunately fell in with a trapper, who guided him to a settlement.

More recently an incident happened to a Canadian settler, in which his skates, though they certainly led him into the danger, also bore him safely out of it.

His habitation lay on the banks of a river, and, being fond of skatiug, he had gone out alone one fine moonlight night to enjoy it.

The moon shone with unusual splendour, rendering more faint the brilliancy of the myriads of stars, which, in so clear an atmosphere, shone like diamond points, deep set in the interminable blue. The ever- varying aurora borealis, so magnificent in that climate, would ever and anon come shooting up from the horizon in crescents, and columns, and domes of many- coloured light, till the whole zenith would become splendidly irradiated, and the ear could connect with the flashes " a sound as of silken banners shaken in the wind f these shapes changing as suddenly to narrow streamers, and thin flakes of shooting and floating light, ever brightening, ever darkening.

The ice was smooth and clear, and reflected in its motionless mirror the radiance of the heavens, and the deep shadow of the primeval forest, which stretched gloomily on either side.

Tempted by the beauty of the night, he had wandered rather far from home, and had entered one of the many smaller creeks that joined the river : here his path gradually darkened, for, as the stream grew narrow, the tall old trees met and interlaced overhead.

Suddenly, from the brush at his side, came a low growl, and, looking round, he saw two fierce eyes glaring bluely at him through the darkness ; anon, others and others, on all sides, and closer, till he thought he could feel the hot breath of the hungry wolves which were closing round him . Instant flight was his only chance for life, and, turning, he rushed for home'. The wolves followed, and the chase was a quick and a hot one; for a time, the skater kept well ahead, and many of his pursuers gave up the chase. He was approaching his home, and could at last even see the light from his window glancing occasionally through the forest ; but he felt that his powers were nearly exhausted, and some of the wolves were still closing on his track, with their long lumbering gallop that never tired. He saw his home before him, and heard the welcome sound of his watchdogs barking. Oh, for one minute of Lion or Ranger — but alas ! they were chained, and could render no help. The wolves were at his heels, and, without any other thought than that of meeting his fate, he turned sharp to one side. The foremost wolf made a dash at him, but, unable to check its velocity on the slippery ice, it slid past him, as did the rest ; and the skater found himself with a fresh start, and, nerving himself anew, he dashed on. A second time overtaken, he had recourse to the same manoeuvre, when, probably frightened by the loud barking of the dogs, the wolves gave up the chase, and, in joy and thankfulness for his preservation, the settler reached his home, resolved not again to indulge in the romantic at such hazard.

In Canada the winters are particularly severe. The snows that fall in December seldom vanish till May; the intermediate time being mostly occupied with intense frosts, varied, of course, with snow-storms and thaws.

The thermometer ranges from 25° to 30° below zero, giving about sixty degrees of frost (in Britain, 20° above zero, which is twelve degrees of frost, is considered very keen, and we rarely have it so low) .

This severity of climate, however, seems almost to add a

SKATING.

zest to out-door amusements. Business and labour being alike suspended, all ranks and classes indulge in a general jubilee ; skates are sharpened, and sleighs new furbished ; and the city inhabitants, late so active in business, now follow pleasure with equal enthusiasm, in which their country friends are in no way behind. Visiting commences in earnest, distance being no consideration; city balls and country junketings, where each guest brings his own dish, are all the go, and the jingle of the sleigh bells is heard in all directions ; the chance of being snowed up, and the many hazards of the road, only adding zest to the fun.

Within the last few years their variable climate has suggested, and their intense and long continued frosts have enabled them to carry out, the idea of covered and enclosed sheets of water which can be kept free from snow, and can have the ice renewed as may be required. They are called "ice rinks," and are, in fact, large sheds enclosed against wind and snow, and lighted with gas, so that the skater can follow his pastime comfortably, day or night, in all weathers except thaw. The result is that the Canadian skater can pretty well count on three months agreeable skating every winter ; and the following extract from the Quebec Chronicle shows the sort of programme : —

Fancy Dress Ball on the Ice. — On the 14th ult. the Quebec Skating Club had their grand fancy dress ball at their ice rink. The bugle sounded at nine o'clock, and the motley crowd of. skaters rushed on the ice, over which they dashed in high glee, their spirits stirred to the utmost by the enlivening music and the cheering presence of hundreds of ladies and gentlemen, including the elite of Quebec. Over the glittering floor sped dozens of flying figures, circling, skimming, whirling, and intermingling, with a new swiftness, the bright and varied colours, the rich and grotesque costumes succeeding each other, or combining with bewildering rapidity and effect. The gentlemen, in addition to the usual characters, introduced some novelties — an owl, a monkey, a monster bottle, a tailor at work on his bench, a boy on horseback, all capital representations, and by good skaters. Among the suits of the ladies were representations of " Night " and "Morning," a vivandiere, a habitant's wife, and other characters that appeared to advantage. The skaters presented both a varied and brilliant appearance, their parts being well sustained as to costume and deportment, and their movements on the ice being characterised by that grace and skill of movement bred of long practice. The dances included quadrilles, waltzes, galops, lancers, and so forth, for which there was suitable music from first to last.

Now and then, at rare intervals, the St. Lawrence is completely frozen over at Quebec, and then a grand carnival takes place. Tents and booths are erected, and skating and sleigh racing, and other glacial sports, are the order of the day.

Something of this kind has taken place in London also, when the Thames has been frozen over. A fair was always held on its surface, which lasted with the ice. But this is like a jubilee year, once in half a century, and sure now to be still less frequent as the channel is deepened for navigation.

The London skaters resort mostly to the Serpentine water, in Hyde Park, for their amusement, and when that is well frozen, the scene is a very animated one, the crowd being sometimes so dense as to preclude much fancy skating. There, however, are to be seen the finest skaters that our country can boast of, and even foreigners, accustomed to the finest execution in their own more practical line, admire the elegance of the English evolutions.

In Scotland, we must, I fear, acknowledge our inferiority in skating ; for, though there are a few good skaters about the large towns, the number is very small, and in country districts the performances are usually very indifferent.

An old encyclopaedia, probably written in Edinburgh, gave that city the palm for skating accomplishment, and the reputation lias clung to her ever since. I do not believe it ever was merited, or that at any time she could touch London. A few years ago, when I saw the performances of her club, I found them fifty years behind the day, doing nothing whatever beyond outside forward, and even that badly, and acting on the very conservative, but very mistaken, idea that nothing else was worth learning. Till they abandon that idea, there is no hope for them.

The Edinburgh skaters go to Duddingstone Loch, a very pretty sheet of water, to the south of the city, behind Arthur's Seat ; and if you take the road over the hill on a fine frosty day, when the ice is bearing, you see as pleasant and lively a scene as can be witnessed anywhere.

The lake is spread out before you, so far below, that you take in the whole surface at a glance ; the ice is brilliantly white, for, though there is no snow on the ground, the busy skaters have scraped a surface of snow over the ice. You do not exactly see what they are doing, but only that they are rushing frantically about, and tumbling over each other, ever in restless motion, just like the denizens of an anthill, and almost as numerous. There is a large sprinkling of ladies also, and many of them you see with skates on, and performing very creditably.

I like to see ladies skate ; though, no doubt, the early steps must be rather trying to female nerves and female draperies ; but more in idea than in reality, for, with careful instructions, a lady may acquire sufficient skill to move about freely without any extensive ordeal of falls. At the same time, where the opportunity can be had of a private pond, these little difficulties may be more easily surmounted.

In Glasgow there are probably fewer skaters than in any town in the kingdom of near its size ; the inhabitants are so much engaged with business all day, and there is so total an absence of idle people, that the ice has only a few devotees.

These few, however, form the centre of a very flourishing skating club, who have a very fine pond of their own ; and, besides this, there are a number of ponds and small lakes within convenient distance of the city, and, being situated so far from the sea, they have at least three times as many days of ice in each season as the Edinburgh men.

The Clyde is rarely frozen, and when it is, the ice is usually bad from the rise and fall, caused by the tidal influence, constantly breaking it while forming.

I now quote another passage about Canada, which appeared in Once a Weelc, and I do so partly to correct a popular fallacy, and partly to show what rubbish a man may commit himself to who writes about what he does not understand : —

I was once belated in Canada on a fine winter day, and was riding over the hard snow on the margin of a wide lake, when the most faint and mournful wail that could break a solemn silence seemed to pass through me like a dream. I stopped my horse and listened. For some time I could not satisfy myself whether the music was in the air or in my own brain. I thought of the pine forest, which was not far off ; but the tone was not harp-like, and there was not a breath of wind. Then it swelled and approached ; and then again it seemed to be miles away in a moment ; and again it moaned as if under my very feet — it was, in fact, almost under my feet. It was the voice of the winds imprisoned under the pall of ice suddenly cast over them by the peremptory power of the frost. Nobody there had made air-holes, for the place was a wilderness, and there was no escape for the winds, which must moan on till the spring warmth should release them. They were fastened down in silence ; but they would come out with an explosion when, in some still night after a warm spring day, the ice would blow up and make a crash and a racket from shore to shore. So I was told at my host's that evening, where I arrived with something of the sensation of a haunted man. It had been some time before the true idea struck me, and mean while the rising and falling moan made my very heart thrill again.

All this fine writing in " high falutin' " style subsides into worse than nothingness when it is known to be founded on a fallacy ! No wind ever was in this world imprisoned under a sheet of ice ! But that there is a popular idea of that sort is undeniable. The author of the above had imbibed the idea somehow, and founded that piece of nonsense upon it.

In similar error, when that lamentable accident happened in one of the London parks last January, one of the newspapers (I think it was the Times, but am not quite sure) had a leader, in which the cause of the accident was quite scientifically explained to be, that the crowd, having collected more to one end of the pond, the air under the ice was driven to the other end, where it blew up the ice into fragments, and caused the whole sheet to give way. This is just the " imprisoned winds" over again. Now, the simple fact is, that ice always floats on the water ; without the water to support it, its own weight would break it immediately ; it is, therefore, impossible for any quantity of air to be between the ice and the water. If the ice is depressed by a concentrated crowd there must be displacement of water, but the ice on one spot would not bend far enough (without itself breaking) to cause such displacement as to blow up the ice at another place, unless the displaced water was concentrated, and its pressure all brought to bear, on a surface still smaller than the place it was displaced from. Besides, it was where the crowd was that the ice gave way, and the almost certain explanation of the accident is, that the continued vibration from so many skaters had cracked the ice by degrees into a complete web of cracks, meeting and crossing each other in all directions, till, perhaps, there was not a space of six inches free from them, and the cohesion of the sheet was entirely destroyed. This is what skaters should particularly notice, a few cracks here and there are nothing, but when they become closely interlaced, and when water is rising through them, the ice is no longer safe.

Attempts have frequently been made to invent skating that could dispense with frost, and be practised at any season.

I remember a professor who undertook, for a consideration, to teach a mode of going on iron-wheeled skates, and he certainly did wpnders himself, but somehow his pupils made no progress, and then it ceased to pay.