People to whom cold means misery, who hate to be braced, and shudder at
the word "seasonable," can have little difficulty in accounting for the
origin of the sports of winter. They need only adapt to the
circumstances that old Lydian tradition which says that games of chance
were invented during a great famine. Men permitted themselves to eat
only every second day, and tried to forget their hunger in playing at
draughts and dice. That is clearly the invention of a southern people,
which never had occasion to wish it could become oblivious of the
weather, as too many of us would like to be in England. Such shivering
and indolent folks may be inclined to say that skating and curling and
wildfowl-shooting, and the other diversions which seduce the able-bodied
from the warm precincts of the cheerful fire, were only contrived to
enable us to forget the state of the thermometer. Whether or not that
was the purpose of the first northerner who fixed sheep-bones beneath his
feet, to course more smoothly over the frozen sound, there can be no
doubt that winter sports answer their presumed purpose. They keep up
that glow which only exercise in the open air can give, and promote the
health which shows itself in the complexion. It is the young lady who
interprets literally the Scotch invitation "come into the fire," and who
spoils the backs of library novels by holding them too near the
comfortable hearth, she it is who suffers from the ignoble and unbecoming
liberties that winter takes with the human countenance. Happier and
wiser is she who studies the always living and popular Dutch roll rather
than the Grecian bend, and who blooms with continual health and good
temper. Our changeful climate affords so few opportunities of learning
to skate, that it is really extraordinary to find so much skill, and to
see feats so difficult and graceful. In Canada, where frost is a
certainty, and where the covered "rinks" make skating an indoor sport, it
is not odd that great perfection should be attained. But as fast as
Canadians bring over a new figure or a new trick it is picked up, and
critics may dispute as to whether the bold and dashing style of the
English school of skaters is not preferable to the careful and smooth,
but somewhat pretty and niggling manner of the colonists. Our skating
stands to the Canadian fashion somewhat as French does to English
etching. We have the dash and the _chic_ with skates which Frenchmen
show with the etching-needle, and the Canadian, on the other hand, is apt
to decline into the mere prettiness which is the fault of English
etchers.
Skating has been, within the last few years, a very progressive art.
There was a time when mere speed, and the grace of speed, satisfied most
amateurs. The ideal spot for skating in those days must have been the
lakes where Wordsworth used to listen to the echoes replying from the
cold and moonlit hills, or such a frozen river as that on which the
American skater was pursued by wolves. No doubt such scenes have still
their rare charm, and few expeditions are more attractive than a
moonlight exploration of a winding river. But it is seldom that our
frosts make such tours practicable, whereas almost every winter it is
possible to skate with safety, at least on shallow ponds, or on places
like the ice-bound floods at Oxford. Thus figure-skating, which needs
but a surface of a few yards to each performer, has come into fashion,
and it is hard to imagine any exercise more elegant, or one that requires
more nerve. The novice is theoretically aware that if he throws his body
into certain unfamiliar postures, which are explained to him, the laws of
gravitation and of the higher curves will cause him to complete a certain
figure. But how much courage and faith it requires to yield to these
laws and let the frame swing round subject to the immutable rules of
matter! The temptation to stop half-way is almost irresistible, and then
there occurs a complicated fall, which makes the petrified spectator ask
where may be the skater's body--"which are legs, and which are arms?" Of
all sports, skating has the best claim to adopt Danton's motto, _Toujours
de l'audace_--the audacity meant being that of giving one's self up to
the laws of motion, and not the vulgar quality which carries its owner on
to dangerous ice. Something may now be learned of figure-skating on dry
land, and the adventure may be renewed of the mythical children who went
sliding all on a summer day. In this respect, skating has a great
advantage over its rival, the "roaring game" of curling. It would be
poor fun to curl on asphalte, with stones fixed on wheels, though the
amusement is possible, and we recommend the idea, which is not copyright,
to enthusiastic curlers; and curlers are almost always enthusiastic. It
is pleasant to think how the hills must be ringing with their shouts,
round many a lonely tarn, where the men of one parish meet those of the
next in friendly conflict north of the Tweed. The exhilarating yell of
"soop her up," whereby the curler who wields a broom is abjured to sweep
away the snow in front of the advancing stone, will many a time be heard
this winter. There is something peculiarly healthy about this sport--in
the ring with which the heavy stones clash against each other; in the
voices of the burly plaided men, shepherd, and farmer, and laird; in the
rough banquet of beef and greens and the copious toddy which close the
day's exertions.
Frost brings with it an enforced close-season for most of furred and
feathered kind. The fox is safe enough, and, if sportsmen are right,
must be rather wearying for open weather, and for the return of his
favourite exercise with hounds. But even when the snow hangs out her
white flag of truce and goodwill between man and beast, the British
sportsman is still the British sportsman, and is not averse to going out
and killing something. To such a one, wild-fowl shooting is a
possibility, though, as good Colonel Hawker says, some people complain
forsooth that it interferes with ease and comfort. We should rather
incline to think it does. A black frost with no moon is not precisely
the kind of weather that a degenerate sportsman would choose for lying in
the frozen mud behind a bush, or pushing a small punt set on large skates
across the ice to get at birds. Few attitudes can be more cramping than
that of the gunner who skulks on one knee behind his canoe, pushing it
with one hand, and dragging himself along by the aid of the other. Then,
it is disagreeable to have to use a gun so heavy that the stock is fitted
with a horsehair pillow, or even with a small bolster. The whistle of
widgeon and the shrill-sounding pinions of wild geese may be attractive
noises, and no doubt all shooting is exciting; and a form of shooting
which stakes all on one shot must offer some thrilling moments of
expectation. The quarry has to be measured by number, not by size, and
fifty widgeon at one discharge, or a brace of wild swans may almost serve
to set against a stag of ten. {23} The lover of nature has glimpses in
wild-fowl shooting such as she gives no other man--the glittering expanse
of waters, the birds "all in a charm," all uttering their cry together,
the musical moan of the tide, and the "long glories of the winter moon."
But success is too difficult, equipment too costly, and rheumatism too
certain for wild-fowl shooting to be reckoned among popular winter
sports.