London is crrently full of ice skating rinks so I was
curious as to when ice skating first became a leisure activity.
Ice skating has been around for 1000s of years, evidenced by
bone skates found my archaeologists. The earliest written account comes from
Walter Fitzstephen, a late twelfth century monk at Canterbury and a chronicler in
a passage concerning leisure activities details:
"In the winter holidays...when the vast lake,
which waters the walls of the city towards the north, is hard frozen, the youth
in great numbers got to divert themselves on the ice.
Some, taking a small run,
for an increment of velocity, place their feet at the proper distance, and are
carried sliding sideways a great way; others will make a large cake of ice, and
seating one of their companions upon it, they take hold of one another's hands
and draw him along; when it sometimes happens, that moving swiftly on so slippery
a plain they all fall down headlong.
Other there are who are still more expert
in these amusements on the ice, they place certain bones, the leg bones of some
animal, under the soles of their feet, by tying them round their ankles, and
then taking a pole shod with iron into their hands, they push themselves
forward by striking it against the ice, and are carried along with a velocity
equal to the flight of a bird, or a bolt discharged from a cross bow.
Sometimes, two of them thus furnished, agree to start opposite one to another,
at a great distance; the meet, elevate their poles, attack and strike each
other, when one or both of them fall, and not without some bodily hurt; and
even after their fall, they shall be carried a good distance from each other by
the rapidity of the motion; and whatever part of your head comes upon the ice,
it is sure to be laid bare to the scull [sic].
Very often the leg or the arm of
the party that falls, if he chances to light upon them, is broken: but youth is
an age ambitious of glory, fond and covetous of victory; and that in future
time it may acquit itself boldly and valiantly in real engagements, it will run
these hazards in sham ones."
The lake in this description is suggested to have been in the Moorfields area. As you can see, much of the medieval skating experience is still true today. Sore bottoms still abound!
Notes
Images:
Putting on boots: MS 551, Les miracles de la vierge, mis en vers par Gautier de Coincy, 13th century, f. 20 v. (view online)
Snowballs: detail from a fresco by Master Venceslao, Tower Aquila, Buonconsiglio Castle, Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy, 14th-15th century
Description of the City of London, Newly Translated from the Latin Original; with a Necessary Commentary. A Dissertation on the Author, ... is Prefixed: and to the Whole is Subjoined, a Correct Edition of the Original, with the Various Readings, and Some Useful annotations. By an Antiquary, printed for B. White, translated by (London: Fleet Street, 1772) pp. 50-52
Description of the City of London, Newly Translated from the Latin Original; with a Necessary Commentary. A Dissertation on the Author, ... is Prefixed: and to the Whole is Subjoined, a Correct Edition of the Original, with the Various Readings, and Some Useful annotations. By an Antiquary, printed for B. White, translated by (London: Fleet Street, 1772) pp. 50-52
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