Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/122

 NOTES AND QUERIES.

[11 S. V. FEB. 3, 1912.

the Colleges before dinner), it would seem as though he had mixed up his recollections o: the places he had visited, though he does not record that he was " very merry."

A. MORLEY DAVIES.

SKATING IN THE MIDDLE AGES (11 S. v. 27). Fosbroke (' Antiquities,' p. 513 remarks : -

" Skating was a great accomplishment of Thialfe in the Edda, and was usual among the Northern and Celtic nations. Olaus Magnus describes the skate as of polished iron, or of the shank-bone of a deer, or sheep, about a foot long. Besides skates, they had wooden shoes with iron points, flexible circles with points sharpened every way into teeth, triangular points of iron, &c. Our ancestors were not only versed in sliding, but used the leg-bones of animals fastened to their shoes, and pushed themselves on with stakes headed with iron. The wooden skates, shod with iron, are said to have been invented in the Low Countries, and certainly introduced here from Holland."

Skating is mentioned by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus about 1134. The earliest form of skate that we know (' Ency. Brit.,' xxv. 166) is that of the bone "runners" (still preserved in museums) worn by the primitive Norsemen. Whatever its origin in Great Britain, skating was certainly a common sport in England in the twelfth century, as is proved by an old translation of Fitz-Steven's 'Description of London,' 1180:

" When the great fenne or moore (which wa- tereth the walls of the citie on the North side) is frozen, many young men play on the yce .... asome tye bones to their feete and under their heeles, and shoving themselves with a little picked staffe do slide as swiftlie as a birde flyeth in the aire or an arrow out of a cross-bow."

At what period the use of metal runners was introduced is unknown, but it was possibly not long after the introduction into Northern Europe, in the third century A.D., of the art of working in iron. Blade- skates were probably introduced here from Holland about 1660 ; and skating is said to have been made fashionable by the Cava- liers who had been in exile with Charles II. in Holland. That it had become popular with the aristocracy as well as with the people we are told by Pepys :

1 Dec., 1662. " Over the park (where I first in my life did see people sliding with their skates, which is a very pretty art)."

Also on 13 Dec. " To the Duke [of York], and followed him into the park, where, though the ice was broken and dangerous, yet he would go slide upon his skates, which I did not like, but he slides very well."

The earliest patents are by J. H. Savigny (December, 1784), "for making skates and

fixing them on with more ease, safety, and expedition than hath hitherto been dis- covered." Also by W. Milward (April, 1819) : " My improvement on the skate, and fixing the same, consists of attaching the skate iron to the shoe instead of a wooden sole, to be strapped on the foot as heretofore." As to when steel skates were first used, compare Sir Walter Scott in 1824, ' St. Ronan's Well,' chap. iii. : "I thought sketchers were aye made of aim." (Sketch is the Scotch form of "skate.") A steel sole and fittings were introduced as an improvement by John Rodgers in 1831 ; but skates made entirely of steel are more modern perhaps fifty years later.

TOM JONES.

In my edition of ' Haydn's Dictionary of Dates ' (1885) it is stated that skating is " mentioned by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus about 1134," after which is a reference to FitzStephen. It also men- tions that there are " figures of skates in Olaus Magnus's history, printed 1555." ' Chambers' s Encyclopaedia ' records that a bibliography of nearly 300 works relating to skating appeared in ' N. & Q.' between 1874 and 1881, and a reference to this may assist MB. FORBES SIEVEKING in tracing what he desires. URLLAD.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION WANTED Oxonienses ' it is said that Thomas Barrow, the father of Isaac Barrow, Master of Trin. ! oll., Camb., was the son of Isaac Barrow of Spinney Abbey, Camb., Esq. This work also mentions Isaac Barrow, Doctor of Physic, who was buried in All Saints' Church, Camb., on 22 Feb., 1616.
 * il S. v. 28). 1. BARROW. In the ' Athense

The Barrows must have sold Spinney Abbey, as it became the seat of Henry Crom- well, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, after lis retirement, and it was there that Charles [I. visited him.

Oliver, Henry's eldest son, diedTthere, and lis brother Henry, who succeeded to the property, sold it to Edward Russell, Lord Drford.

3. COL. HENRY MORDAUNT CLAVERING died on 18 May, 1850, and was buried on 25 May in Brompton Cemetery. His first wife, Lady Augusta Campbell, died in 1831. He lived with his second wife at Abbeville

France) a long time before he married her; she survived him.

4. ROBERT CLAVERING was a son of Sir Thomas Clavering of Greencroft, co. Dur- lam. He was entitled to his name, though