Copyright @Jane Austen’s World. Gentle readers, as you know, the northeast has been socked in by snow, ice, gale winds, and bitterly cold temperatures today.
George Scharf, Sketches of People in Snow. Some scenes of winter have never changed.
This is a perfect time for hunkering inside and drinking hot chocolate. Or is it?
Image @City of London. This young lady is wearing pattens to protect her shoes.
My nephew’s children will go sledding, others will go ice skating, and my dog will bound through the snow drifts with undisguised glee, as people have done for ages.
Winter Amusement, Hyde Park, after Ibbetson, 1789. Note the bare feet on the young child in rags. (Foreground)
As early as the 17th century, the noted diarist John Evelyn noted: ” Having seen the strange and wonderful dexterity of the sliders on the new canal in St James’s Park, performed before their Ma[ties] by divers gentlemen, and others with Scheetes, after the manner of the Hollander,s with what swiftnesse they passe, how suddainely they stop in full carriere upon the ice, I went home by water, but not without exceeding difficultie,s the Thames being frozen, greate flakes of ice incompassing our boate. Pepys entry is as follows: St James’s Park Dec 1 1662. “Over the Park where I first in my life it being a great frost did see people sliding with their skeates, which is a very pretty art.”
Dutch steamers on the frozen Zuyder Zee. The leather straps are quite visible on these skates.
Skating has been around since 3,000 BC or thereabouts and stone age skates have been uncovered in bogs. But it was the lowlanders who took to the sport with glee, using wooden platform skates with iron runners as early as the 14th century. At first, skaters strapped their skates around their shoes with leather straps and propelled themselves forward with wooden poles.
William Grant, The Skater, 1782
Then, the Dutch invented a narrower double-edged metal blade that allowed them to glide with their feet, and the poles became obsolete.
1824 Skating Dandies Showing Off
Many 19th century images exist of people skating on frozen streams and ponds, and sledding or sleighing.
1820. In the distance on the right, one can see a man chopping through the ice to allow his cattle to drink water. On the left, another man is spreading grain to feed his animals.
“..moderns sledges are used, which being extended from a centre by the means of a strong rope, those who are seated in them are moved round with great velocity, and form an extensive circle. Sledges of this kind were set upon the Thames during the hard frost in the year 1716 as the following couplet in a song written upon that occasion 1plainly proves:
“While the rabble in sledges run giddily round
And nought but a circle of folly is found” – The sports and pasttimes of the people of England
By the mid 18th century, Robert Jones described paired ice skating, or figure skating in A Treatise on Skating (1772).
The Timid Pupil, 1800. Both this ladies feet are placed together, as her escort gently leads her over the ice.
Sleds and sleighs have been used for centuries to transports logs, people, and good over frozen waters all over northern Europe for centuries.
Frozen river in The Netherlands with townsfolk skating and sledging using various forms of sleds pushed by people, and one pulled by a horse. By Vermeulen
Called coasting, sliding down hills and inclines on hand sleds or sledges provided hours of pleasure, as well as a practical way to get around over frozen landscapes and water. Wooden sleds pulled by a rope are still a familiar sight today.
19th century porcelain (figures in 18th century dress): man pushing woman on a sleigh
Fancy sleighs pulled by horses (or reindeer in the frozen north) transported groups of people, often in comfort, for their feet were placed upon footwarmers that were heated with hot coals, and their bodies were covered by thick furs or blankets.
Victorian sleigh. The travelers are protected from the cold by muffs and a thick blanket. Even the dog wears a coat. Note the bells on the horses.
More on the topic:
- Find images of stone age, medieval, and 18th century skates in this article: Playing through winter on snow and ice
- Keeping Warm in the Regency Era, Part One
- Keeping Warm in the Regency Era, Part Two
Jane Austen's World 
Shocking to see those children with bare feet in the ice and snow – certainly puts the Christmassy romance of it all into perspective.
Grace x
I agree, Grace. We forget how abjectly poor many people were during that era, and how very little they owned. Vic
What on earth does that Zuyder Zee skater have on top of her head? A roast chicken?
The humor of this illustration is that the Dutch couple are smoking – in fact, all the skaters are smoking in this caricature! I have always imagined that she is carrying their meal (or something to sell) on her head, for back in that little ice age the Dutch could travel great distances over frozen canals, from one town to the other. Imagine if she tripped, though!
Did you get a lot of snow, Vic? We even got a little here in Georgia.
Richmond received around five inches, but I am in Baltimore at present, where, miracle of miracles, we received only a fraction of the predicted snow. But the weather was bitter cold and the winds were so bracing that it looked like the snow fell horizontally.
I must add, Dana, that the kids did go sledding on the north side of the slope, where the wind blew all the snow, but by noon it was all gone. And my pooch loves the snow drifts in the woods. All my dogs have loved snow. Still, we dodged the bullet! Temps will rise to the 40s today.
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Fabulous post, Vic! I really enjoyed reading it. How did the women stand the cold, though? Their clothing doesn’t appear to suit the weather and they seem to be wearing shawls only over their gowns. What took so long for tailers/mantua makers to come up with the coat for women? Is this another post I should check out?
Karen, thank you! One of the links I supplied, Keeping Warm in the Regency Era, Part One, discussed ladies clothing. They wore several layers of petticoats (some made of wool or flannel), stockings, shawls, and fingerless gloves. Outdoors, they were also layered. And, as was discussed in a fairly recent post, people quickly become accustomed to colder weather when they have no choice!
Just yesterday I discovered how effective a hot fire could be in a large room. I sat a good 12 feet away from the fire place, but could still feel the heat from the flames, which warmed me just enough.
It’s hard to image how uncomfortable England was and at times still is. We were in a b and b in the countryside near Oxford and froze from the lack of heat. Hot chocolate didn’t help.
For more on the lack of creature comforts and a fantastic description of a later period with all the gloom, Victorian England (just as uncomfortable as the Regency) try reading the new novel by Graham Moore, The Sherlockian. It’s so entertaining and accurate about the period.
Thanks for another informative piece Vic. I was surprised to hear skating and sledging were a popular pastime before the Victorian era. I wonder how Torvill and Dean (famous uk figure skaters) would manage skating wearing full Regency or Victorian dress instead of the skimpy lycra costumes skaters wear now.
It seems strange that life more or less went on as normal during the badest winter weather and yet now with modern technology.. just an inch or two of snow and the UK grinds to a halt.
Thank you for stopping by, Nikki. While skating and sledging were ways in which people got around and sported in deep snow, and while the Frost Fair on the frozen Thames River provided a lot of merriment and fun, I suspect that people had a great deal of difficulty dealing with large amounts of snow. Snow had to shoveled by hand, and, while crossing sweepers kept the city streets clear, there were hardships in the narrow streets of old London and in the country. Coaches and carriages often got mired in snow and muck. The passengers had to get out and remove all the baggage, so that the coachmen or postillions or both (and male passengers) could help to push the vehicles out of snow drifts. This sometimes took hours.
I suspect that each age has its unique challenges in dealing with winter weather and snow. :)
Thanks for another informative piece Vic. I was surprised to hear skating and sledging were a popular pastime before the Victorian era. I wonder how Torvill and Dean (famous uk figure skaters) would manage skating wearing full Regency or Victorian dress instead of the skimpy lycra costumes skaters wear now.
It seems strange that life more or less went on as normal during the worst winter weather and yet now with modern technology.. just an inch or two of snow and the UK grinds to a halt.
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