2-979-525 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Skating in Hyde-Park - drawn by John Leech, 1857. Winter entertainment in London. '...it is in the parks where Jack Frost is to be seen in all his glory - there his admirers assemble in thousands...casting aside all distinctions of society...No bacchanalian revel more stirring and confused; and yet the only excitement is exercise!...Roasted chestnuts crackling over glowing charcoal are irresistible to boys with cold hands and a penny. And yonder battered merchant, henceforth immortalised by Mr. Leech's pencil, will...perhaps have a supper of tripe from the gains of the morning...Hark! a dull, continuous cracking of the ice!...and then more flaws and bubbling up of water. Jack Frost is away again! Those who are wise will follow his example and quit the dissolving floor, unless they wish to give trouble to the Humane Society and obtain a plunge-bath, a warm ditto, and a glass of brandy-and-water gratis'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.