A Hundred Years Ago
"THE SPECTATOR," DECEMBER 26.rn, 1835.
Skating is a rather dangerous +'..iiversion, notwithstanding the severity of the weather ; and several accidents, some of them attended with loss of life, have occurred in London and the vicinity. On Thursday, a boy was drowned in the Regent's Canal ; and on the same day five gentlemen nearly lost their lives, in consequence of the ice giving way, on the Serpentine River. They were rescued by the men employed by the Royal Humane Society, and carried to the now Receiving-house in Hyde Park. On Wednesday, two boys, whose father lives at Brixton, were sliding on a pond in a field near Streatham, when the ice broke, and both were drowned. Yesterday, two gentlemen lost their lives by the ice breaking, in the canal in St. James's Park. But the most serious accident occurred yesterday on the Ser- pentine, OR which several thousands were skating. According to the account in The Times, "Everything went on very pleasantly until about half-past twelve o'clock, when loud shrieks were heard proceeding from the vicinity of the Receiving-house belonging to the Royal Humane Society on the north bank of the river. Hundreds of persons, both on the ice and on the banks, immediately hastened to the spot ; when it was discovered that a large piece of ice which had been marked 'Dangerous,' had, notwithstanding the exertions of the Society's men to prevent them, been crowded by skaters, and given way, immersing nearly the whole of them in the water."
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