CHAPTER XXII 



Curling 



FEW people in England are fond of cold. Many of 

 us hold and broach irreproachable theories as to 

 its bracing effect on our frames, but our inward convic- 

 tion is that it is disagreeable, like many other tonics. 

 We are not all of us skaters, and many of us who are 

 find ourselves condemned in a frost, by our avocations, 

 to the sufferings of Tantalus. We grumble at a mild 

 winter, and submit to it with much philanthropy. It 

 is very different with our relations north of the Tweed 

 at least, with the dwellers between Tweed and Tay. 

 There there is no sort of hypocrisy in the aspiration of 

 vigorous males after bitter winters. For what is above 

 all others the national game can only be played in 

 national weather. Golf is popular in a sense, and, 

 moreover, it can be played at all seasons, but then it 

 can be only played in certain localities and at a certain 

 cost. But there all the world are curlers : all you ask 

 for the game is water, of which there is no lack ; a 

 frost, which used to be no very rare phenomenon, to 

 make the water ice ; and a couple of heavy circular 



stones, polished on both surfaces or on the lower one, 



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