1 8 4 7.] 



SWIMMING, 



seemed very free from snow. Once the air was down to 22 0 , 

 and the mill-pond was full of ice ; but he never omitted his 

 bathe. He kept up the practice for years, and considering 

 that he frequently bathed in the dark, he was singularly free 

 from accidents. 



In a memorial pamphlet, printed at Warrington, one of 

 Philip's old scholars writes : " He was indefatigable in teaching 

 all who cared to learn, and he often spent from an hour to an 

 hour and a half in a morning teaching swimming by means of 

 a rope and belt at Buttermilk Bridge. On Sunday mornings, 

 when the weather was fine and favourable, there would be 

 hundreds bathing in the canal, and this gave him excellent 

 opportunities of coming in contact with men whom he never 

 would have reached in any other way. He had a kind and 

 encouraging word for all, but was especially mindful of the 

 younger ones, whom he was very fond of calling his young 

 cubs. He must have encouraged thousands to acquire the art 

 of swimming ; and never had a case of drowning ending fatally, 

 though there were two or three near escapes, arising from some 

 of the bathers attemping more than they could perform. I 

 have no doubt that the genial and truly English way of doing 

 this won for him the genuine esteem of the working classes of 

 Warrington, for they almost alone were his attendants, especially 

 on Sunday mornings" (p. 12). 



In a letter to his swimming doctor, accompanying a present 

 of Channing's works, he describes his advance in the art, and 

 adds : " I cannot express to you the pleasure I feel even at 

 this little matter ; it has given me a new zest, and enabled me 

 to persevere with spirit in work which otherwise would have 

 overdone me : nor has it been without its moral uses. . . . 

 It has furnished a pleasant theme for my imagination to run on, 

 when the mind is unstrung from grave pursuits ; and our morn- 

 ing walks and talks haVe been both healthy and profitable." 

 In reference to his friend's moral struggles, he adds : " Don't 

 be disheartened ; just think how many scores of times I went 

 down in learning to swim — or rather should have done, if you 

 had not held me up. So now I must hold your head up ; and 

 6 When at first you don't succeed, Try, Try, Try again ! ' " 



