|
"We are sons o' the true
hearts that bled wi' the Wallace
And conquered at brave Banockburn wi' the Bruce
Thae wild days are bane, but their memories call us.
So we'll stand by langsyne and the guid ancient use.
"And we'Il hie to the spiel,
as our faithers afore us,
Ye sons o' the men whom foe never could tame;
And at nicht round the ingle we'll raise the blithe chorus
To the land we lo'e weel and our auld Scottish game."
Principal Sharp.
"Hail! Scotland, wi' thy
ancient play
When winter cleeds the plain!
Thy buirdly race shall ne'er decay
While Curling doth remain."
Irvine Miscellany.
''Sic Scoti: alii non aeque
felices."
Motto, Duddingston C. C.
 n
enquiry into the origin and antiquity of the game of curlin is not only an
appropriate introduction to a work that is written with the aim of being a
handbook to the game, but is also a chapter of interest and importance in
the history of our nation. Without trenching on what we may here-after have
to say "in praise of curling," we may here affirm that no other game so well
illustrates the national character, or tends so much to its healthy
development; and, if this be so, then the history of the game has an
intimate connection with the history of our people. In the pages of the
historian, such influences are too often ignored, and attention directed to
those great and striking events that are supposed to be the only constituent
elements of a nation's history. It ought not to be so; and, therefore, in
gathering together such information as is available on the past and present
of this most truly national of all our amusements, we hope to have the
approval of the historian as well as of "the brethren of the broom." At the
outset of our enquiry, we find that there are no facts by which we can
determine precisely the antiquity of the game or the manner in which it was
at first played. This is not perhaps to be wondered at for, as a writer on
our other great national game—golf—remarks, [Historical Notice for the
Thistle Golf Club, Edinburgh, 1824.] "If the origin of the most valuable
institutions of civilised life, the laws and usages of the most enlightened
nations, are lost in the mist of antiquity, eluding the researches of the
philosopher and historian, it was not to be expected that any distinct
record would be found setting forth the invention and progress of a mere
popular recreation." Our author is evidently tainted with the vice to which
we have referred. He does not esteem the games of a country-as Fletcher the
patriot esteemed the sons—of greater importance than its laws. He
depreciates the national importance of both golf and curling by his phrase,
"mere popular recreations," against which we protest; but, in the general
nebulous haze that surrounds all the "origins," we need not be surprised to
find "our ain game" floating in shapeless, unrecognisable form, unable to
give any clear account of itself. In the case of the game of curling, it is
as well, however, to bear in mind that while it is a game of great
antiquity, and can be traced back for nearly 400 years, it was only about
the middle of last century that it began to take on the dignity of a truly
national game. Unlike its neighbour—golf, which, barring the gutta, has been
played in much the same method from the beginning, and unlike lawn tennis,
which is simply the revival of a game played centuries ago in a form that
required as much skill as the present—curling has so completely developed
out of its ancient node, that it is only by the help of an evolutionary
theory, which requires great faith on our part, that we can trace connection
between the modern and the ancient barge. Since the game, through the
rounding of the stone fully a century ago, made such a break away from the
style of previous centuries, its progress has been remarkable. It has taken
a firm hold on the national character, and has drawn around it a literature
of its own well worthy of attention. If we find, as is the case, that prior
to the middle of last century we have scant records of the game, we need not
therefore suppose that much of value has gone amissing. When Edward I.,
taking advantage of his position as arbiter between Bruce and Baliol in
their contention for the throne of Scotland, carried off to England such
records as he could lay hold of, and destroyed them that he might thus
destroy our nationality, he doubtless put out of the way much that might
have dispersed the mist from our early Scottish history; but we as curlers
need not suppose that any curling records perished at his hands, or that
anything particularly precious has been lost since his time. With no
authentic facts, as we have said to determine accurately the history of
curling, our enquiry into its origin and antiquity resolves itself very much
into a question of Etymology.
"Many ancient customs," says
Dr Jamieson, [Preface to Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language,
Edin., 1808.] "otherwise unknown or involved in obscurity, come to be
explained or illustrated, from the use of those words which necessarily
refer to theta." This is true, but the opening sentence of the Preface to
Jamieson's great work suggests another view of the study of words. "Some,"
he says, "affect to despise all etymological researches, because of their
uncertainty." Etymology seems to be like curling—a slippery game: it is not
safe to depend on it very mach for historical information, or for proofs of
antiquity. Herodotus tells a story of ancient Egypt, which may be read as a
warning by etymological historians. The Egyptians used to boast that their
language was the most ancient. Psammitichus, their King made a practical
test which destroyed their boast. He placed two infants apart from human
society, their attendants being forbidden to speak in their hearing. One
day, when about two years old, they ran to their keeper, crying "Bekkos," "Bekkos."
This being Phrygian for bread, the palm of antiquity was given by
Psammitichus to the Phrygians. But the test was not satisfactory. Deprived,
in the circumstances, of natural nurses, the infants were suckled by goats,
and their first cry, it was said by some Philistines, was just an imitation
of the bleat of the goat. The Germans however recognise in it their word
bakken — bake: the Scotch would have it that the bairns demanded
baiks; while certain etymologists claim the word as the Sanscrit root
whence the English "cook;" and a sly Englishman finishes off by suggesting
that it may have been a feeble attempt to call for breakfast [In the
circumstances the Spanish, as far as we know, have not put tobacco into the
mouths of the young people, nor have the Greeks suggested such an early
worship of Bacchus.] So we are told Etymology or Philology has acted the
Psammiticlins for this curling nation. We have boasted of curling as
"Scotland's ain game," as of unknown antiquity, and certainly indigenous;
but away beyond the gabble of historians we have been taken by Etymology to
find that we are mistaken. The infancy of curling breaks out, we are told,
in a language which proves that the game Is not ours in origin, but that it
belongs to another country. Like Psammitichus with the Egyptians, the test
has been applied, as far as we can see, by one of ourselves, and after its
application the origin of curling is still left in Egyptian darkness. No
other nation has attempted to filch from us our reputation or lay claim to
the origination of curling. Perhaps no other would care to do so; but, if
the Egyptians submitted to the verdict of their King in favour of the
Phrygians, the Scots have certainly not agreed to the statement that the
earliest words in use at curling prove it to have been imported into our
country by the Flemings. For this is what it amounts to. The statement, as
far as we can judge, was first made by the Rev. John Ramsay (1777-1871), who
has given the earliest account we possess of the history of curling. [Ant
Account of the Game of Curling. By a member of the Duddingston Curling
Society. Edinburgh, 1811.] Ramsay, no doubt, found a difference of opinion
on the subject among curlers before he wrote, but the opinion as to the
Continental origin of the game was first distinctly formulated in his work.
"We have all the evidence,"
he says (pp. 18-19) "which etymology can give in favour of its Continental
origin. The terms, being all Dutch or German, point to the Low Countries as
the place in which it most probably originated, or, at least, from whence it
was conveyed to us. For if it was not introduced from the Continent, but was
first invented in this country, it must have been at a time when the German
and Low Dutch were the prevailing languages. Now, though the Saxon was once
pretty general in this country, and there are still many Dutch words in our
language, yet those German dialects were never so general as to make it
credible, that our countrymen, in any particular invention, would employ
them alone as the appropriate terms. In the history of inventions, such a
phenomenon is not to be found. had there been only one or two foreign terms,
these would not have militated much against the domestic origin of the game,
but the whole of the terms being Continental, compel us to ascribe to it
a Continental origin."
The italics in this passage
are ours, and they show on what basis the Continental origin of our great
national game is supposed to rest. Without further enquiry this statement is
simply repeated, time after time, by writers on the subject,
["Curling is a comparatively
modern amusement in Scotland, and does not appear to have been introduced
till the beginning of the sixteenth century, when it was probably brought
over by the emigrant Flemings."Encyc. Metrop. (Brewster) vol. xvii. p. 469.
"Powerful etymological
evidence supports its foreign origin. The terms, being all butch or German,
point to the Low Countries as the place whence we, at least, derived our
knowledge of it.....it is supposed that the Flemings were the people who, in
the fifteenth or about the beginning of the sixteenth century, introduced
Curling into this country. "—A Descriptive and Historical Sketch of
Curling," &c. Kilmarnock, 1825.
Sir R. Broun gives both sides
without his own opinion, but suggests that some Scottish traveller may have
introduced the game on his return from the Continent.—Memorabilia Curliana
Mfabenensia. Dumfries, 1830.
Dr Cairnie remarks, `After
all we have seen or heard, we may say that its introduction or commencement
is involved in mystery. "—Essay on Curling. Glasgow, 1833.
Mr J. Brown, in his History
of the Sanquhar Curling Society (Dumfries, 1874), is inclined "to regard
Scotland as the birthplace of Curling."
Dr James Taylor, after
strongly combating the Continental theory, concludes, "There is good reason
to believe that Curling originated in Scotland, probably in the
south-western district of the country, which has always been its
stronghold."—Curling!—the Ancient Scottish Game. Edinburgh, 1884.]
and accepted by them as
gospel—they follow the first historian like a flock of sheep; and even those
whose amor Scoticae will not hear of such a low view of the
origin of the game, do not attempt to meet him on his own found, or to
overthrow his argument from etymology.
Let us therefore look at the
etymological argument by itself, apart from any historical facts that may be
brought forward in its support. On the face of it, the assertion that the
whole vocabulary of the curler is a foreign one, is absurd, and overshoots
the marl:. The curler's language, as he plays the old game, is certainly
peculiar. It would defy the wisest philologist to explain its formation.
Even a native, if he were unacquainted with the game, might, front the
shores of the loch that resounds with the shout of the bonspeil, suppose
that the players were foreigners, so peculiar is their language. The curling
lingo is, however, essentially native. It drags into its service words and
phrases that look very queer in their new employment, and piles on the agony
for philologists by the strange use it makes of these servant-words; but,
for all that, the native Doric is, and has always been, the staple speech of
the curler; and, while its use since the union of the kingdoms has been
gradually dying out it has been preserved by curlers more truly than by any
others. Nay, more—as if the game could not be properly played without it—the
native dialect has accompanied it to those other countries into which it has
so happily been transferred in later times. To assert that the whole
vocabulary of our national game is Continental is just as much as to assert
that our whole national vocabulary is the same: it proves too much.
There are, however, some
"foreign terms" that may seem to "militate," as Ramsay puts it, "against the
domestic origin of the game." Let us select a few specimens of curling words
that were in use at the time Ramsay formed his conclusion (and most of which
still do duty) e.g., Boardhead, bonspiel, brough, bunker, channelstane,
chuckle, cock; or cockee, cove, coal, colly or coal-score, crampit, curl,
director, draw, hack: or hatch, hog, kuting, guoiting or coiting, rack,
rink, skip, slug, tee or toesee, trickers, wick, witter or wittyr. It cannot
be denied that there is a far-away sound about some of these. Some are no
doubt of Dutch or German origin, as stated by Ramsay, but that they all
connect the game with the Low Countries, and compel as to own its
Continental origin, is an entire mistake, and may be net with a distinct
denial. The great dictionary of Dr Jamieson had only been published a year
or two before the "member of the Duddingston Club drew up his "account," and
he must have rested his case against the native origin of curling very much
on Jamieson. Now, while the Dictionary is a perfect storehouse for the
student of Scottish literature, its references being very full and very
reliable, Jamieson's etymologies are quite unreliable, and in many cases
misleading. Some of Ramsay's derivations are, however, more far-fetched and
absurd than anything found in the lexicologist's work, as for example:-
Curl, from the German
Kurzweil: an amusement: a game: and Curling from Kurzweillen, to play for
amusement.
Rink, from ancient Saxon hrink, hrineg, a strong man.
Jamieson, to his credit be it
said, does not commit himself to such a couple of evident errors. There is
one word among the number on which more stress has been laid than on any of
the others, because it is said to imply a distinct connection between a game
played in the Low Country and our game of curling. It is the word kuting,
guoiting or coiting. Kilian, it would appear, in his Etymoligicon Teutonicae
Linguae (1632), renders the German words Kluyten, Kallayten, "Ludere massis
sire ylobi_s glaciatis: eertare discis in aquore ylaeiato."—to play with
lumps or balls frozen: to contend with quoits on an icy plain. Kutiny or
coiting, as will appear (Chap. II.), was for a long time, the name given to
curling, and its primitive style was more allied to quoit-playing than its
style is in modern times. The implements of the game were originally called
coits; and so Jamieson throws out the suggestion (Diet.—sub voce, to coit)—"Can
it be supposed that this west country name has been softened from Tent.
Kluyten, certare discis in oequore glaciato?" Ramsay jumps at this
suggestion, and regards it as further proof that all the evidence of
etymology is in favour of the foreign origin of the game. :Now, it may be
evidence—it is evidence—that Dutchmen had two kinds of ice-games: one
apparently a kind of "shinty" played on the ice with snowballs, the other a
kind of pitch-penny played with small quoits; but it is not etymological
evidence; for kuting or coiting and kluyten or kalluyten can only be made
one term by a very great stretch of imagination. Had our word cloyte or
clyte, to squat down, been attached to the game at first, or had Kilian
given us under Dutch cone a reference to something like our early curling,
we might at once have granted. some connection between the ice-game of the
Dutch and our own on etymological grounds; but on these grounds alone—and
this is what we are now considering—the evidence is insuficient to prove
that our curling was the game spoken of by Kilian, and that it was
introduced from the Low Countries. Indeed Jamieson shrinks from his own
suggestion when under the word Curling he acknowledges that Kilian's kluyten,
though applied to a similar amusement, is a different name. Thus far our
enquiry into etymology does not support the statement which ascribes the
origin of curling to the Low Countries. The most thorough investigation of
this statement since it was first hazarded by Ramsay is to be found in the
Annals of the Parish of Lesmahago", 1864. The able author of this work (J.
B. Greenshields) thus concludes:-
"After careful examination of
these words . . . the conclusion appears certain that many of them do
proceed from foreign roots: but the same remark is applicable to almost
every word in the English language. Of the original language of our own
country, it is sufficient to state that it was Celtic; but the venerable
Bede, the Saxon historian, informs us that in his day four languages
prevailed in Britain, viz., the Irish, the British or Cumraig, the Pictish
or Scandinavian, and the Anglo-Saxon. Twice was the languishing Anglo-Saxon
energy stirred up by the admixture of northern blood; and the `salt blood'
which makes British youth turn almost instinctively to the ocean, and which
forms so notable an ingredient in Britain's dauntless seamanship, is
probably due in no small degree to the daring spirit infused by Scandinavian
sea rovers (Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland p. 3). With the blood of
Denmark came a mixture of the Danish language, and with the Norman conquest
Norman French was partially introduced. That.foreigners in considerable
numbers subsequently settled in our country is an undoubted historical fact;
but, as the most skilful philologists pronounce the German, Danish, Swedish,
and ancient Saxon, to be all of Gothic origin, and that the English language
is mainly compounded of these, it does seem unwarrantable, from etymology
alone, and in the absence of all historical proof, to decide upon the
foreign origin of the game, seeing that our ancestors could not avoid using
words of foreign derivation. `The whole fabric and scheme of the English
language,' says that great authority, Dr Johnson, `is Gothic or Teutonic."'
In our desire to deal fairly
with this question, and to place before curlers the whole case, we have not
simply formed our own opinion on an unbiased investigation of the subject,
but have secured the verdict of some of our ablest philologists on the words
above given (with many others), and the assertion of Ramsay as to what is
implied in them regarding the origins of curling. Professor Masson, whose
opinion is of the greatest value, thus writes:-
"I see no proof in them
collectively that the game came from the Continent. Most of the terms are of
Teutonic origin in a general way; some are of French original; some might
even he claimed as of Celtic original; and a few seem recent inventions by
the natural nous of players of the game within the last century or so, to
define recurring circumstances and incidents of the game previously unnamed.
"I do not think much can be
made for your question on either side by chasing up etymologies. The matter
seems mainly a historical one.
"Wherever there was ice,
there must have been, since man existed, games on the ice; and the question
is whether the particular game of Curling can be proved to have been in use
anywhere out of Scotland, without clear derivation from Scotland. If it ever
existed anywhere else, it ought to be found in that place now; for, the ice
still remaining, the extinction of the game, if once in use, may be voted
impossible. Curlers, therefore, ought to drive at this question—'Is there
any CurIing now, or anything like Curling, anywhere in the world out of
Scotland, except by obvious and provable derivation from Scotland?'
The terms of the game, on the
supposition of its Scottish origin, are easily accounted for. The original
inventors of the game, or of the germ of the present game, would use the
words of their composite Scoto-English vocabulary—mostly Teutonic, but some
French and some Celtic—for the purposes and situations of the game, just as
they would for any other business; and as the game grew, other words would
be added for new developments of it or new intricacies—some of these with no
antique reference in them at all, but mere modern phrases of course."
Professor Mackinnon states
his opinion thus:-
"The great majority of the
words are not only Teutonic, but seem to me to be native. Hack, e.g., is an
old English verb, and a noun used in the same sense is but what may be
looked for. On the other hand bonspiel is foreign, and made up of bon (Fr.)
and a form of the Teutonic spieler. I may say that in the West Highlands we
have borrowed speil from the Norsemen in the sense of `a game.' Rink,
evidently the same as ring, looks a loan from the Continent, though the
Scotch often pronounce their medials pretty strongly, perhaps under
Continental and Highland influences. On the general question: if the words
were proved foreign, the presumption would be a strong one, that the name
was imported—so strong indeed that it would "hold the field" until a native
origin was proved by other evidence. But my knowledge does not enable me (it
is to Celtic philology that I give chief attention) to say with any degree
of confidence that the words you quote or many of them are borrowed into
Scotch."
Professor Blaekie adds:-
I am no adept in the
Scandinavian and other dialects of the Teutonic that skirt the Baltic. The
presumption, however, seems quite plain that the vocabulary of a name that
belongs to frozen water, should claim a descent from the nations whose
skates were frequently their shoes for four months in the year, but whether
in addition to this presumable kinship there may not have been a direct
historical introduction of technical terms from Flanders, is a historical
question which would require a detailed historical knowledge to decide."
A survey of the evidence thus
far produced, seems to warrant our laying down the double conclusion
(1) That the proportion of
words of Teutonic origin in the Curling vocabulary has been over-estimated;
and
(2) That, even if a great
many are Teutonic, it does not follow that the game of Curling must have had
its origin in the Low Countries.
The argument from etymology
must, therefore, if left to stand alone, fall to the ground.
To complete our enquiry we
must, however, go further afield; and, though we may have to trespass a
little on our third chapter, it is necessary to investigate here in how far
the etymological position, though weak in itself, may be supported by
historical facts. "Curlers," says Professor Masson, "ought to drive at [This
is a good curling expression, used no doubt unwittingly by the learned
Professor, but all the more truly illustrating his statement.] this
question, 'Is there any curling now, or anything like curling, anywhere in
the world out of Scotland, except by obvious and provable derivation from
Scotland?"' A good straight shot "up the howe" for it is a case of "chap and
lie," is here sufficient. We may confidently say there is not; and, if any
one has any objection to this direct negative, let hint "now speak out or be
forever silent."
To the game on ice described
in Kilian's Teutonic Dictionary we have already referred in discussing the
point of etymology pure and simple. As to its resemblance to curling we may
now quote Dr Cairnie:-
"The explanation referred to
by the writers on this sport, as to the interpretation of the words kluyten,
kalluyten, in Kilian's Dictionary, throws no light on the game we now call
Curlinn. KiIian's definition of it is thus given: 'Ludere massis sire globis
glaciatis in oequore glaciato. This sport certainly must have been different
from our Curling; and now-a-days, from our want of frost, we should find it
difficult to procure icy missiles to play with. We find the word Klyten in
the Dutch language signifies a clod; and, had there been want of better
materiel, it might be argued that iced clay clods had been originally in use
for Curling." "We may notice," he adds in a note, "the remark of a noted
stone-maker on the subject. He says that 'it must have been bairns' play,
for that neither the ice nor clod-iced blocks would have stood the iiidge of
an Ayrshire hammer."' [Essay on Curling and Artificial Pond Ma/dug.
Glasgow, 1833.]
The Icelanders had a ;acne
called "Knattleikr." It was played upon the ice by means of what are called
bowls. [To their diversions likewise belongs that called knattleikur, or
playing with bowls on the ice."—Von Troil's Letters on Iceland (1750), p.
92.
"Knattleikr, a kind of
cricket or trap-ball, a favourite game with the old Scandinavians. . . . The
ice in winter was a favourite play-ground."Cleasby and Vigfusson's
Icelandic-English Dictionary. Oxford, 1874.]
Such a parentage of curling
is quite as feasible as the Continental one on etymological grounds; but it
does not seem to exist now, and its relationship to curling must have been
very distant. In the Royal Caledonian Curling Club Annual [To be afterwards
referred to simply as the Annual.] for 1848, there is an interesting
cominunication from Professor Ferguson, King's College, Aberdeen; and, as it
is necessary to throw all the light on the subject possible, we transcribe
it for our readers. It was addressed to the Professor by Thomas Purdie, and
certainly describes the nearest approach to anything like curling that has
come under our notice. It is as follows:—
"When I was in Munich, as I
promised, I made a point of seeing the Curling Ponds and Curling Apparatus
in use in that part of the world, and subjoin a description of the game as
there practised, so far as may imperfect knowledge of German enabled me to
understand it. In regard to such a subject the dictionary was of course
useless, the technical terms in use having no place there among their more
classic friends, and many of them having no equivalent even in the Curling
language of our own country. I believe, however, you may depend on my
information being pretty correct, as I was not content with a mere verbal
description, but played a game on a barn floor with the man who takes charge
of the Pond and Curling Stones, and vindicated the honour of Scotland by
beating him with his own weapons and on his own ground. The game is a very
ancient one, and is played generally throughout Bavaria, but more especially
in the neighbourhood of Munich, the capital. It is common for gentlemen to
have within their. grounds artificial ponds for the practice of the game.
These consist generally of one rink, fifty or sixty yards long, which is the
common generally between the Tees. The Tees, called Taube, are moveable, and
the nearest stone counts wherever the Tee may be moved to. They are formed
of square pieces of wood four inches long by two thick. The "stones" are
made of wood, and are in German called "ice sticks," for an equally good
reason that in Scotland we call them stones. You recollect some attempts
being made to supply the place of stories with wooden fabrications: these
naturally got the name "of wooden stones, and, when some (farina spirit
attempts to introduce stones into Germany, I doubt not they will be called
"stone sticks." Their sticks weigh from 12 to 25 lbs. English; run on a sole
of from 10 to 13 inches, encircled close to the sole by a heavy rim of iron,
to give weight and solidity. The handle is perpendicular, about 9 inches
long and slightly curved at the top. The following drawing will give you
some idea of the shape.
 "There
are from two to four players a side: the sides are chosen by ballot.
Numbered balls are put into a box, and each man takes his side according to
the number of his ball. The places of the players are fixed by playing one
end, and each man ranks according to the distance his stick measures from
the Tee. The first player is called Maier, the second Engmaier, the third
Helfer, and the fourth, when there is one, also Helfer. The Maier directs
the game, and his is reckoned the most important stick. The sides do not
play aternately, as with us; but, when one side has the shot, the other must
play till they take it out. Each side has a right to play the Maier stick
twice. When all the sticks are played, including second playing of the
Maier's —the party gaining the end counts six. If any party take the end
without playing their Maier the second time-it counts nine. For
example:—Suppose A and B to be on one side—C and D on the other. A plays,
then C. If C has the shot B plays—If B takes the shot D plays—If D takes the
shot, A plays his Maier, and supposing hire also to take the shot—C follows
with his Maier—and on taking the shot counts six, and it requires another
end, probably two to finish the game. Again, suppose A plays, then C—If A
has the shot then D plays—If D take the shot, A plays his Maier--if he fail
to take the shot, C and D count nine and the game is ended—the right of C to
play his Maier not having been exercised. Again, suppose A and C play—A. has
the slot—D plays, and afterwards C plays his Maier, both failing to take the
shot, A and B count nine. The stakes are paid at the end of each game, and
there is always some stake played for. 'The rinks played on are at least ten
yards longer than with us, and it must require considerable force to propel
the sticks. They are swung backwards and forwards in the hand before being
thrown off.
"You will see, however, from
the above, that it has little in common with our roaring game—no wicking,
guarding, or running a port; arid, failed as Bavaria is for its brooms and
broom girls, there is even no sweeping, so that their game is but child's
play compared to our noble science. In fact we may consider the Bavarians to
be in a state of heathenish ignorance on the subject of Curling—most
degenerate soils of worthy sires, if the game has descended to them, as to
us, from our common Gothic ancestors; and I conceive this to be a fair field
for the missionary exertions of the Royal Grand Caledonian Curling Club,
—the manifold corruption-, which have crept into their game rendering
reformation of the utmost consequence, and the superiority of orthodox
Curling so manifest as only to require exhibition to ensure conviction.
Armed with a few copies of the 'Annual' translated into German, a few stones
to show the pattern, I could undertake, in one winter, to convert the whole
nation to the true faith."
These three—the Teutonic
Kayuten or Kallityten of Kilian, the Icelandic Knattleikr of Von Troll, and
the Bavarian game so minutely described by Mr Purdie, are all the instances
we have yet heard of a kind of ice-game which might be considered as in any
way related to curling, and they are clearly not derived from Scotland. But
is it not as clear that our game of curling is not derived from any of them?
Is the resemblance so strong that the argument from etymology, unable, as we
have seen, to stand alone, draws from it sufficient support? No one, we
presume, will venture to say so. "Wherever there was ice," says Professor
Masson, " there must have been, since man existed, games on the ice; "and it
is not improbable that the Scots Curling, the Dutch Klvylen., the Bavarian
"Ice-Sticks," and the Icelandic Knattleiker, are all descendants from a
common ancestor whose "period" is as ancient as the human race. Given a cold
climate, where a man must exercise himself to keep his blood warm, an
inherent tendency from Old Adam to throw stones," and a struggling aversion
to that mischief which Satan provides for the unemployed, with a sheet of
ice to disport upon—we have all the "makings" of our national game, without
requiring to search far away for its origin.
[Since we have noticed most
of the accounts of the origin of Curling, we should not omit that of the
author of Sixty-six Years of Curling: being Records of North Woodside
Curling Club, 1820-1886." Captain Crawford quietly passes by the Native
versus Continental discussion, and skews how to question of origin has
endless ramifications, by pitting field-labourers against masons as the most
likely originators of the game. He dismisses the masonic origin as rather
fanciful; and, if his support of the other side is liable to the same
objection, it is at least a capital piece of evolutionary logic. . "We
believe," he says, "that the game originated among rural workers and the
tillers of the land, in those moorland districts where undrained lochs and
tarns were numerous centuries ago. Let us suppose a hard frost sets in: the
rural labourer finds his plough frozen in the furrow; the earth is hard as
iron; everything is bound in the cold embrace of the frost king. The rural
workers meet together in their enforced idleness.
The exhilarating winter air
acts like a stimulant on their spirits, and the country-folk are full of
fun. The loch and stream are frozen ; they venture on the ice for the
purpose of sliding ; o:ie mirthful fellow seizes a boulder, he putts it
along the ice, and he and his fellows are astonished at the distance it is
carried on the smooth surface of the frozen waters. He challenges his
companions to a test of strength, and they begin to select suitable stones
from the beds of the rivers, and from the dry-stone dykes, and play one
against the other, by hurling the stones along in rude fashion. Ultimately,
they fix a mark at which the stone is to be thrown ; and in process of time
the game becomes developed into an exhilarating pastime, where otherwise the
country people would suffer from ennnui. The rude stone selected, from its
natural adaptation for playing, soon becomes moulded into more fitting
forms. It is chipped to a shape, its under-surface is polished ; a rude
handle or grip is inserted ; and the enjoyment afforded in the bright winter
days by meeting together in this friendly rivalry brings out the whole rural
population to enjoy the fun. The farmer and the ploughman keep themselves in
good humour during the enforced idleness of the winter. The village workers
find their labour impeded by the frost as well as the ploughmen. The smith
is unemployed, because all farm and rural labour is suspended, and he joins
in the fun and frolic of the game. The joiner and the artizan of the
district catch the infection, and play sides against one another. The laird
and the parish priest enter into the enjoyment, and encourage the innocent
and exhilarating pastime, which has many salutary social influences, and
keeps the hands of the people out of mischief. If the frost continues for
long periods, as it often does on the upland districts of Scotland, one
hamlet challenges another to a game of Curling, as was also their 'wont in
olden days to challenge each -other to games of shinty, football, and the
like. Thus the game grew into district and national importance, and the
implements of the sport, rude and primitive at first, have been developed
into handsome and fitting accessories of the exhilarating recreation." ]
Those amusements we have
mentioned are the ways in which other nations have protected themselves in
times of cold, and this Curling is ours; but it is just as much proved that
they got their games from us as that we got ours from them. We therefore
conclude:
(3) That no game is proved to
exist, or to have existed, in other countries, so much resembling Curling as
to imply that the game was borrowed into our country.
In adding this to our former
conclusions, we ought in justice to say that Ramsay, in supporting the
Continental origin of the game, does not forget to deal with the objection;
and he does so in these words:--
"Even though it do not exist
on the Continent, and though no traces have been observed, by many of our
countrymen who resided there, of its ever having existed, still this
circumstance is far from being sufficient to prove that it is not of
Continental origin. Within these two hundred years, the occupations,
manners, and customs of the different countries of Europe have undergone the
greatest revolutions. The vast improvements that have been made in
agriculture and commerce, by giving employment to persons of all
descriptions, have had a fatal influence upon our sports and amusements,
particularly such as are practised in the open air. Hence many of the
amusements of former times are now forgotten, or fast going into disuse. . .
. . Curling, therefore, may have once flourished, where now, among an
industrious and laborious people, it is completely forgotten."
So it may, and there is proof
here and there that in parts of our own country it has (lied away after
having been played for a time ; but it is not likely to have wholly
disappeared from any country where it was ever practised; and Professor
Masson's dictum may be set against Ramsay's explanation as much more likely
to be true, viz., that the extinction of the game, if once in use, may be
voted impossible. [Since this chapter was in type, the publisher of this
work has a communication from J. G. Robbers, Amsterdam, of date April 2,
1889, in which there is this statement:—"The game `Curling' is quite unknown
in our country. Mr H. C. Ragge, keeper of the library of the University in
town, to whom I have applied for information on the subject, writes me
to-play that he could not trace a similar game in the present or last
century, and that he believes he may assume that curling or a game similar
to it has never been in use in this country."]
Our task is not, however,
done. "The matter," says Professor Masson, "seems mainly a historical one;"
and Professor Blackie—"Whether . . . there may not have been a direct
historical introduction of technical terms from Flanders, is a historical
question which would require a detailed historical knowledge to decide." Is
there, then, any direct historical evidence bearing on the introduction of
curling from the Low Countries, and buttressing the philological argument,
which in itself is weak? The upholders of the foreign origin of curlier;
profess to have such evidence, fitting in exactly with their argument from
philology, and, though destroying the idea of a national origin of the game,
giving it, nevertheless, great antiquity. This evidence, as far as we can
Make out, is furnished (though Ramsay gives no authority) in Buchanan's
history of Scotland, [Aikman's Buchanan, Vol. II. Book X. p. 41.] where,
describing the reign of James I. (1424-1431), the historian says --
"There was one admirable
quality which the King possessed. In the midst of his most anxious
solicitude about the greatest affairs, he thought nothing, however small,
beneath his notice, from which any a(lvalltane could arise to the public. As
dining the constant state of wa^fare in which Scotland had been engagecl,
for nearly a hundred and fifty years from the death of Alexander, her cities
had been wasted and burned, an^d her youth trained to arms, while the other
arts had been neglected, lie invited tradesmen of every description from
Flanders, and encouraged them to settle by rewards and immunities, and
filled the almost deserted cities with artisans; the nubility, according to
the ancient custom, residing on their estates. or did he by this restore
oniy the ancient appearance and trade of the towns, but he likewise induced
a great crowd of vagabonds to betake themselves to industry, and superseded
the necessity of bringing, at a great expense, from abroad, what could with
little cost be produced at home."
Now, though Buchanan is more
esteemed for his classical accomplishments than for historical accuracy, we
have no. reason to doubt the facts here narrated. It was quite a common
thing for the English and the Scottish Kings in those early times to "beg,
borrow, or steal" Flemish peasants and tradesmen, not always with such high
motives as are here ascribed to James I. of Scotland by Buchanan, but to
curb the influence and power of their nobles, which always increased as the
industrious classes diminished. On the other hand, the Flemings themselves
were often led to seek refuge in England, Wales, and Scotland.
The year 1108 [Powell.] says
an old Welsh historian, "did overflowe and Browne a great part of the Lowe
countrie of Flanders in such sort that the inhabitants were driven to seeke
themselves other dwellings : who came to Kind; Henrie and desired hint to
give some voile place to remain in : who, being very liberal of that which
was not his own, gave them the lands of Ros in Wyvet or West Wales, where
Pembroke,. Teuby, and ltaverfordwest are now built, and there they remaine
till this (laie, as may be well perceived by their speeche and conditions,
farce differing from the rest of the countrie."
And Holinshed, evidently
referring to the same or a similar inundation, writes:
"About this season (A.D.
1107), a great part of Flanders being drowned by an inundation or breaking
in of the sea, a great number of Flemings came to England beseeching the
King to have some void part assigned to them wherein they might inhabit. At
the first they were appointed to the countrie being on the east part of
the Tweed: but within four years after they were removed into a corner
by the sea-side in Wales, called Pembrokeshire, to the end that they might
be a defence there against the unquiet Welsh." [The words in italics
spew that Flemings were near us as far hack as the twelfth century.]
Giraldus Cambrensis favours
us in addition with some insight into the character of these early
emigrants:---
"The inhabitants of
Haverfordwest," he says, "derived their origin from Flanders, and were sent
by Henry I. to inhabit these districts: a people brave and robust, ever
hostile to the Welsh: a people, I say, well versed in commerce and woollen
manufactures: a people anxious to, seek gain by sea and land, in defiance of
fatigue or danger: a hardy race equally fitted for the plough and sword : a
people brave and happy," &c.
Religious persecution seems
also from time to time to have driven refugees from the Low Countries into
ours; and Samuel Smiles in his Huguenots states that "Colonies of Flemish
fishermen having settled during the reign of Henry- II. at Brighton,
Newhaven, and other places along the south coast, their lineage is still
traceable there in local words, names, and places."
Curious documentary evidence
can be adduced [Notes and Queries. Sec. IV. vol. S. p. 259. Chambers'
Domestic Annals of Scotland, I. :352.] to show that, in the year 1601, at
the instance of George Heriot, and others who were then Commissioners of the
Royal Buralis of Scotland, Flemish workmen were brought from Norwich to
Edinburgh, to introduce the manufacture of all sortis of claithis."
The influence of the Low
Countries on our arts, industries, and literature, is as yet, we believe, an
unwritten chapter of British history. To them we owe the printing press, and
from them, we are told, Shakespeare got much of the information that enabled
him to write his matchless plays. On many of our manufactures and arts they
have impressed their versatility and skill; and agriculture, it is said,
owes to them the method of drainage, to which its development is in great
measure due.
The point, however, for us to
determine now is whether we also owe to the Flemings our great national
game. The answer to this question is the filial conclusion of the series
which we have tabulated as we proceeded with this enquiry. It is that----
(4) No evidence is
forthcoming to prove that Curling was introduced into our country by Flemish
emigrants.
The period of 150 years, to
which Buchanan refers as following the death of Alexander III. (1286),
though lit up by Bannockburn was indeed a dark and troublous time, and we
need not wonder that through that period no word is heard of any amusement
on the ice in our "most distressful country." There was no "gamyn and gle,"
as the pathetic lines preserved by Wyntonn—the earliest we have in our
another tongue—so touchingly relate:—
Quhen Alysander, oure Kyn, wes
Bede,
That Scotland led in Iuwe and le, [Joy]
Away wes sons [Abundance] of ale and brede,
Of wyne and wax, of gamin and gle
Oure gold wes changyd into lede.
Chryst, borne in-to Virdynyte,
Succoure Scotland, and remede,
That stad [Placed.] [is in] perplexyte."
It is not unlikely that,
when, under the able, though ill-fated, James I., the condition of matters
was improved, when the cities that had been wasted and burned were filled
with artisans, and the youth turned from arms to cultivate the arts—that
amusement, which had been forgotten, would be revived. Forms of amusement
hitherto undeveloped would also receive attention, and the Scots, and their
Flemish friends, might exercise themselves together on ice in the cold
season : but certainly the link that connects the origin of our curling with
Flemish immigration is wanting,. It is only conjecture, and we do not see
how the argument from etymology can receive from a mere conjecture such
proof as to enable it to "hold the field." The member of the Duddingston
Club who asserted the Continental origin of curling, to do him justice, does
not base upon the immigration of these mechanics and manufacturers into our
towns and villages, in the reigns of Henry V. and VI. of England, and Junes
I of Scotland," any decided proof of his theory. "There is" he says "a very
strong probability that the game of curling was introduced into this country
the Flemings in the fifteenth or about the beginning; of The sixteenth
century. This strong probability, as far as we can judge, must be
reduced to a mere possibility, and nothing more; and, until some more direct
evidence is forthcoming, we are not warranted in believing that the game had
its origin in Scotland. Why, even in the time of Alexander III., there were
Flemish settlers in our country; and we have seen that centuries before the
time at which it is suggested that curling was introduced here, there were
Flemish colonies in England and Wales, some so near us as to be settled inn
the country lying on the east part the Tweed. How is it that no trace of it
exists in England and Wales, if it was carried by Low Country people along
with them and how is it that no earlier trace of it is found in our own
country than the sixteenth century? Surely, if the game had been introduced
by the Flemings in the time of James I, we should have expected to hear
something of it in the time of James IV. (1488-1513), who himself personally
took an interest in such games as he found among his people. But we hear
nothing. Tytler [Vol. III., Lives of Scottish Worthies.] gives us an account
of ancient times and amusements of the period, and, from the MS accounts of
the Lord High Treasurer, gives references to some of them, but no mention is
made of the game of curling; and, as we shall see hereafter, it is not
noticed by any writer till about the beginning of the seventeenth century.
It will be found, as we proceed, that the earliest date as yet discovered on
a curling-stone of the primitive type is 1511, and it may be said that this
Stirling stone is a discovery that adds another link to the evidence in
support of the introduction of curling from FIanders at this time. It is to
be hoped that other stones will be forthcoming; but in the meantime every
stone of the kind found in this country is only evidence that the game, even
in its earliest form, is "our ain" since neither in Wales, England, the Low
Countries, nor anywhere else, are such relics cast up; for it is absurd to
suppose that, if origin of curling where we have to leave other origins, in
the mist and haze of an unknowable antiquity.
Such an inquiry has not been
uninteresting, for it has led us into corners of national history that we
have not previously visited; but, after all, may we not add that Scotland's
claim to the origination of the ;ante of curling is not affected, even
though it were proved that in the sixteenth century we began to "throw
stones" on the ice like the Flemings, and to speak of this exercise in a
Flemish tongue. "That's no Curlin"' may well he said of each of these early
forms of ice-names to which we have referrer. Each is further removed from
our game than the "anthropoid ape" is from the cultured man of the
nineteenth century.
It is not, therefore, the
origin of the name, but the origin of the game but the germ of the game that
is questioned; and, even if it were proved that the game of the sixteenth
century was unoriginal, the originality of the game of curling, as we play
it, and the credit of the development of germ, can never be taken from us.
We do not, as a nation, invent every good thing, but we know a good thing
when we see it. We are said to "keep the sabath, and everything else we can
lay our hands on," and we are not ashamed of this trite definition of
national character; but we add—"provided it is worth keeping." Be sure it is
not for nought that we value and praise our national game, and jealously
guard our interest in its origin and development. We know what it has done
for us, and we know what its enjoyment will do for the generations that come
after us; and so we are proud of its nationality. Like the ice-games of
other countries, it may for centuries have been a mere germ floating about
without form, and not worthy of notice by those who chronicled the
beginnings of all that is now best in our nationial character, but it was in
our country that the germ found its true development, and no other can take
away the honour of its evolution from Scotland. "Soopin's everything," as we
say upon the ice, and so here. Even though a Dutchman
may have delivered it from a
Flanders crampit, it is to our credit that we did not suffer it to die a
hog, as other nations have done, but sent it "snoovin's up the howe" through
the "port," into the "parish," so that it now Iies a "pat-lid o' perfection"
among games suiting our national character to a tee.
"Sic Scoti: alii non aeque
felices."
Others have not carried it to
such happy issues (though it is our fervent wish that the day may speedily
come when the non of the old Duddlingston motto will be changed into mune);
but in Scotland, by the attention we have given, to it, and the glory we
have thrown around it in thousands of bloodless bolispiels; by the
sociality, the robustness, the "smeddum" and the enthusiasm it has imparted
to our national life, we have made it as truIy a national institution as the
haggis, the parridge pat, the pibroch, or the "auld kirk"; and it is as
truly our national game as the thistle is our national emblem, or Saint
Andrew our national saint.
After all, "brither curlers,"
is it not, when we come to think of it, something to be thankful for that
the inventor of curling; is unknown—that no Jove sent it forth from his
powerful brain fully equipped, like Minerva, "stanes, an' besoms, an' a'"
(though the poet, in our prefix, seems to have ascribed to Albyn Jove a feat
of this description); but that the game has slowly evolved from stage to
stage, through many imperfections, to its present perfect form, a tendancy
to infinite variation being ever checked by a process of natural selection,
and the survival of the fittest type? Is it not a blessing that we have not
to march once a year, "besoms up," to the shrine of our great originator,
like Birnum Wood coming to Dunsinane? What a mighty cairn would by this time
have towered over his grave, if curlers had only known it! 'Blocks and
boulders of the curling times of old—Sauquhar Blacks, Crawick Greys,
Carsphairn Reds, Crawfordjohns, Crieff's, Burnocks, and Ailsas—all worsted
in the wars, would have found a last resting-place there, till a veritable
Tower of Babel threatened the skies.
"Then drain deep the cog, till
the brain is a-whirling,
And pledge me, ye lovers o' Scotia's airs game,
To the memor of him, the inventor o' Curling,
Though the mists of oblivion envelop his name."
So saith one to whom it
seemed good to honour the unknown by whirling through the switchback of the
"cog," into the same regions of oblivion. We recommend no curler to go so
far, or to be so foolish; for surely the intoxication of the living is a
sorry commemoration of the dead: but, according to our curling motto, where
we cannot be clear let us not be too keen, for controversy too often waxes
in its keenness as it wanes in its clearness. At any rate, agreement over
wine is better than war over words and, since the game itself is ours, with
all the benefits that flow from it, we may leave its real origin in the
darkness where it lies, and "fill ae bumper," at least, to the memory of its
author—riot in solemn silence, for that always seems to us as gruesome as a
cold shower-bath over a warm tumbler of toddy— but in the genial glow of
gratitude that every true curler feels when lie thinks of what "Scotland's
ain game" has done for his country, his kindred, and himself.
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