1772 Robert Jones, A Treatise on Skating
Author B.A. Thurber
Considered the first technical book on skating, Robert Jones’s small treatise went through numerous printings between its first publication in 1772 and the final edition under the original title in 1818. It was re-published under the title The Art of Skating in 1823. A version with additions and revisions by W. E. Cormack was published under the new title in 1855 and reprinted in 1865. All editions were printed in London, but numerous different printers were used.
Editions under the original title
Full title:
A Treatise on Skating; founded on certain Principles deduced from many Years' experience; by which that noble Exercise is now reduced to an Art, and may be taught and learned by a regular Method, with both Ease and Safety. The Whole illustrated with Copper-plates, representing the Attitudes and Graces.
There are five known editions under the original title (with some spelling variation).
1772:
First edition, xvi+64 pages, 4 plates, octavo (129x212 mm). Printed for the author and sold by J. Ridley in St. James’s Street, London.
This edition includes a dedication to Lord Spencer Hamilton and a preface that puts skating historical context and encourages women to participate.
Main contents:
Section I.
Of the different methods of fixing on skates
Of the construction of skates
Of the first position
Of the inside edge
Of travelling on the inside edge
Of the outside edge
Of travelling on the outside edge
Of the curved line on the outside edge, called rolling
Of running
Section II.
Of the spiral line
Of the inside circle
Of the outside circle
Of the flying Mercury
Of the fencing position
Of the salutation
Of the serpentine line
Of travelling backwards
To cut the figure of a heart on one leg
The original edition is illustrated by four copper-plate engravings by William Darling— two views of an English-style skate plus three skating maneuvers (common rolling, the flying Mercury, and the fencing position)—and two anonymous line drawings depicting journeys.
Rictor Norton remarks that the book “was published during the course of [Jones’s] trial,” which ended in July 1772 with Jones being convicted of sodomizing a young boy, but its inclusion in the list of new books in the February 1772 edition (but not the January 1772 edition) of the Critical Review’s “Monthly Catalogue” (item 54, p. 184) provides evidence that it was published - or at least available for order - earlier in the year, during skating season, when it would have been most useful.
The Critical Review says
“To behold an engineer practising his manoeuvres on the glacis, would not be an extraordinary occur-rence, but this impetuous gentleman, whose excursions even the ramparts cannot restrain, has fairly led us upon the ice. The temperature of the air at present will not admit of our reducing this author’s rule to practice, we shall therefore only observe, that no critic ever delivered more excellent injunctions for the management of either the buskin or soc, than Mr. Jones does for that of the skates.”
The review sets the price price at one shilling sixpence. Foster sets it at two shillings sixpence.
Gale ECCO (Eighteenth-Century Collections Online) reprinted the copy in the British Library under the ISBNs 9781170364345 (paperback, 2010) and 9781379923008 (hardcover, 2018).
Electronic version available in ECCO, document no. CW0103542877.
Included in Foster and Brown.
1775:
Reprint of the first edition, iv+64 pages, 4 plates, octavo. Printed for the author and sold by C. Fourdrinier, Charing Cross “and all other Booksellers and News Carriers”.
This edition is attributed to “a gentleman” rather than Jones by name. No date is given on the title page; the British Library has inferred 1775. The title page includes a place for a price, but none is visible in the British Library’s copy. Another copy gives the price as one shilling sixpence. The dedication and preface are missing, and the note that skates may be purchased at Riccard’s Manufactory is pasted in. The engraving showing the skates (plate 1) is at the back of the book, with the other engravings, instead of in the text. The British Library’s copy has a handwritten note on library stationary tipped-in that says:
“Compared with Robert Jones’ edition of 1772 (supposed to be the first), it appears 1. that sheets B to E were from the type of 1772, and had not been reset. The same misprints occur in both: e.g.
p. 25, line penult edgc
. 29, line 2 perfomed
. 30, line antepenult. bacause
. 62 printed as p. 60
The only correction which I have found is that the 1772 edition heads p. 62 “A TREAT”, corrected in this copy by” [remainder of note unavailable].
Sheet A, which contained the dedication and preface, was replaced in this edition. It is possible that this edition was pirated. The changes to the title page and foreword point to this, plus it is not labeled as a new edition like the 1780 version is. However, the title page says it was “printed for the author,” who was in exile after his conviction; that may explain the absence of his name.
Available in Google Books.
Included in Brown, but not Foster.
(Courtesy of the British Library,
digitised by the Google Books project)
1780:
Reprint of the first edition labeled as the second edition, xvi+64 pages, 4 plates, octavo. Printed for the author and sold by J. Williams, 39 Fleet Street; C. Fourdrinier, Charing Cross; and T. Jones, Clare Court, Drury Lane.
This edition, also in the British Library, appears identical to the 1772 edition except for the title page. The heading on p. 62, which was corrected in the 1775 edition, is not corrected in this edition. The title page adds “the second edition” and the price (two shillings), but has no date.
The British Library’s copy includes the sheet music for “The Skaiter’s March”, which the catalog notes has been “extracted from the July 1782 issue of the ‘European Magazine’”.
(Courtesy of the British Library,
digitised by the Google Books project)
Gale ECCO reprinted the copy in the British Library under the ISBNs 9781170357767 (paperback, 2010) and 9781379916574 (hardcover, 2018).
Electronic version available in ECCO, document no. CW0102363611.
Available in Google Books.
Included in Foster (who lists it under 1772) and Brown.
(Nigel Brown collection)
1797:
Revised version published under the slightly different title A Treatise on Skaiting, viii+52 pages, 4 plates, octavo. Printed for J. Walker, 44 Pater-Noster-Row; and T. C. Rickman, 7 Upper Mary-Le-Bone Street.
This edition includes a new foreword by “T. C. R.” (presumably T. C. Rickman, the printer) noting that the book has been lightly revised and advertising “the new invented Half-Boot Skait”, which attaches directly to the skater’s boot at both toe and heel without a wooden base. The original preface and dedication were removed. The main contents and plates have only minor changes such as the correction of errata and changes in spelling, such as “skate” to “skait”.
Gale ECCO reprinted the copy in the British Library under the ISBNs 9781170358290 (paperback, 2010) and 9781379917090 (hardcover, 2018).
Electronic version available in ECCO, document no. CW0103106130.
Included in Brown but not Foster.
1818:
Reprint of the 1797 edition under the title “A Treatise on Skaiting” with the designation “a new edition” on the title page. viii+52 pages, 21 cm. Printed for J. Arnould, 2 Spring Gardens.
The final sentence of the title (“The whole illustrated with Copper-plates, representing the Attitudes and Graces”) has been left off the title page. The foreword by T. C. R. is included in place of the original preface and dedication. The plates are the same as in previous editions.
The only surviving library copy appears to be the one at Cambridge University. Cambridge University Library catalog entry
Included in Foster but not Brown.
Editions under the title “The Art of Skating”
Full title:
The Art of Skating; founded on certain principles deduced from many years’ experience; by which That noble, healthy, and agreeable Exercise, is reduced to an Art, and may be taught and learned by a regular method, with ease and safety. Illustrated with plates, representing the attitudes and graces.
There are four known editions under this title, two published in the 1820s with a single color fold-out plate and two that were substantially revised by William Epps Cormack and include new black-and-white line drawings. The first two have the same main contents as the eighteenth-century editions.
1823:
First edition under the new title, vi+24 pages, 1 fold-out plate, duodecimo. Printed and sold for the author by Y. G. Smeeton, 15 Royal Arcade, Pall Mall.
The eighteenth-century copper plates have been replaced with a single new color fold-out drawing of a man in a top hat performing the three moves of the original. The original dedication is missing, but this edition begins with a revised preface that can be divided into three parts:
(Courtesy of the British Library, digitised by the Google Books project)
(Courtesy of the British Library,
digitised by the Google Books project)
1. The first section is mostly the same as the original 1772 edition. The last sentence of the paragraph below the quote from Gierusalemme Liberata has been revised to “a circumstance which I am surprised has escaped the notice of our doctors” instead of explicitly referencing Doctor Cadogan. This is the same as the 1855 edition.
2. The next chunk of the foreword is taken from the Encyclopædia Britannica. This section is very similar to the next section of the 1855 edition.
3. The 1772 preface resumes with its concluding paragraph encouraging women to skate.
The general contents of the book are the same. Two sections have been cut: Jones’s details of the construction of skates (pp. 12–15 in the 1772 edition) and the discussion of traveling along “a channel or road” (pp. 28–31 and fig. 3–4 in the 1772 edition).
The British Library’s catalog entry lists William Epps Cormack as a contributor, a claim which was repeated by B. A. Thurber (2017, p. 8). While there is no direct evidence for this in the text, the changed title and the revisions that foreshadow the 1855 edition, which Cormack did clearly have a hand in, suggest that he may have been involved. Alternatively, since the book was “printed and sold for the author”, Jones may have done the revisions himself. Nigel Brown (p. 545) took this statement as evidence that Jones was still alive in 1823, but he would have been in his 80s. It is not known whether he ever returned to England after being transported in 1772.
Available in Google Books.
Included in Brown but not Foster.
1825:
Reprint of the 1823 edition, vi+24 pages, 1 fold-out plate, duodecimo. Printed for William Cole, 10 Newgate Street, by G. H. Davidson, Ireland Yard, Doctors’ Commons.
No date is given on the title page; the British Library has inferred 1825. This edition begins with a “Preface to the first edition” that is the 1823 preface and includes the figures from 1823, but the colors of the copies in the British Library are different.
The text is the same as the 1823 edition, but minor variations in punctuation, capitalization, and layout show that it has been reset (e.g., the sentence beginning “N.B.” has been moved from p. 24 to p. 23, which ends with “THE END” instead of “FINIS”).
Available in Google Books.
Included in neither Brown nor Foster.
1855:
New edition with additions and substantial revisions by William Epps Cormack published under the shorter title The Art of Skating, Practically Explained. viii+40 pages, 5 plates, octavo (16 cm). Published by Baily Brothers, 3 Royal Exchange Buildings.
The date is not printed on the title page, but the Bodleian Library has inferred 1855. The “preface to the first edition” in this volume is a lightly revised version of the 1823 preface. A new “preface to the present edition” is added. It includes remarks that Jones “may be laid up with gout” and “that he has not heard the lout calls, in 1852, for his Treatise.” It is possible that these calls were related to the publication of George Anderson’s The Art of Skating under the pseudonym “Cyclos” (Thurber, p. 8).
The cover sets the price at one shilling.
Main contents:
Of the construction of skates, and the different methods of fixing them to the foot
The first position
Of the inside edge
Travelling on the inside edge
Of the outside edge
Of travelling on the outside edge
Of the curved line on the outside edge, called rolling
Of running
Of the spiral line
Title page of the 1855 edition
(Bodleian Library collection)
The great inside circle, or spread eagle
Of the outside circle
The flying Mercury
The fencing attitude
The salutation
The serpentine line
Travelling backwards
To cut the figure of a heart on one leg
Outside wheel and outside edge backwards
Serpentine line backwards
Concluding injunction
The plates are entirely new and designated “from a tablotype by Henneman & Malone” and “J. Brandard lith.” They depict five maneuvers: rolling, the great inside circle or spread eagle, the flying Mercury, the fencing attitude, and the outside wheel and outside edge backwards.
HardPress reprinted the copy in the Bodleian Library under the ISBN 9781318687589 (2019, paperback).
Available in Google Books.
Included in Foster and Brown.
1865:
Reprint of the 1855 edition. [viii+]40 pages, 5 plates, octavo (17 cm). Published by Baily Brothers, 3 Royal Exchange Buildings.
The date is not printed on the title page, but 1865 has been inferred. It is a reprint of the 1855 edition that has been reset with some minor changes, mainly to punctuation and occasionally to capitalization. The artists' credits on the plates have been removed, and the authors (Jones and Cormack) are not listed on the title page.
Foster sets the price at 1 shilling.
Very few copies of this edition survive. There is one at the Zentralbibiothek der Sportwissenschaften der deutschen Sporthochschule Köln. Memorial University in Newfoundland has a bound photocopy, and the New York Public Library has a microfilm copy.
Zentralbibliothek der Sportwissenschaften catalog entry
Included in Foster and Brown.
Recent edition
2017:
A Treatise on Skating by R. Jones with contributions by W. E. Cormack, edited by B. A. Thurber. Evanston, IL: Skating History Press. iv+98 pages, 11 black and white figures, 127 x 203 mm, paperback. ISBN 9781948100007.
The main text is from the 1772 edition; Cormack’s additions are included as an appendix. The copper plates from the eighteenth-century editions and the line drawings from the 1855 edition are included. The sheet music bound with the British Library’s copy of the 1780 edition has been reset. A new introduction and explanatory notes provide context. The 1823 and 1825 editions are not mentioned.
A pdf download is available from the publisher’s website.
References
Nigel Brown, “Skating: ‘a very pretty art’”. The Book Collector 25.6 (1977): 537–565.
Fred. W. Foster, A Bibliography of Skating. London: B. W. Warhurst, 1898.
“Monthly Catalogue”. The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature 33 (1772): 170–184.
Rictor Norton, “Jones, Captain Robert” in Who’s Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to the Mid-Twentieth Century, ed. Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon. London: Routledge, 2000, p. 275.
B. A. Thurber, Introduction to A Treatise on Skating. Evanston, IL: Skating History Press, 2017.