Fishing
The key article on line fishing isAngling(Vol. 2, p. 21), in length equivalent to 35 pages of this Guide. It begins with a most interesting historical section, showing that, before the days of the earliest hooks, the cave-men used on their lines a little flake of flint or strip of stone, fixed in the bait, with a groove in the middle of it, around which the line was so fastened that when the pull came the instrument turned crossways in the fish’s stomach and could not be disgorged. A delightful section on angling literature follows this historical matter; and then comes treatment of fresh water fishing, with fly-casting and the use of surface baits; live-baiting and spinning; and bottom-fishing; each of the three fully treated. A detailed study is then made of the habits of the salmon and of the tackle and methods devised for his beguiling. Trout, muskelunge, bass, perch and roach are successively discussed; and then comes the section on sea-angling, the tarpon, tuna, jewfish and the giant black bass. The article ends with a complete bibliography of the subject. There are 96 articles on individual fish, all listed on p. 891 of Vol. 29, if the reader desires to refresh his memory as to the varieties.Fisheries(Vol. 10, p. 429), by Prof. Garstang and Prof. Chalmers Mitchell is concerned with the industry rather than with sport, but it contains much information about sea fish which will be of use to the sea-angler.
Taxidermy
A thoroughly practical article isTaxidermy(Vol. 26, p. 464), by Montague Browne, author of a manual of the art. His book and Dr. W. T. Hornaday’sTaxidermy and Zoological Collectingare the most important special books on the subject, and Mr. Browne in this article constantly refers to the improved methods introduced by Hornaday and other Americans. He points out the dangers of using arsenical soap and gives the formula for the substitute, quite safe except when hot, which he himself invented. Minute directions are given for skinning, mounting, etc. And the article also treats of the advantages of modelling as compared with the old method of “stuffing”; and the placing of specimens in natural surroundings, with panoramic back-grounds, top- and side-lighting, etc.
Sailing and Boating
On sailing, boating and kindred subjects the reader should first consult the articleYachting(Vol. 28, p. 890), equivalent to 26 pages of this Guide, by B. Heckstall-Smith, yachting editor theField, and secretary of the Yacht Racing Association and of the International Yacht Racing Union. The historical part of this article traces yachting in England back to the state-barges of the Anglo-Saxon kings and through the pleasure ship of Elizabeth (1588), which was built at Cowes in the Isle of Wight, so that this place has been associated with the sport for more than three centuries. Charles II in 1660 received the present of a yacht from the Dutch, and at this time the Dutch word “yacht” firstfound its way into the English language. Yachting clubs date from the establishment in 1720 of the Cork Harbour Water Club, now the Royal Cork Yacht Club. At Cowes races were sailed as early as 1780 and a yacht club was organized there in 1812. The first yacht club in the United States was formed in 1844 and the first race in the United States was at New York in 1846 to Sandy Hook light-ship and back. The first important alteration in type was in 1848 when the “Mosquito” was built—a 50–ton vessel, 59 ft. 2 in. at water line, 15 ft. 3 in. beam, with a long hollow bow and a short and rather full after-body. The first races in the United States resulted in the building of the “America,” which in 1851 crossed the ocean and won a race round the Isle of Wight, bringing back to the New York Yacht Club the “America’s” cup. The later races for this cup are described in detail at the close of the article, with elaborate tables showing the exact tonnage or sailing length of competing yachts, dates of races, time allowance, elapsed time, corrected time, and margin by which each race was won. The article describes 1870–1880 as the first great era of yachting. Changes in the method of reckoning length, introduced in 1879, resulted in the “lead mine” or plank-on-edge type. In 1887 the system of tonnage measurement was introduced and a method of rating by water-line length and sail area—and this “crushed the plank-on-edge type completely. There was not another boat of the kind built.” The era of big cutters followed—in America notably the Herreshoff boats. The success of the bulb keels in the small classes threatened the use of “skimming dishes” in the larger classes—and a consequent lack of head room and cabin accommodation. New linear rating rules were therefore adopted—one in 1896 and another in 1901, followed in 1904 by international rating rules. The English types of Fife and Nicholson were succeeded by such boats from the Krupp yard at Kiel as the “Meteor” and “Germania.” See also the articleModel Yachting(Vol. 18, p. 640).
Other articles on the subject of boating areCanoe(Vol. 5, p. 189);MacGregor, John(Vol. 17, p. 232) (for the famous “Rob Roy”);Catamaran(Vol. 5, p. 502); andRowing(Vol. 23, p. 783), by Charles Murray Pitman, formerly stroke of the Oxford University eight, with a special treatment of rowing in the United States and a comparison of English and American “styles.” The articlesSwimming(Vol. 26, p. 231) by William Henry, author ofSwimmingin the Badminton Library, andDrowning and Life Saving(Vol. 8, p. 592) are of practical value.
Mountaineering
The articleMountaineering(Vol. 18, p. 937) is by Sir W. Martin Conway, famous for his ascent to a height of 23,000 feet in the Kara Koram Himalayas, for the High Level route through the Alps which he originated, and for his climbs in Spitsbergen. It contains paragraphs on the dangers from falling rocks, falling ice, snow avalanches, falls from rocks, ice slopes, crevasses, and weather; and an outline of history of the sport, which has been systematically pursued only since 1854.Glacier(Vol. 12, p. 60), by E. C. Spicer is another article of great interest to those who love climbing. Among the articles on individual mountains and on the great ranges, the first place must be given to the scene of the classic exploits of the early mountaineers. The relevant part of the articleAlps(Vol. 1, p. 737) is by W. A. B. Coolidge who, although an American by birth, is more at home in the Alps than any other living writer. This magnificent article, which would fill nearly 40 pages of this Guide, contains a table giving the heights of no less than 1,317 separate peaks and passes, and also a consecutive narrative of Alpine exploration.Himalaya(Vol. 13, p. 470) is by Sir Thomas H. Holdich,superintendent of Frontier Surveys in India. The best mountaineering section of the Rockies is described in a section of the articleCanada(Vol. 4, p. 145).Andes(Vol. 1, p. 960) describes the peaks of the Southern Cordillera. Full articles on the mountaineering sections of our own country, such as the Appalachians, the Adirondacks, the Catskills and White Mountains will be found under the obvious titles.
Winter Sports
Skating(Vol. 25, p. 166) deals with both speed skating and figure skating, and tells of the exploits at Newburgh, N. Y., of Charles June and of the famous Donoghue family. A table of amateur records is also given. Ice hockey is treated in a section of the articleHockey(Vol. 13, p. 554).Curling(Vol. 7, p. 645) describes the “rink” and stones, as well as the game, and contains a glossary of technical terms.Ice Yachting(Vol. 14, p. 241) explains the mechanical paradox which makes it possible for a boat propelled by the wind to move faster than the wind is blowing. Ski-running and jumping, with the new development of military skiing in France and Italy, are described inSki(Vol. 25, p. 186); and it will surprise many readers to learn that a clear jump of more than 130 feet has been made. Other articles dealing with winter sports areSnowshoes(Vol. 22, p. 296),Coasting(Vol. 6, p. 603) andTobogganing(Vol. 26, p. 1042).
Driving, Riding and Polo
For information in regard to sports connected with the horse the reader should first study the articleHorseand particularly that part which concerns the history of horse breeding (pp 717–723 of Vol. 13), written by E. D. Brickwood, an English authority on sport, and the sections on “breeds of horses” by the late William Fream, agricultural correspondent of the LondonTimes, and Prof. Robert Wallace, of Edinburgh University, who also wrote the section on management.
Horse-Racing(Vol. 13, p. 726) contains a section on racing in the United States, including the development of trotting races and the stress put upon time records, pacing races, racing centres, the predominance of dirt-tracks as contrasted with the turf courses of England; a section on the history of English racing, including the institution of the St. Leger, the Derby, the Oaks, the Ascot races, the Goodwood, Two Thousand Guineas, etc., present conditions, including classic races, handicaps, with scale of weight for age, the £10,000 races, the two-year-old races, Newmarket, Ascot and other meetings, value of horses, trainers and jockeys, foreign horses, time, the Jockey Club and steeple-chasing, the Grand National; a section on racing in Australia; a section on racing in France, where, as in England, American owners and jockeys have for some years past been much to the front; and also a mention of the chief meetings in other European countries and in Australia.Horsemanship(Vol. 13, p. 726) is chiefly concerned with exhibition riding.Driving(Vol. 8, p. 585), by R. J. McNeill, discusses the intricacies of tandem and four-in-hand coachmanship, and contains a section on the use of the whip. The importance of acquiring a light hand, and the extent to which this depends on the proper use of the three joints in the arm, are clearly explained.Coach(Vol. 6, p. 574) tells about the amateur road coach and the four-in-hand clubs in America and elsewhere. The coaching horn or “post-horn,” as it used to be called, is treated underHorn(Vol. 13, p. 697) by Kathleen Schlesinger, the great authority on musical instruments.Carriage(Vol. 5, p. 401), by J. A. McNaught, notes that, although the buggy and rockaway are the characteristic pleasure vehicles of this country, the heavier dog-cart and ralli-cart are much used with horses of a certain type.
The articlePolo(Vol. 22, p. 11), by Thomas F. Dale, steward of the Polo and Riding Pony Society, describes the twelve varieties of the game played during its existence of at least 2,000 years. The three modern forms are the Indian, the English and the American, the game in England dating from 1869 when it was introduced from India by the 10th Hussars—and more definitely from 1873 when it was adopted by the Hurlingham Club. The rules of the game are given, and its development is traced, and there is a section on the polo pony and the much discussed systems of measurement.
Gardening
Out-door recreation in the garden may be fully studied in the articleHorticulture(Vol. 13, p. 741), which is a book in itself, for its contents are the equivalent of about 140 pages of this Guide. It is written by Liberty Hyde Bailey, director of the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, who contributes a valuable gardeners’ calendar for the United States, M. T. Masters, editor ofGardeners’ Chronicle, and W. R. Williams, superintendent of the London County Council Botany Centre, who write on “principles”; and John Weathers, author ofPractical Guide to Garden Plants, who writes on the “practice” of gardening. The following is a partial list of the topics treated in this article:
Roots, Root-Pruning and Lifting, Watering, Bottom-Heat; Stem; Leaves; Buds; Propagation by Buds; Layering; Grafting or “Working”; Planting; Pruning; Training; Sports or Bud Variations; Formation of Flowers; Forcing; Retardation; Double Flowers; Formation of Seed, Fertilization, Hybridization, Reversion, Germination, Selection—all to be supplemented by the articleBotany(Vol. 4, p. 299) for more scientific and less practical discussion of these topics.
The Practice of Horticulture.
Formation and Preparation of the Garden—Site, Soil, Subsoil, Shelter, Water Supply, Fence, Walks, Edgings.
Garden Structures—Walls, Espalier Rails and other means of training; Plant Houses (with 12 illustrations), including Conservatory, Greenhouse, Fruit House, Vinery, Peach House, Forcing House, Pits and Frames, Mushroom House, Fruit Room, Heating Apparatus, Pipes, Boilers, Water Supply, Solar Heat, Ventilation, etc.
Garden Materials and Appliances—Soil, Loam, Sand, Peat, Leaf Mould, Composts. Manures, with descriptions and appraisals of different varieties, organic and inorganic. Tools, Tallies and Labels.
Garden Operations—Propagation—by seeds, offsets, tubers, division, suckers, runners, proliferous buds, grafts, with description and diagrams of different methods—buds, branch cutting, leaf cutting, root cutting, single-eye cutting, with 12 illustrations.
Planting and Transplanting; Watering; Pruning (with 9 illustrations); Ringing; Training—horizontal, fan, trellis, etc.
Flowers—Flower Gardens, Pleasure Grounds, Lawns; Hardy Annuals, with long list and description of plants recommended; Hardy Biennials, with list; Herbaceous Perennials, with classified list (containing more than the equivalent of 18 pages of this Guide); Hardy Trees; Bedding Plants, etc.
Vegetables.
Calendar for the United States.
A list of other articles on special aspects of gardening will be found in the chapterFor Farmers.
INDOOR GAMES
For learning indoor games—excluding indoor athletic games which have been listed above—the Britannica is particularly valuable, because of its elaborate treatment by noted authorities and because the handy and convenient form of the India paper volume makes an article on any indoor game as easy to consult as a hand-book dealing with only one game.
For example, the article onBridge(Vol. 4, p. 528) is by William Henry Whitfeld, card-editor ofThe Field. The article is the equivalent of 15 pages in this Guide; and it describes both auction and ordinary bridge, with paragraphs on advice to players, declarations, doubling, redoubling, play of the hand, playing to the score; and other forms of bridge,—three-handed bridge, dummy bridge, misery bridge, and draw or two-handed bridge; and contains a list of authorities.
Even more elaborate, as befits the subject, is the articleChess(Vol. 6, p. 93), equivalent to 45 pages of this Guide. It contains diagrams showing the arrangement of pieces and the English and German methods of notation and a vocabulary of terms of the game; it treats the comparative value of the pieces—“pawn 1, bishop 3.25, knight 3.25, rook 5, queen 9.5. Three minor pieces may more often than not be advantageously exchanged for the queen. The knight is generally stronger than the bishop in the end of the game, but two bishops are usually stronger than two knights, more especially in open positions.” English, French and German modes of notation and names of pieces are given. The treatment of chess problems is accompanied by eight typical problems with diagrams and analyses. The section on the history of chess gives not merely very interesting early material but a study critical and biographical, of the great chess masters—for example: Ruy Lopez, the first chess analyst Greco; Philidor, a great blindfold and simultaneous player of the 18th century; Allgaier; Mahé de la Bourdonnais; the English school of the 19th century, Sarratt, Lewis, Mac Donnell, Evans (of the gambit), Staunton (on whom there is a separate article) and Buckle, the historian of civilization; the Berlin “Pleiades” and the Hungarians, Grimm, Szen and Löwenthal; Morphy, the American; and among the great players of the last half century, Steinitz, Paulsen, Blackburne, Zukertort, Horwitz, Mason, Teichman, Pillsbury, Lasker, Mieses, Marshall, Tarrasch, Tchigorin, etc. The results of international tournaments are given from 1851 on; and modern tournament play is criticised. The article closes with an elaborate bibliography.
The article onDraughtsor Checkers (Vol. 8, p. 547) is by J. M. M. Dallas, late secretary of the Edinburgh Draughts Club, and Richard Jordan, former draughts champion of the world, and gives the history of the game, with a study of the different openings.
The usefulness of the Britannica for card games in general may be easily tested. Let us turn for instance to the articlePoker(Vol. 21, p. 899). It is equivalent in its contents to seven or eight pages of this Guide, and among other interesting features it contains a vocabulary of technical terms, including “big dog”, “little dog”, “cold feet”, “splitting”, and the following mathematical table of approximate chances.
To improve any hand in the draw, the Britannica tells us, the chances are:
Among indoor games and kindred topics, each in a separate article, in the Britannica, are:
Needlework, etc.
Needlework as treated in the Britannica has one element of peculiar value and novelty. In this department, as throughout the book, the illustrations have been chosen upon a principle unusual in works of reference: they really illustrate; they throw light on the text; they are not mere pretty pictures intended to catch the eye and inserted in the book haphazard. Turn for instance to the articleLace(Vol. 16,p. 37). Among its 61 illustrations are not only small diagrams explaining different stitches and meshes and patterns and larger halftone illustrations of “Bone Lace” “Reticella Needlepoint”, “Gros Point de Venise”, “Point de Flandres à Brides” “Point de Venise à Brides Picotées,” “Réseau Rosacé,” etc., but there are reproductions of portraits of the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, showing not merely patterns of lace but the method in which it was used and how it “combined” and harmonized with styles of costume, and of hair dressing. These “lace portraits” are: one from the Louvre, about 1540 of Catherine de’ Medici, wearing a linen upturned collar of cut work and needlepoint lace; one by Morcelse, about 1600, of Amelie Elisabeth, comtesse de Hainault, wearing a ruff of needlepoint reticella lace; one, 1614, of Mary, countess of Pembroke, wearing a coif and cuffs of reticella lace; one by Le Nain, about 1628, of Henri II, duc de Montmorency, wearing a falling lace collar; one by Riley, about 1685, of James II, wearing a jabot and cuffs of raised needlepoint lace; one, about 1664, of Mme. Verbiest, wearing pillow-made laceà reseau; one, about 1695, of Princess Maria Teresa Stuart, wearing a flounce or tablier of delicate needlepoint lace with small relief clusters; and one of de Vintimille, about 1730, wearing needlepoint of thePoint de Venise à brides picotées. This article on Lace, equivalent in length to 60 pages of this Guide, is by A. Summerly Cole, author ofAncient Needle Point and Pillow Lace.Embroidery(Vol. 9, p. 309) is by Mr. Cole and A. F. Kendrick, keeper of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington; and is illustrated with 18 figures showing many styles of early embroidery. There are also articles on Tapestry, Needlework, Knitting, Yarn, etc.
Dancing, the Stage, etc.
On dancing and the stage there is much of interest in the Britannica. The article on theDance(Vol. 7, p. 794) distinguishes dancing as an expression of emotion, whether social joy or religious exultation; dancing for pleasure to the dancer or the spectator; and mimetic dancing, “to represent the actions or passions of other people.” A section on primitive and ancient dancing describes various early dances, many of them not unlike the “trots” and “hugs” so notorious during the last few years. At an Aztec feast, “called Huitzilopochtli, the noblemen and women danced tied together at the hands, and embracing one another, the arms being thrown over the neck.” Primitive imitative dances, the attitude of the ancient Romans towards the dance, religious dances and the attacks on the dance of such Puritan sects as the Albigenses and Waldenses close the section on ancient dancing.
“Modern dancing” describes the branle (or brawl), the pavane, saraband, minuet, gavotte, écossaise, cotillon, galop, lancers, schottische, bourrée, waltz, fandango, bolero, jota, Morris dances, hornpipe, and other English dances of the 17th and 18th centuries. In treating of present-day dancing the article deals especially with the waltz, quadrille, country-dance, lancers, polka, galop, Washington Post and other American barn-dances, polka-mazurka, Polonaise, Schottische and Sir Roger de Coverley. And it discusses ballet dancing (on which there is also a separate article) and musical gymnastics. There are separate articles on the following dances:Allemande,Bergamask,Chaconne,Chasse,Courante,Gavotte,Jig,Mazurka,Morris Dance,Passacaglia,Pavane,Polka,Polonaise,Quadrille,Saraband,Schottische.
For a sufficient knowledge of the theatre and the drama to heighten his enjoyment of a play, the theatre-goer should read up the subject, the period and the author in the Britannica. Fora more serious and thorough study of opera, music in general and the drama as a literary form, he may turn to special chapters of this Guide.
If the traveler would make the most of his vacation journeys—as has already been suggested—he should “read up” in the Britannica, even if he does not wish to make a systematic study of the literature, art, architecture, music, etc., of the country he is to visit. If he does wish to pursue systematic study he can use the Britannica to better advantage than a whole library of books of travel or special treatises.
The Britannica has often and successfully been used in this way. A single instance: The Rev. Dr. George R. Van DeWater of St. Andrews Church, New York City, in a letter addressed to the publishers of the new Britannica, wrote:
“I have recently had occasion to look up South America with a view to obtaining needed information for a proposed tour there, and I found all that I wanted to know and found it readily.”
Among the general classes of valuable information for the traveler are:
The excellent maps, newly made with the greatest care from the best sources;
Articles on the great countries of the world. Particularly valuable sections are those at the beginning of each of these articles on physiography, climate, etc., and those on transportation by rail and water;
Articles on the states of the Union, similarly arranged, and like them accompanied by maps and with full descriptions of the surface of the country and the means of communication, climate, etc.;
Articles on regions, rivers, mountains, etc.,—for instance on theRiviera,Alps,Nile,Rhine,Hudson,Yosemite,Yellowstone.
Articles on cities and towns, with descriptions of the principal places of interest, historical sketches, diagrams of battle-fields, etc.;
General articles such asArchitecture,Painting,Museums, which give critical and related accounts of great art treasures of different periods and schools. To this information, as bearing on the particular place the traveler intends to visit, he will be guided by the Index;
Biographical articles related to the special vicinity to be visited—as for instance,Wordsworth,ColeridgeandDeQuinceyfor the Lake District.
This survey, already too long for the limited space of this Guide, yet far too brief to represent properly the aspect of the Britannica with which it deals, will have accomplished its purpose if it induces the possessor of the volumes to go to them when he needs relaxation. Articles of the kind described in this chapter, showing you how to make the most of leisure hours, are doubly serviceable, giving pleasure while they are being read, and again when their suggestions are carried into effect.
But it is not only in the articles dealing with recreation that Britannica reading insures future as well as present enjoyment. Lafcadio Hearn said it was worth while to visit Japan if only because what one sees there makes one’s dreams more beautiful all through later life. And so the fascination of history, of science, of biography, does not end, but only begins, with the reading which opens for you a gate leading into fresh fields. What you read this coming year, in any department of the Britannica, will be still, ten years from now, a source of pleasure, for knowledge, once acquired, brings continually renewed delight.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTESTypos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
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