Q7
notice,
of
there is one
a peculiar nature,
which
should
not
be
omitted.
During
winter,
at
Philadelphia, skating was one of the favourite
amusements of the youth of that city, and
many of them excelled in that elegant exercise.
Mr. West, when a boy, had, along with his com-
panions, acquired. considerable facility in the art;
and having become exceedingly fond of it,
made himself, as he grew up to manhood, one
of the most accomplished skaters in
Some of the officers at that time
there, also practised the amusement; and, among
others, Colonel Howe, who afterwards succeeded
to the title of his elder brother, and Who, under
the name of General Howe,
is so Well known in
the
disastrous
transactions
of
the
subsequent
civil war, which ended in establishing the in-
dependence of the United States. In the
course of the winter preceding Mr. West's de-
parture for Italy, they had become acquainted
on the ice.
In Italy Mr. West had no opportunity of
skating; but when he reached Lombardy, where
he saw so much beautiful frozen water," he