Lord
and Lady Lansdowne and their two daughters, now Duchess of
Devonshire and Lady Osborne Beauclerk, could execute the most
complicated Quadrilles and Lancers on skates, and could do the
most elaborate figures.
Once a week all Ottawa turned up at Rideau Hall to skate to the
music of a good military band. Every year in December a so-called
ice-palace was built for the band, of clear blocks of ice. Once
given a design, ice-architecture is most fascinating and very
easy. Instead of mortar, all that is required is a stream of water
from a hose to freeze the ice-blocks together, and as ice can be
easily chipped into any shape, the most fantastic pinnacles and
ornaments can be contrived. Our ice-palace was usually built in
what I may call a free adaptation of the Canado-Moresque style. A
very necessary feature in the ice-palace was the large stove for
thawing the brass instruments of the band. A moment's
consideration will show that in the intense cold of a Canadian
winter, the moisture that accumulates in a brass instrument would
freeze solid, rendering the instrument useless.
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