INTRODUCTION r I Those at Pompeii are but 13 ft. in diameter. Cicero evi dently did not appreciate this limited accommodation for swimmers, for he complained to his brother Quintus that he needed a wider piscina, so that he might not hurt his hands when he flung them out.
Lucian, in a paper on Hippias, or the Bath,' describes three handsome cold-water swimming baths designed by him, which were made of green marble, and ornamented with statues.
The literature of swimming is but meagre, and the records of its growth in popular favour are therefore difficult to obtain. It seems to have declined in public estimation after the fall of Rome, and to have been neglected by the great warlike nations, who until that period had encouraged it as a means of health and physical training. The Roman patrician, bishop, and poet, Sidonius Apollinaris, distinguishes the Franks from barbarians as the swimmers' ; and Charlemagne, their great king in later years, was known as an accomplished swimmer. The tribes of Northern Europe indulged in the art to some extent, and it is recorded in Pontoppidan's History of Nor way' that the swimming powers of Olaf Fryggeson, a king of Norway, could not be equalled. In the MS. Cott. Titus, A. xxiii., the following recommendation to those who follow a military profession appears : To swymme is eke to lerne in sommer seson.
Men fynde not a bridge so often as a flood, Swymmyng to voyde ; and chase hoste wil eson Eke after rayne the rivers goeth wood That every man in t' host can swymme, is good : Knyght, squyer, footman, cook and cosynere, And grome, and page, in swymmyng is to lcre.
Peacham, in describing the requisites for a complete gentleman, mentions swimming as one, and particularly re commends it to such as are inclined to follow a military pro fession. It has often proved of service to military and naval officers at critical periods. In the famous defence of Genoa an officer swam with despatches from General Massena through the English fleet, and after delivering them to the First Consul returned with the replies. Sir Cloudesley Shovel, when a cabin boy, also conveyed a despatch by swimming under a heavy fire, and there are many other instances of equally gallant feats on record.
The inhabitants of the lake dwellings, or crannogs, who flourished during the Stone and Bronze Ages, were no doubt proficient in the art of natation. The remains of many of the
lake dwellings have been found in Scotland and Ireland. As late as 1567 there is an instance recorded of an attack being made upon one of these, situated in a lough near Omagh, by Sir Henry Sydney,. at which Edward Vaughan, although well able to swim, was drowned through being heavily armed. In the attack on another of these dwellings, mentioned in the Calendar of State Papers of Ireland,' vol. x56, page 374, some of the inhabitants saved themselves by swimming to shore.
In the poem Beowulf,' one of the oldest written in the English language, there is a long account of a swimming-match between Beowulf and Breca. These two athletes, we are told, swam side by side for five days in a raging sea, intensely cold. Geofon ythum weol wintres wylme.' At the end of Ewe days they were forced to part company une flod todraf,' and then Beowulf went off on an expedition of his own, killing several sea monsters and water demons, and finally landed on the shores of Finland.
The edition of the Vision of Piers Plowman' published in 155o contains the following reference to swimming and diving : Take two strong men and in Temese cast them, And both naked as a needle, ther non sikerer than other ; The one bath cunnynge and can swymme and dyve, The other is lewd of that laboure, lerned never to swym. Which trowest of these two in Temese is most in dreg, He that never dived ne nought can of swymmyng, Or the swymmer that is safe if he himself Tyke? Sir Thomas Elyot, in The Boke named the Governour,' published in London in 1531, and again in 1537, says : There is an exercise which is right profitable in extreme danger of wars, but because there seemeth to be some peril in the learning thereof, and also it hath not been of long time much used, especially among noblemen, perchance some readers will very little esteem it, I mean swimming. But notwithstanding, if they revolve the imbecility of our nature, the hazards and danger of battle, with the examples which shall hereafter be showed, they will, I doubt not, think it extremely necessary to a captain or man of arms.