George I. seems to have been partial to aquatic excursions. On the 22d of August, 1715, the King, Prince, and Princess of Wales, and a numerous party of Nobility, went with musick on board their barges from Whitehall to Limehouse. When they returned in the evening, the captains of the shipping suspended lanterns in their rigging, and the houses on both sides of the river were illuminated; an incredible number of boats filled with spectators attended the Royal party, and cannon were continually fired during the day and evening. This amusement is repeatedly noticed in the papers.
Several years elapsed without the least notice of Bartholomew Fair; but Dawks's News-letter of August 27, 1715, mentions, "On Wednesday Bartholomew Fair began, to which we hear the greatest number of black cattle was brought that ever was known. It seems there is not a public licence for booths and plays as formerly; but there is one great play-house erected in the middle of Smithfield for the King's players (as they are
called). The booth is the largest that ever was built, and abundance of puppet-shews and other shews are set out in the houses round Smithfield, and public raffling and gaming in the Cloisters (of St. Bartholomew's Hospital), so that the Fair is almost as much resorted to as formerly."
I have hitherto described the amusements of the Londoners on terra firma; the frost of 1715-16 enables me to shew how they gamboled on the Thames when frozen. The following advertisement leads the way: "This is to give notice to gentlemen and others that pass upon the Thames during this frost, that over against Whitehall-stairs, they may have their names printed, fit to paste in any book to hand down the memory of the season to posterity.
You that walk there, and do design to tell
Your Children's children what this year befel,
Go print your names, and take a dram within;
For such a year as this has seldom been."
Dawks's News-letter of Jan. 14 says, "The Thames seems now a solid rock of ice; and booths for the sale of brandy, wine, ale, and other exhilarating liquors, have been fixed there for some time. But now it is in a manner like a town: thousands of people cross it, and with wonder view the mountainous heaps of water that now lie congealed into ice. On Thursday a great Cook's-shop was erected there, and gentlemen went as frequently to dine as at any ordinary. Over
against Westminster, Whitehall, and Whitefriars, printing-presses are kept upon the ice, where many persons have their names printed, to transmit the wonders of the season to their posterity."