Father Thames (Mr. Giffard), who had been slumbering between two painted boards, respectively inscribed
“middlesex county bank” and “surrey bank,” and surrounded by flower-pots filled with bulrushes and sedge, roused by the intended imprecation upon their host, here interrupted Egomet, and entered into a long dialogue with him, in which he detailed all his grievances so far as gas and steam were concerned. At length he feels the influence of Hook as “the Great Frost,” who turns
“The old blackguard to solid ice.”
Upon which Egomet’s remark was, that—
“The scene to Oxford shifted in a trice is,
This river-god—no longer Thames, but Isis.”
Father Christmas (Mr. Crofton Croker) then appeared with a long speech about eating, drinking, and making merry, and the wondrous power that a good fire and a cheerful glass have upon the heart. Beholding “poor Thames a-cold”—“an icy, heartless river”—the question follows, what
“Do I the matter see?
I’ll thaw you soon—begone to Battersea,
There let thy icebergs float in Chelsea Reach.”
The Great Frost, too, after much buffoonery, turns himself into
“A pleasant fall of fleecy snow,”
which he effected by the vigorous use of the kitchen dredging-box, and an ample supply of flour, therewith bepowdering Jolly Christmas, Father Thames, and Egomet, so plentifully as to leave no doubt upon the minds of the audience respecting the transformation.