Tell thou the lamentable fall of me,
And send the hearers weeping to their beds.
HARD FROSTS IN ENGLAND.
(For the Mirror.)
| In the year | |
| 220. | Frost lasted 5 months. |
| 250. | The Thames frozen 9 weeks. |
| 291. | Most rivers frozen 6 weeks. |
| 508. | The rivers frozen 2 months. |
| 695. | The Thames frozen 6 weeks; booths built on it. |
| 759. | Frost from October the 1st, till February 26th, 760. |
| 827. | Frost for 9 weeks. |
| 923. | The Thames frozen 13 weeks. |
| 987. | Frost lasted 120 days. |
| 998. | The Thames frozen 5 weeks. |
| 1035. | Frost on Midsummer Day so vehement that the corn and fruitswere destroyed. |
| 1063. | The Thames frozen for 14 weeks. |
| 1076. | Frost from November to April. |
| 1114. | Several wooden bridges carried away by the ice. |
| 1407. | Frost for 15 weeks. |
| 1434. | Thames frozen down to Gravesend; 12 weeks frost. |
| 1683. | Frost for 13 weeks. |
| 1739. | Frost for 9 weeks. |
| 1788. | Frost from November to January, |
| 1789, | when the Thames was crossed opposite the Customhouse, theTower, Execution Dock, Putney, Brentford, &c. It was generalthroughout Europe. |
| 1796. | Frost the most severe on Dec. 25th that had ever been felt inthe memory of man. |
| 1814. | Severe frost, Thames frozen, and tremendous falls of snow. |
A French writer who visited England during the severe frost in the year 1688, says, (in a small volume which he published in Paris,) "that besides hackney-coaches, a large sledge, or sledges, were then exhibited on the frozen Thames, and that King Charles passed a whole night upon the ice."
The following extract is also an account of this frost by an eye-witness; which may be seen in the Beauties of England and Wales, vol. x. page 83: he says, "On the 20th of December, 1688, a very violent frost began, which lasted to the 6th of February, in so great extremity, that the pools were frozen 18 inches thick at least, and the Thames was so frozen that a great street from the Temple to Southwark was built with shops, and all manner of things sold. Hackney coaches plied there as in the streets. There were also bull-baiting, and a great many shows and tricks to be seen. This day the frost broke up. In the morning I saw a coach and six horses driven from Whitehall almost to the bridge (London Bridge) yet by three o'clock that day, February the 6th, next to Southwark the ice was gone, so as boats did row to and fro, and the next day all the frost was gone. On Candlemas Day I went to Croydon market, and led my horse over the ice to the Horseferry from Westminster to Lambeth; as I came back I led him from Lambeth upon the middle of the Thames to Whitefriars' stairs, and so led him up by them. And this day an ox was roasted whole, over against Whitehall. King Charles and the Queen ate part of it."
N.B. In 1740, a palace of ice was built by the Empress Anne of Russia, on the banks of the Neva, 52 feet long, which, when illuminated, had a surprising effect.
P. T. W.