Interesting particulars of this severe frost are given in Stow’s “Annals,” and Holinshed’s “Chronicle.” The latter historian says that the frost continued to such an extremity that, on New Year’s Eve, “People went over and alongst the Thames on the ise, from London Bridge to Westminster. Some plaied at the football as boldlie there, as if it had been on the drie land; divers of the court being then at Westminster, shot dailie at prickes set upon the Thames; and the people, both men and women, went on the Thames in greater numbers than in anie street of the Citie of London. On the third daie of January, at night, it began to thaw, and on the fifth there was no ise to be seene betweene London Bridge and Lambeth, which sudden thaw caused great floods, and high waters, that bare downe bridges and houses, and drowned manie people in England, especiallie in Yorkshire. Owes Bridge was borne awaie, with others.” There is a tradition that Queen Elizabeth walked upon the ice.
1607
An old tradition still lingers in Derbyshire, respecting the famous Bess of Hardwick, to the effect that a fortune teller told her that her death would not happen as long as she continued building. She caused to be erected several noble structures, including Hardwick and Chatsworth, two of the most stately homes of old England. Her death occurred in the year 1607, during a very severe frost, when the workmen could not continue their labours, although they tried to mix their mortar with hot ale.
Malt liquor in the days of yore was believed to add to the durability of mortar, and items bearing on this subject occur in parish accounts. The following entries are extracted from the parish books of Ecclesfield, South Yorkshire:—
1619
| Itm. 7 metts [i.e. bushels] of lyme for poynting some places in the church wall, and on the leades | ijs. | iiijd. |
| Itm. For 11 gallands of strong liquor for the blending of the lyme | iijs. | viijd. |
Two years later we find mention of “strong liquor” for pointing and ale for drinking:—
1621
| For a secke of malt for pointing steeple | viijs. | |
| To Boy wyfe for Brewing itt | vjd. | |
| For xvij gallons of strong Lycker | vijs. | 4d. |
| For sixe gallons of ale wch. we besttowed of the workmen whilst they was pointing steeple | ijs. | |
| For egges for poynting church | ijs. |