1683-84
From the beginning of December until the 5th of February, to use the words of Maitland, frost “congealed the river Thames to that degree, that another city, as it were, was erected thereon; where, by the great number of streets and shops, with their rich furniture, it represented a great fair, with a variety of carriages, and diversions of all sorts; and near Whitehall a whole ox was roasted on the ice.” Evelyn gives perhaps the best account of this’ great frost. Writing in his “Diary” under date of January 24th, 1684, he observes, “the frost continuing more and more severe, the Thames before London, was still planted with boothes in formal streetes, all sorts of trades and shops furnish’d and full of commodities, even to a printing presse, where the people and ladyes tooke a fancy to have their names printed, and the day and yeare set down when printed on the Thames: this humour tooke so universally, that ’twas estimated the printer gain’d £5 a day, for printing a line onely, at sixpence a name, besides what he got by ballads, etc. Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other staires, to and fro, as in the streetes, sleds, sliding with skeetes, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet-plays, and interludes, cookes, tipling, and other lewd places, so that it seem’d to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water.” Evelyn tells how the traffic and festivity were continued until February the 5th, when he states that “it began to thaw, but froze again. My coach crossed from Lambeth to the horse-ferry, at Milbank, Westminster. The boothes were almost all taken downe, but there was just a map, or landskip, cut in copper, representing all the manner of the camp, and the several actions, sports, pastimes, thereon, in memory of so signal a frost.”
King Charles visited the sports on the Thames, in company with members of his family and of the royal household. They had their names printed on a quarto sheet of Dutch paper, measuring three and a half inches by four. The following is a copy of the interesting document:—
| Charles, | King. |
| James, | Duke. |
| Katherine, | Queen. |
| Mary, | Dutchess. |
| Ann, | Princesse. |
| George, | Prince. |
| Hans in Kelder. | |
London: Printed by G. Croom, on the ICE, on the River Thames, January 31, 1684.
In the foregoing list of names we have Charles the Second; his brother James, Duke of York, afterwards James the Second; Queen Catherine, Infanta of Portugal; Mary D’Este, sister of Francis, Duke of Modena, James’s second duchess; the Princess Anne, second daughter of the Duke of York, afterwards Queen Anne; and her husband Prince George of Denmark. It has been suggested that the last name displays a touch of the King’s humour, and signifies “Jack in the Cellar,” alluding to the pregnant situation of Anne of Denmark.
In some quaint lines, entitled “Thamasis’s Advice to the Painter, from her frigid zone, etc.” “printed by G. Croom, on the river of Thames,” occurs:
“To the print-house go,
Where Men the art of Printing soon do know,
Where for a Teaster, you may have your name