Saturday 17.—The captain of a vessel lying off Rotherhithe, the better to secure the ship’s cables, made an agreement with a publican for fastening a cable to his premises; in consequence, a small anchor was carried on shore and deposited in the cellar, while another cable was fastened round a beam in another part of the house. In the night the ship veered about, and the cables holding fast, carried away the beam and levelled the house with the ground; by which accident five persons asleep in their beds were killed.”
In the Common Place Notes for February, 1789, is the following:—“With the new year, new entertainments commenced, or more properly speaking, old sports were revived in the neighbourhood of London. The river Thames, which at this season usually exhibits a dreary scene of languor and indolence, was this year the stage on which there were all kinds of diversions, bear-baiting, festivals, pigs and sheep roasted, booths, turnabouts, and all the various amusements of Bartholomew fair multiplied and improved; from Putney-bridge in Middlesex, down to Redriff, was one continued scene of merriment and jollity; not a gloomy face to be seen, nor a countenance expressive of want; but all cheerfulness, originating apparently from business and bustle. From this description the reader is not, however, to conclude that all was as it seemed. The miserable inhabitants that dwelt in houses on both sides the river during these thoughtless exhibitions, were many of them experiencing extreme misery; destitute of employment, though industrious, they were with families of helpless children, for want of employment, pining for want of bread; and though in no country in the world the rich are more benevolent than in England, yet their benefactions could bear no proportion to the wants of numerous poor, who could not all partake of the common bounty. It may, however, be truly said, that in no great city or country on the continent of Europe, the poor suffered less from the rigour of the season, than the inhabitants of Great Britain and London. Yet even in London, the distresses of the poor were very great; and though liberal subscriptions were raised for their relief, many perished through want and cold.
On this occasion, the City of London subscribed fifteen hundred pounds towards supporting those persons who were not in the habit of receiving alms.”
We cull from the Public Advertiser of January 15th, 1789, the following piece of drollery, in the shape of an inscription on a temporary building on the Thames: “This Booth to Let. The present possessor of the Premises is Mr. Frost. His affairs, however, not being on a permanent footing, a dissolution, or bankruptcy may soon be expected, and a final settlement of the whole entrusted to Mr. Thaw.”
The printing-press was again at work on the ice, and in Crowle’s “Illustrated Pennant,” there is a bill, having a border of type flowers, containing the following lines:—
“The silver Thames was frozen o’er,
No difference twixt the stream and shore;
The like no man hath seen before,
Except he lived in days of yore.”
“On the Ice, at the Thames Printing-Office, opposite St. Catherine’s Stairs, in the severe Frost January, 1789. Printed by me, William Bailey.”