FAMOUS FROSTS AND FROST FAIRS.

Number 389

Of Four-Hundred Copies printed.

FROST FAIR ON THE RIVER THAMES, IN 1814.

FAMOUS FROSTS
AND
FROST FAIRS
IN
GREAT BRITAIN.

Chronicled from the Earliest to the Present Time.

BY
WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S.,
Author of “Historic Romance,” “Modern Yorkshire Poets,” etc.

LONDON:
GEORGE REDWAY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1887.

PREFACE.

The aim of this book is to furnish a reliable account of remarkable frosts occurring in this country from the earliest period in our Annals to the present time. In many instances, I have given particulars as presented by contemporary writers of the scenes and circumstances described.

In the compilation of this Chronology, several hundred books, magazines, and newspapers, have been consulted, and a complete list would fill several pages. I must not, however, omit to state that I have derived much valuable information from a scarce book printed on the Ice of the River Thames, in the year 1814, and published under the title of “Frostiana.” I have gleaned information from the late Mr. Cornelius Walford’s “Famines of the World,” which includes a carefully prepared summary of “The Great Frosts of History.” Some of the poems in my pages, bibliographical notes and facts, are culled from Dr. Rimbault’s “Old Ballads Illustrating the Great Frost of 1683-4,” issued by the Percy Society. It will be also observed that I have drawn curious information from Parish Registers and old Parish Accounts.

Several ladies and gentlemen have rendered me great assistance, and amongst the number must be named, with gratitude, Mrs. George Linnæus Banks, author of “The Manchester Man;” Mr. Jesse Quail, F.S.S., editor of the Northern Daily Telegraph; Mr. C. H. Stephenson, actor, author, and antiquary; Mr W. H. K. Wright, F.R.H.S., editor of the Western Antiquary; Mr. W. G. B. Page, of the Hull Subscription Library; Mr. Frederick Ross, F.R.H.S., and Mr. Ernest E. Baker, editor of the “Somersetshire Reprints.” Mr. E. H. Coleman kindly prepared for me a long list of books and magazines containing articles on this subject. I have to thank Mr. Mason Jackson, the author of “The Pictorial Press,” for kindly presenting to me the quaint cut which appears on page 29 of my work.

In 1881, the greater part of the matter contained in this book appeared in the Bradford Times, a well-conducted journal, under the able editorship of Mr. W. H. Hatton, F.R.H.S. The articles attracted more than local attention, and I was pressed to reproduce them in a volume, but owing to various circumstances, I have not been able to comply with the request until now. The record is now brought up to date, and many facts and particulars, gleaned since the articles appeared, have been added.

WILLIAM ANDREWS.

Rose Cottage, Hessle, Hull,
January, 1887.

Famous Frosts and Frost Fairs in Great Britain.

A.D.

134

Thames frozen over for two months.

153

Very severe frost, lasting nearly three months. English rivers frozen, including the Thames.

173

A frost lasted three months, and was followed by a dearth.

220

A continuous frost of five months in Britain.

250

Thames frozen for nine weeks.

290-91

Severe frost lasted six weeks. English rivers frozen.

359

The frost very severe in England and Scotland. It lasted fourteen weeks in the latter country.

474

Four months’ frost, and great snow.

507-8

Frost lasted two months: rivers frozen.

525

Thames frozen for six weeks.

604

A frost lasting four months, followed by dearth in Scotland: also very severe in England.

670

“A fatal frost.”—Short.

695

Thames frozen for six weeks, and booths erected on the ice.

759-60

Frost from October 1st, 759, to February 26th, 760.

821

Great frost after two or three weeks’ rain.

827

Thames frozen for nine weeks.

908

The greater part of the English rivers frozen for two months.

923

Thames frozen for thirteen weeks.

962

The frost this year was so great as to cause a famine.

975

Severe frost.

987

This year is notable for a frost lasting one hundred and twenty days.

998

Thames frozen for five weeks.

1020

Very severe frost.

1035

Short says: “Frost on Midsummer day; all grass and grain and fruit destroyed; a dearth.”

1059

Great frost, followed by a severe plague and famine.

1061

Thames frozen for seven weeks.

1063

Fourteen weeks’ frost: Thames frozen.

1076-7

Frost lasted from 1st November, 1076, to 15th April, 1077. It is recorded in the “Harleian Miscellany,” iii, page 167, that: “In the tenth year of his [William the Conqueror] reign, the cold of winter was exceeding memorable, both for sharpness and for continuance; for the earth remained hard from the beginning of November until the midst of April then ensuing.”

1086

According to Walford’s “Insurance Cyclopædia,” “The weather was so inclement that in the unusual efforts made to warm the houses, nearly all the chief cities of the kingdom were destroyed by fire, including a great part of London and St. Paul’s.”

1092

In this year occurred a famous frost, and it is stated, in the quaint language of an old chronicler, that “the great streams [of England] were congealed in such a manner that they could draw two hundred horsemen and carriages over them; whilst at their thawing, many bridges, both of wood and stone, were borne down, and divers water-mills were broken up and carried away.”

1095-99

Very severe winters.

1114-15

The following is from an “Old Chronicle:” “Great frost; timber bridges broken down by weight of ice. This year was the winter so severe with snow and frost, that no man who was then living ever remembered one more severe; in consequence of which there was great destruction of cattle.”

1121-22

A severe frost killed the grain crops. A famine followed.

1128

Very severe frost.

1149-50

Frost lasted from 10th December to 19th February.

1154

A great frost.

1176

A frost lasted from Christmas to Candlemas.

1205

In Stow’s “Chronicle,” it is recorded that on the 14th day of January, 1205, “began a frost which continued till the 20th day of March, so that no ground could be tilled; whereof it came to passe that, in the summer following, a quarter of wheat was sold for a mark of silver in many places of England, which for the most part, in the days of King Henry II., was sold for twelve pence; a quarter of oats for forty pence, that were wont to be sold for fourpence. Also the money was so sore clipped that there was no remedy but to have it renewed.” Short states, “Frozen ale and wine sold by weight.”

1207

Fifteen weeks’ frost.

1209

A long and hard winter followed by dearth.

1221

Severe frost.

1226

Severe frost and snow.

1233

Frost lasted until Candlemas.

1234-35

Penkethman gives the following particulars of this frost: “18 Henry III. was a great frost at Christmasse, which destroyed the corne in the ground, and the roots and hearbs in the gardens, continuing till Candlemasse without any snow, so that no man could plough the ground, and all the yeare after was unseasonable weather, so that barrenesse of all things ensued, and many poor folks died for the want of victualls, the rich being so bewitched with avarice that they could yield them no reliefe.”

1241

A great frost after a heavy fall of snow.

1250

Very severe frost.

1254

A severe frost from 1st January to 14th March.

1263

On St. Nicholas’s Day a month’s hard frost set in.

1269

A frost lasted from 30th November to the 2nd February.

1281-2

“From Christmas to the Purification of Our Lady, there was such a frost and snow as no man living could remember the like: where, through five arches of London Bridge, and all Rochester Bridge, were borne downe and carried away by the streame; and the like hapned to many other bridges in England. And, not long after, men passed over the Thames between Westminster and Lambeth dryshod.”—Stow, edited by Howes, 1631.

1288

Great frost and snow.

1337

Severe frost without snow.

1338

Twelve weeks’ frost, after rain.

1353

A frost from 6th December to 12th March.

1363-64

“Very terrible” frost from 16th September to 6th April.

1407

A frost lasted fourteen weeks.

1410

It is recorded in the “Chronicles of the Grey Friars of London,” as follows: “Thys yere was the grete frost and ise, and most sharpest winter that ever man sawe, and it duryd fourteen wekes, so that men myght in dyvers places both goo and ryde over the Temse.”

1434-35

Stow records that the Thames was frozen, from below London Bridge to Gravesend, from December 25th to February 10th, when the merchandise which came to the Thames mouth was carried to London by land.

1438

A long frost.

1506

We find this entry in the “Chronicles of Grey Friars of London”: “Such a sore snowe and a frost that men myght goo with carttes over the Temse and horses, and it lastyed tylle Candlemas.”

1515

The Thames frozen, and carts crossed on the ice to and from Lambeth to Westminster.

1523

Very severe frost.

1564-65

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

Two years later we find mention of “strong liquor” for pointing and ale for drinking:—

1621

Many of the old parish accounts contain items similar to the foregoing.

1607

The following is an abstract from Drake’s “Eboracum; or, the History and Antiquities of York;” “About Martinmass (1607) began an extream frost; the river Ouze was wholly frozen up, so hard that you might have passed with cart and carriage as well as upon firm ground. Many sports were practised upon the ice, as shooting at eleven score, says my ancient authority, bowling, playing at football, cudgels, &c. And a horse-race was run from the tower at S. Mary[’s] Gate End along and under the great arch of the bridge to the Crain at Skeldergate postern.”

1608

This year a frost fair was held upon the Thames. Edmund Howes, in his “Continuation of the Abridgement of Stow’s English Chronicle,” 1611, p. 481, gives the following curious account of it: “The 8th of December began a hard frost, and continued untill the 15th of the same, and then thawed; the 22nd of December it began againe to freeze violently, so as divers persons went halfe way over the Thames upon the ice: and the 30th of December, at every ebbe, for the flood removed the ice, and forced the people daily to tread new paths, except only betweene Lambeth and the ferry at Westminster, the which, by incessant treading, became very firm, and free passage, untill the great thaw: and from Sunday, the tenth of January, untill the fifteenth of the same, the frost grew so extreme, as the ice became firme, and removed not, and then all sorts of men, women, and children, went boldly upon the ice in most parts; some shot at prickes, others bowled and danced, with other variable pastimes; by reason of which concourse of people were many that set up boothes and standings upon the ice, as fruit-sellers, victuallers, that sold beere and wine, shoemakers, and a barber’s tent, etc.” It is also stated that the tents &c. had fires in them. The artichokes in the gardens about London were killed by the frost. The ice lasted until the afternoon of the 2nd of February. Gough presented to the Bodleian Library, a rare tract containing a wood-cut representation of the Thames in its frozen state, with a view of London Bridge in the distance. It is entitled: “Cold Doings in London, except it be at the Lottery, with Newes out of the Country. A familliar talk between a Countryman and a Citizen, touching this terrible Frost, and the Great Lottery, and the effect of them.” London, 1608, quarto.

1609

Great frost commenced in October, and lasted four months. The Thames frozen, and heavy carriages driven over it.

1614

It is recorded in Drake’s “Eboracum” as follows: “On the 16th of January the same year [1614] it began to snow and freeze, and so by intervals snowing without any thaw till the 7th of March following; at which time was such a heavy snow upon the earth as was not remembered by any man then living. It pleased God that at the thaw fell very little rain, nevertheless the flood was so great, that the Ouze ran down North Street and Skeldergate with such violence as to force all the inhabitants of those streets to leave their houses. This inundation chanced to happen in the Assize week, John Armitage, Esquire, being then High Sheriff of Yorkshire. Business was hereby much obstructed; at Ouze bridge end were four boats continually employed in carrying people [a]cross the river; the like in Walmgate [a]cross the Foss. Ten days this inundation continued at the height, and many bridges were driven down by it in the country, and much land overflown. After this storm, says my manuscript, followed such fair and dry weather, that in April the ground was as dusty as in any time of summer. This drought continued till the 20th of August following without any rain at all; and made such a scarcity of hay, beans, and barley, that the former was sold at York for 30s. and 40s. a wayne load, and at Leeds for four pounds.”

1615

A severe frost from the 17th January to 7th March. In 1814 a tract was republished entitled “The Cold Yeare: a Deep Snow in which Men and Cattle perished; written in Dialogue between a London Shopkeeper and a North-countryman.” 1615. 4to.

1620

“This year a frost enabled the Londoners to carry on all manner of sports and trades upon the river.” “Old and New London,” by E. Walford, M.A., v 3, p. 312.

1634

Says a contributor to “Notes and Queries” in the Nottingham Guardian, the following is an extract from Prynne’s “Divine Tragedie lately acted,” 1636:—“On January the 25th, 1634, being the Lord’s Day, in the time of the last great frost, fourteen young men, presuming to play at football on the river Trent, near Gainsborough, coming altogether in a scuffle, the ice suddenly broke, and there were eight of them drowned.” The “Divine Tragedie,” like several other works of that period, was written to show how judgments were overtaking the people because of the recent order that the Book of Liberty should be read in churches, which legalised sports on Sunday after service.

1648-49

John Evelyn wrote in his “Diary;” “Now was the Thames frozen over, and horrid tempests of wind.”

1663

From the 28th January to 11th February, severe frost. Samuel Pepys records in his “Diary,” “8th February being very hard frost; 28th August, cold all night and this morning, and a very great frost they say, abroad; which is much, having had no summer at all, almost.”

1664-65

Severe frost from 28th December to 7th February. Pepys says, 6 February: “One of the coldest days, they say, ever felt in England.”

FROST FAIR ON THE THAMES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II.

1672

In the December of 1672 occurred in the West of England, an uncommon kind of shower of freezing rain, or raining ice. It is recorded that this rain, as soon as it touched anything above ground, as a bough or the like, immediately settled into ice; and by multiplying and enlarging the icicles broke down with its weight. The rain that fell on the snow immediately froze into ice, without sinking in the snow at all. It made an incredible destruction of trees, beyond anything in all history. “Had it concluded with some gust of wind” says a gentleman on the spot, “it might have been of terrible consequence. I weighed the sprig of an ash tree, of just three quarters of a pound, the ice of which weighed sixteen pounds. Some were frighted with the noise of the air till they discerned it was the clatter of icy boughs dashed against each other.” Dr. Beale says, that there was no considerable frost observed on the ground during the whole time; whence he concludes that a frost may be very intense and dangerous on the tops of some hills and plains; while in other places, it keeps at two, three or four feet distance above the ground, rivers, lakes, &c. The frost was followed by a forwardness of flowers and fruits.

The foregoing appears to have escaped the notice of the compiler of an interesting and informing little book entitled “Odd Showers.” London, 1870.

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:—

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

Printed, hereafter for to show the same:

And sure, in former Ages, ne’er was found

A Press to print, where men so oft were droun’d!”

Landskip, mentioned by Evelyn, is entitled “An exact and lively Mapp or Representation of Boothes, and all the Varieties of Showes and Humours upon the Ice, on the River of Thames by London, during that memorable Frost, 35th yeare of the Reign of his Sacred Majesty King Charles the Second. Anno Dni MDCLXXXIII. With an Alphabetical Explanation of the most remarkable figures.” It consists of a whole-sheet copper-plate engraving, the view extending from the Temple-stairs and Bankside to London-bridge. In an oval cartouche at the top within the frame of the print, is the title; and below the frame are the alphabetical references, with the words “Printed and sold by William Warter, Stationer, at the signe of the Talbott, under the Mitre Tavern in Fleete street, London.” In the foreground of this representation of Frost Fair appear extensive circles of spectators surrounding a bull-baiting, and the rapid revolution of a whirling-chair or car, drawn by several men, by a long rope fastened to a stake fixed in the ice. Large boats, covered with tilts, capable of containing a considerable number of passengers, and decorated with flags and streamers, are represented as being used for sledges, some being drawn by horses, and others by watermen, lacking their usual employment. Another sort of boat was mounted on wheels; and one vessel, called “the drum boat,” was distinguished by a drummer placed at the prow. The pastimes of throwing at a cock, sliding and skating, roasting an ox, football, skittles, pigeon-holes, cups and balls, &c., are represented as being carried on in various parts of the river; whilst a sliding-hutch, propelled by a stick; a chariot, moved by a screw; and stately coaches filled with visitors, appear to be rapidly moving in various directions, and sledges with coals and wood are passing between London and Southwark shores. An impression of this plate will be found in the Royal Collection of Topographical Prints and Drawings, given by George the Fourth to the British Museum, vol. xxvii., art. 39. There is also a variation of the same engraving in the City Library at Guildhall, divided with common ink into compartments, as if intended to be used as cards, and numbered in the margin, in type with Roman numerals, in sets of ten each, with two extra.

This famous frost gave rise to many pictures and poems. In the British Museum is a broadside as follows:

“A True Description of Blanket Fair upon the River Thames, in the time of the Great Frost in the Year of our Lord, 1683.”

How am I fill’d with wonder for to see

A flooding river now a road to be,

Where ships and barges used to frequent,

Now may you see a booth of fudling tent;

And those that us’d to ask where shall I land ye,

Now cry, what lack ye, sir, beer, ale, or brandy?

Here, here, walk in, and you shall surely find

Your entertainment good, my usage kind.

Booths they increased dayly, more and more,

People by thousands flocking from the shore;

And in such heaps they thither did repair,

As if they had been hasting to a fair.

And such a fair I never yet came near,

Where shop-rents were so cheap, and goods so dear.

Then might you have all kind of earthenware,

You can scarce name a thing but what was there.

There was to sell both French and Spanish wine,

And yet, perhaps, a dishclout for a signe;

In short, the like was never seen before,

Where coaches run as if upon the shore;

And men on horseback to and fro did ride,

Not minding either current, or the tide:

It was exceeding strange at first to see,

Both men and women so advent’rous be;

And yet at last it grew so very common,

’Twas not admir’d, it seemed strange to no man.

Then from the Temple there was built a street,

Made old and young, and all admire that see’t;

Which street to Southwark reached. There might you see

Wonders! if you did love variety,

There was roast beef, and gamon to be sold,

But at so dear a rate, I dare be bold

To say, ’twas never sold so on the shore,

Nor on the Thames, in haste, be any more.

There were Dutch whimsies turning swiftly round,

By which the owners cleared many a pound;

And coles and corn was there in sledges draw’d,

As if the Thames would never have been thaw’d.

All kinds of trades did to this market come,

Hoping to get more profit than at home:

And some whose purses were a little swel’d,

Would not have car’d how long the frost had held.

In several places there was nine-pins plaid,

And pidgeon holes for to beget a trade.

Dancing and fidling too there was great store,

As if they had not been from off the shore;

The art of printing there was to be seen,

Which in no former age had ever been;

And goldsmiths’ shops were furnished with plate,

But they must dearly pay for’t that would hav’t.

And coffee-houses in great numbers were,

Scattered about in this cold freezing fair,

There might you sit down by a char-cole fire,

And for your money have your heart’s desire,

A dish of coffee, chocalet or tea,

Could man desire more furnished to be?

No, no, if you the world should wander through,

No fair like this could pleasant seem to you.

There was the baiting of the ugly bear,

Which sport to see hundreds did repair,

And I believe since the world’s first creation,

The like was never seen in this our nation:

And football playing there was day by day,

Some broke their legs, and some their arms they say:

All striving to get credit, but some paid

Most dearly for it, I am half afraid.

Bull-baiting likewise there was known to be,

Which on the Thames before none ever see,

And never was poor dogs more bravely tost

Then they were, in this prodigious frost;

Th’ inraged bull perceiv’d his enemies,

And how to guard himself could not devise,

But with his horns did toss them too and fro,

As if their angry meaning he did know;

Besides all this a thing more strange and rare

Than all the things were seen in Freezland fair,

An ox was roasted whole, which thousands saw,

For ’twas not many dayes before the thaw;

The like by no man in this present age

Was ever seen upon this icy stage.

And this hard frost it did so long endure,

It pinch’d, and almost famish’d many poor.

But one thing more I needs to you must tell

The truth of which thousands do know full well,