Part 5

The frost here commemorated began about the 8th December, 1813, and continued in a gentle manner until the morning of the 14th January, 1814, when a stronger frost covered the Tyne below bridge with a smooth and perfect sheet of ice, on which, the succeeding day, a number of people ventured, and skaters, for three successive days. A partial thaw came on which damped the ardour of skaters, until the night of the 29th of January, when again a severe frost considerably strengthened the ice, and presented a glassy surface above bridge. On Monday, 31st January, no less than seven tents were erected on it for the sale of spirits, and fires kindled on that and the succeeding day. Parties dined in various of the tents. The desire of recreation shone forth in every face. Horse shoes, football, “toss or buy,” rolly polly, fiddlers, pipers, razor grinders, recruiting parties, and racers with and without skates, were all alive to the moment. Hats, breeches, shifts, stockings, ribbons, and even legs of mutton, were the rewards of the racers, who turned night into day; the brilliancy of the full moon contributing to their diversions until late beyond midnight. A horse and sledge above bridge added to the novelty of the scene; and it is worthy of remark that not one accident of consequence happened, although thousands ventured their persons upon the ice. Owing to the severity of the season, the London Mail for Friday, the 21st January, and three following days, was brought to Newcastle on the fifth day, in the Lord Wellington Coach, with eight horses; a circumstance quite new to the inhabitants of canny Newcastle.

The angry winter storms aloud, In icy chains the floods are bound; And on the Tyne the people crowd, As if it were on level ground.

The keelmen now lay many a plank, To make safe footing on the Tyne; And old and young of every rank Pay them a toll to pace the Tyne.

There’s next erected many a tent, And blazing fires the fancy charm; Where the shivering lookers-on soon went, And dine and drink to keep them warm.

From Red Heugh down to Ouse Burn Quay, The river’s crowded like a fair; And many a group of people play At horse shoes for a quart of beer.

Two asses on the ice were brought-- A smock displayed, for which a race Upon the Tyne, who would have thought To see such sport in such a place?

There’s “Bambro’ Jack,” and “Mutton Pies,” With plump-fac’d Nell and hot black puddings, “Come taste them, hinny,” oft she cries, “Believe me, lad, they’re very goodens.”

There’s Jack the razor-grinder too, Rolling his wheel o’er icy Tyne; Tho’ he’s as “drunk as Davey’s sow,” Yet he obtains some skates to grind.

Here Jim the fiddler screw’d his pegs, While stripling wenches round him dance; And bold recruits a party begs To gather laurels e’en in France.

In Jemmy Nelson’s tent we see, A toping party do combine, To pass the afternoon with glee, And drown their cares in rosy wine.

Now turn your eyes west of the bridge, And you will view a sight that’s rare, A horse there draws a Northern sledge, Like unto Neptune’s stately car.

Peg Swinney, she to seek her mate, Made her first passage o’er a ship, But on the plank she slipp’d her feet, Fell on the ice and lamed her hip.

A barber, bred in Thespis’ school, With a new pair of skates well shod, Display’d his anticks like a fool, And through the arch he took his road.

But here the faithless ice soon broke, Up to the shoulders sous’d was he, Where he remain’d till with a rope, Some sailors dragg’d him to the quay.

A gentle thaw took place at last, The keels are all afloat we see; And dingy Tyne, late bound so fast, Now rolls its current to the sea.

[Sidenote: 1814]

The winter very severe in Ireland.

[Sidenote: 1838]

On the 7th January a very severe frost set in and continued a month. This frost was predicted in “Murphy’s Almanack,” and the fulfilment of the prediction rendered the publication extremely popular. A rhyme of the period was as follows--

Murphy hath a weather eye, He can tell whatever he pleases, Whether it will be wet or dry, When it thaws and when it freezes.

It is recorded in January this year, that the thermometer at Walton, near Claremont, fell to 14 deg. below zero; at Beckenham it was 13½ deg. below zero; at Wallingford, 5 deg. below zero; at Greenwich, 4 deg. below zero; and at Glasgow 1 deg. below zero.

The principal rivers of this country were frozen over. This winter is frequently called “Murphy’s winter.”

[Sidenote: 1855]

On January 16th a very strong frost commenced, and prevailed for about six weeks. Rivers were frozen over, and inland navigation was entirely suspended. The working classes were subject to many privations on account of the dearness of food and depression of trade. In London 10,000 dock porters were out of work, and such was their sufferings that bread-riots occurred in the east end of the town. During this frost traffic was established on the Ure in Lincolnshire to the distance of thirty-five miles.

[Sidenote: 1860-61]

Very severe frost from 20th December to 5th January. Says the _Northern Daily Telegraph_, in a recent article on “Old Fashioned Winters” “on the 25th of December, 1860, the thermometer in London fell to 15 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 17 degrees below freezing point. In the country the same intensity of cold was felt, and a certain meteorologist wrote to the _Times_ stating that at Boston, in Nottinghamshire, the temperature four feet above the ground was 8 degrees below zero, whilst on the grass it was 13 degrees, or 45 degrees of frost. Fortunately this extreme cold only lasted three days, and the inconveniences attending it--in themselves bad enough--were not to be compared with the miseries which accompanied the great Frost Fair.”

[Sidenote: 1879-1880]

In the middle of January, 1880, it was expected by many that a Frost Fair would once more be held on the Thames. The last two months of 1879 and the opening month of 1880 were extremely cold. The President of the Meteorological Society in his report, 1880, says, “The period through which we have been passing since October, 1878, has been one of great cold, in many respects without precedent during nearly a quarter of a century. The harvest of 1879 is recorded as the worst ever known. Shrubs, even hollies, little short of 100 years old were killed. Birds were destroyed, Robin Redbreasts took shelter in our houses; all the rivers in England were frozen over. It is stated that Major Slack of the 63rd Regiment, at Oakamoor Station, railway lamps were frozen out, and that rabbits pushed for food had attacked the oil and grease on the station crane.” At Chirmside Bridge a temperature of 6° below zero was observed. Peach trees 60 years old were killed to the roots. The evergreens, laurels, rhododendrons, hollies in many instances, Wellingtonias, and many others were all killed, and many people frozen to death. This frost began on the 22nd November, 1879, and on the 2nd February, 1880, a thaw began.

[Sidenote: 1881]

Severe frost from the 7th to the 27th January. Snow fell daily from the 9th to the 27th of the month.

[Sidenote: 1886-7]

The concluding pages of this work are being written and printed during a hard frost. The closing days of the past year, and the early days of the current year will long be remembered amongst severe winters.

Perhaps we cannot more fitly close our account of “Famous Frosts and Frost Fairs,” than by quoting the following lines from the facile pen of Edith May, culled from the pages of Hale’s “Selections of Female Writers,” published in 1853.

FROST PICTURES.

When like a sullen exile driven forth, Southward, December drags his icy chain, He graves fair pictures of his native North On the crisp window-pane.

So some pale captive blurs, with lips unshorn, The latticed glass, and shapes rude outlines there, With listless finger and a look forlorn, Cheating his dull despair.

The fairy fragments of some Arctic scene I see to-night; blank wastes of polar snow, Ice-laden boughs, and feathery pines that lean Over ravines below.

Black frozen lakes, and icy peaks blown bare, Break the white surface of the crusted pane, And spear-like leaves, long ferns, and blossoms fair Linked in silvery chain.

Draw me, I pray thee, by this slender thread; Fancy, thou sorceress, bending vision-wrought O’er that dim well perpetually fed By the clear springs of thought!

Northward I turn, and tread those dreary strands,-- Lakes where the wild fowl breed, the swan abides; Shores where the white fox, burrowing in the sands, Harks to the droning tides.

And seas, where, drifting on a raft of ice, The she bear rears her young; and cliffs so high, The dark-winged birds that emulate their rise Melt through the pale blue sky.

There, all night long, with far diverging rays, And stalking shades, the red Auroras glow; From the keen heaven, meek suns with pallid blaze Light up the Arctic snow.

Guide me, I pray, along those waves remote, That deep unstartled from its primal rest; Some errant sail, the fisher’s lone light boat Borne waif-like on its breast!

Lead me, I pray, where never shallop’s keel Brake the dull ripples throbbing to their caves: Where the mailed glacier with his armed heel Spurs the resisting waves!

Paint me, I pray, the phantom hosts that hold Celestial tourneys when the midnight calls; On airy steeds, with lances bright and bold, Storming her ancient halls.

Yet, while I look, the magic picture fades; Melts the bright tracery from the frosted pane; Trees, vales, and cliffs, in sparkling snows arrayed, Dissolve in silvery rain.

Without, the day’s pale glories sink and swell Over the black rise of yon wooded height; The moon’s thin crescent, like a stranded shell, Left on the shores of night.

Hark how the north wind, with a hasty hand, Rattling my casement, frames his mystic rhyme. House thee, rude minstrel, chanting through the land, Runes of the olden times.

INDEX.

Ale, Hot, used for mixing mortar, 9.

Anne, Princess, visits the Frost Fair, 19, 20.

Armitage, John, High Sheriff of Yorkshire, 12.

Artichokes, growth of, in London in 1608, 11.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, a Broadside in, 32.

Axon’s, W. E. A., _Annals of Manchester_, quoted, 74.

Bailey, Wm., printer on the Thames, 58.

Bampton, Devonshire, Icy Epitaph at, 53.

Barley, Price of, in 1614, 12.

Bartholomew Fair, 33, 56.

Bath, Severe Frost at, in 1754, 51.

Beale, Dr., on the frost of 1672, 17.

Beans, price of, in 1614, 12.

Bear-Baiting on the Ice, 55.

Beckenham, 79.

Bess of Hardwick, Death of, 9.

Birch, W., Enamel-painter and Engraver, 58.

Birmingham Mails delayed through a dense Fog, 61.

_Blanket Fair, A True description of, upon the River Thames, 1683. A broadside_, 22-26.

Bodleian Library, Oxford, _Cold Doings in London_, a tract in, 11.

_Book of Liberty_, read in Churches, 13.

Boston, Notts., Severe Frost at, 80.

Bowles, John, Printseller at “The Black Horse,” 44.

Bowyer, William, Printer, 43.

Brugis, H., Printer, 26.

Catherine, Queen, Infanta of Portugal, 19.

_Champion, The_, on the Ice Festival of 1814, 73.

Charles II., Visit to the Frost Fair on the Thames in 1683-84, 19.

Chatsworth, 9.

Chirmside Bridge. Temperature at, 81.

_Cold Doings in London_, quoted, 11.

“Cold Yeare, The” quoted, 13.

Cornwall, slight frost of 1763, 52.

Corsellis, F., Oxford’s first Printer, 48.

Croker, J. Wilson, 61.

Croom, G., Printing done on the Thames by, 19, 20.

Cross, John, 45.

Crowle’s _Illustrated Pennant_, quoted, 58.

Dalton, C. and R., Bell-founders, York, 54.

Davis, Mr., Drowning of, 65.

Derbyshire, Chatsworth, 9; Hardwick, 8, 9.

Dawks’s _News-Letter_, on the frost of 1715-16, 41, 42.

D’Este, Mary, 19.

Doll, the pippin Woman, death of, 49, Gay’s verse on, _ibid._

Drake’s _Eboracum_, quoted, 10, 12.

“Drunk as Davey’s Sow,” a phrase, 77.

Ecclesfield Parish Register, extract from, on mixing Mortar with Malt-Liquor, 9.

Ednam House, Kelso, 73.

Eggs used for pointing Churches, 9.

Elizabeth, Queen, 8.

England, 73, Introduction of Printing into, by Henry VI., 48; Rivers Frozen, 80; Severe frost in 359, 1.

_English Chronicle, The, or Frosty Calendar_, a broadside, 1739-40, 46.

E. O. Tables, gambling by, practised, 69.

Epitaph, Icy, at Bampton, Devonshire, 53.

_Erra Pater’s Prophesy, or Frost Fair in 1683_, quoted, 39.

Evelyn, John, on the Frost of 1648-49, 14; frost of 1683-84, 17, 20.

Faust, J., Inventor of Printing, 48.

Foss, River, 12.

Foster, Geo., Printseller, St. Paul’s Church-yard, 46.

_Frost Fair, An Extract Draught of, on the River Thames_, 46.

_Frost Fair on the River Thames_, 1715-16, 43-44.

_Frost in the Year 1739-40_, quoted, 45.

Frost Pictures, a Poem, by Edith May, 82-83.

_Frostiana_, Curious effect of the cold on birds in the Frost of 1806 mentioned in, 60.

Gainsborough, 13.

Gent, Thos., His Printing shop on the river Ouse, at York, in 1719, 49-50.

_Gentleman’s Magazine_ on the Frost of 1742, 51, on the Frost of 1763, _ibid._, of 1782, 53, 54, of 1784, 55, and of 1789, 55.

George, Prince, of Denmark, 20.

Glasgow, 79.

Gottenburgh, John, Printer, 48.

Gough, Richard. 11.

Gravesend, 7.

_Great Britain’s Wonder: or London’s Admiration_, A Broadside, 26.

Greenwich, 79.

_Grey Friars, Chronicles of the_, quoted, 7.

Hale’s _Selections of Female Writers_, quoted 81.

Haly, M., Printer, 32.

Harford Bridge, 61.

_Harleian Miscellany_, quoted, 3.

Harley Thos., Lord Mayor of London, 52.

Hatfield House, 61.

Hawarden, Lord, Accident to, 61.

Hay, price of, in 1614, 12.

Heaton, John, Printer, 40.

Henry II. 5.

⸺ III. 5.

⸺ VI. and the Introduction of Printing into England, 48.

Hodgeson, Mr., 48.

Holinshed’s “_Chronicle_,” quoted, 8.

Holland, 69, 73.

Holroyd, Mr., 74, 75.

Horse Shoe, Game of, 77.

Howe’s “_Stow’s English Chronicle_,” quoted, 6, 10.

Hulse, Sir Henry, Knt, 39.

_Ice Fair_, quoted, 45.

Icy Epitaph, 53.

Ireland, 73; slight frost of 1763, 52.

Irwell River, Drowning of Miss Robinson in, 74.

Jackson’s _Pictorial Press_, quoted, 32.

Kelso, Ice Festival at, 73; Ednam House, 73; Queen’s Head Inn, 73.

Kentish Town, 61.

Lambeth, 6, 7, 8, 18.

Lander, Mr. Publican, Public dinner served on the river Tweed by, during the frost of 1814, 73.

Lapland, 69; Lapland Mutton, 64.

Lawrence, Mr., Publican, erected a booth on the Thames, 71.

Leeds, 13.

Leybourne, Birds fettered with Ice at, 60.

Lintott, Bernard, Bookseller, 43.

London, 22, 32, 38, 44, 79, 80; Blackfriars Bridge, 63-66, 72; British Museum, Royal Coll. of Prints and Drawings in the, 22; Brooks Wharf, 71; Carlton House, 35; Cheapside, 35, 64; Dock Labourers thrown out of work, 79; Fire in 1086, 3; Fleet Street, Shop signs in, 21, 40; Fog, Dense, in 1813-14, 61; Green Arbour, 26; Guildhall Library, 22; High Timber Street, 71; Hungerford Stairs, 48; Little Old Bailey, 26. London Bridge, 21, 40, 43, 63, 65, 68, 73; Arches carried away during the frost of 1281-2, 6, 7, 8; Houses on, damaged, in the frost of 1739, 40; View of, 11. Ludgate, 32; Moorfields, 35; Newington, 65; Puddle Dock, 72; Royal Exchange, 32; Queenhithe, 45, 63, 71; Queen Street, 64; Rose Chair, 59; Rotherhithe, Fall of a house at, 56; St. James’s Street, 43; St. Paul’s Cathedral, 46, 67; Burning of in 1086, 3; Smithfield, 48; Southwark, 22, 23, 26, 27, 46; Strand, 43, 48; Temple Bar, 40; Temple Stairs, 21, 23, 26, 27. Thames Frozen, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 34, 38, 40, 44, 46, 47, 67, 72, 80; from London to Gravesend, in 54, 55, 59. Blanket Fair upon, a Broadside, 22-26. Bull-Baiting on, 24. Coaches plying from Westminster to the Temple, 18, 23, 35, 41. Fair in 1564-6, 8; in 1608, 10; in 1620, 13, 55, 66; in reign of Charles II, 15, 17, 55, 56; _Frost Fair_, 46, 66. _Mapp or Representation of Boothes_ &c. 1683, 20. Men walking over, from Westminster to Lambeth, in 1281-2, 6, 7; Navigation on, suspended, 52, 54; Printing done upon, 41, 46, 47, 58, 66, 67; Subscriptions raised for the sufferers through the frost of 1789, 57. Three Crane Stairs, 64, 65; Westminster, 18, 40, 41, 73; Westminster Bridge, 71; Whitehall, 19, 40, 41; Whitehall Stairs, 46; Whitefriars, 41.

_London Chronicle_, on the frost of 1789, 58, 59.

Loughborough, Leicestershire, waggon load of Coals, drawn on the ice from, to Carlton House, London, 55.

Maidenhead Coach, overturned, 61.

Maitland’s _Hist. of London_, quoted, 13.

Malling, 60.

Manchester, Bridge Street, 74; _City News Notes and Queries_, on the Drowning of Miss Robinson, 75.

Martaine, Thos., 36.

May’s, Edith, Frost Pictures, a poem, 82-83.

Milbank, Horse Ferry at, 18.

Mode Wheel, near River Irwell, 74.

Modena, Francis, Duke of, 19.

Moxon’s _Map of the River Thames_, 1683-4, referred to, 38, 39.

Murphy’s _Almanack_, Frost of 1838 predicted in, 78, 79.

Nelson, Jemmy, 77.

Neva, River, Ice Palace erected upon, in 1740, 50-51.

Newcastle, 75, 76; Antiquarian Society Transactions, on the Frost of 1795-96, 59; Ouse Burn Quay 77; Red Heugh, 77; The Tyne Fair, at, 75, 76.

_Newcastle Weekly Chronicle_, on the Frost Fair of 1814, 75.

Newman, W., Miller, of Leybourne, 60.

Norris, Jas., Bookseller, at the King’s Arms, Fleet St., 40.

_Northern Daily Telegraph_ on “Old Fashioned Winters” 79.

_Nottingham Guardian_, quoted, 13.

_Notes and Queries_, quoted, 13.

Oakamoor Station, 81.

“Odd Showers” referred to, 17.

“Old Chronicle,” quoted, 4.

Oxford, Printing first Practised at, 48.

Ouse Bridges, borne away with the Ice, in 1564, 8.

Penkethman, quoted, 5.

Pepys, Samuel, on the frosts of 1663, 1664-65, 14.

Plymouth, intense frost at, in 1782, 53.

Printing, Invention of, 47.

Proctors’ _Bygone Manchester_, on the Drowning of Miss Robinson, 75.

Prynne’s _Divine Tragedie lately acted_, quoted, 13.

_Public Advertiser_, quoted 57.

Putney-Bridge, 56.

Redriff, 55, 56.

Regent, Prince, his intended visit to the Marquis of Salisbury, 61

Robinson, Miss L., Drowning of, in the Irwell, 74, 75.

Rochester Bridge, destroyed by the frost of 1281-2, 6.

Russia, Anne, Empress of, causes an ice Palace to be erected on the Neva, 50.

Salisbury Marquis of, 61.

Samuel, G., Painter, 58.

Scotland, Fourteen weeks’ Frost in 359, 1.

Seller, John, Bookseller, 32.

Shad, J. 32.

Short’s quoted 2, 3, 5.

Signs, Shop, Black Horse, Cornhill, 44; Feathers, High Timber St. 71; Globe, St. Paul’s Churchyard, 32; King’s Arms, Fleet Street 40; Mitre Tavern, Fleet Street, 21; Queen’s Head Inn, Kelso, 73; Talbot, Fleet Street, 21.

Slack, Major, 80.

Southampton Beauvois Hill, 37; Berry, _ib._; Bittern Farme, _ib._; Calshott Castle, 36; Extract from Holy-Rood Church Register on the Frost of 1683-4, _ib._; Ichen Ferry, 37; Marchwood, _ib._; Millbrook point, _ib._; Redbridge, _ib._

Stows’ _Annals_, quoted, 8; _Chronicle_, quoted, 4, 6, 7.

Sweden, 69.

Swinney, Peg, 78.

Thamasis’s _Advice to a Painter_, quoted 20.

_Thames, A View of the, from Rotherhithe Stairs during the frost in 1789_, 58.

Timbs’s _Curiosities of London_, quoted, 40; on the Frost of 1739-40, 48; on the Frost of 1811, 60.

_Times, The_, on the Frost at Boston, Notts., 80.

Trent, River, Playing Foot-ball on, in 1634, 13.

Tweed, River, Dinner given upon, in 1814, 73, 74.

Tyne, River, 75-77; Frost Fair of 1814, 75; a Ballad on the Fair, 76-78.

Ubley, Frost of 1683, Extract from Parochial Register on, 37.

Ure, River, Frozen in 1855, 79.

Uxbridge, 61.

_View of the Booths, and all the Variety of Shows &c._, 44.

Wales, slight frost of, 1763, 52.

Wales, Prince of, Visits the Frost Fair of 1715-16, 42.

Walford, C., _Insurance Cyclopædia_, quoted, 3.

⸺ Edward, M. A., _Old and New London_, quoted, 13.

Wallingford, 79.

Walton, Near Claremont, 79.

Waltor, Robt., Bookseller at the Globe, 32.

Warter, Wm. Stationer, at the “Talbott,” 21.

Wellington, Coach, Lord, from London to Newcastle, 76.

Weltjie, Mr., Clerk of the Cellars to the Prince of Wales, 55.

White’s _Natural Hist. of Selborne_, on the Frost of 1768, 52-53.

William the Conqueror, 3.

_Winter Wonder, A, or the Thames Frozen over with Remarks on the Resort there, a broadside_, 32.

_Wonderfull Fair, A, or a Fair of Wonders_, 1684, quoted, 39.

_Wonders of the Deep_, a Broadside, 34-36.

Wrington, 37.

York, 12; Flood of 1614, 12; Horse Race run upon the Ouse at, 10; Printing done upon the Ouse at, 49; Walmgate, 12.

York, James, Duke of, 19.

Yorkshire, Ecclesfield Parish Register, Extract from, 9; River Ouse Frozen in 1607, 10; again 1614, 12; Overflow of, 12; Ouse Bridge borne away in 1564-65, 8; Tadcaster Church Bells moulded during the frost of 1783, 54.

CHARLES H. BARNWELL, PRINTER, BOND STREET, HULL.