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FROSTS, AND FROST FAIRS, UPON THE

RIVER THAMES.

WITHIN the last eight hundred years several instances are recorded in our history of frosts so severe as to render the surface of the Thames, at London, one immoveable mass of ice; the last of them occurred within the memory of the present generation. Upon these occasions the river has been the scene of diversions and amusements, remarkable indeed, not so much in themselves, as from the nature of the place in which they were practised.

As early as 1092, in the reign of William Rufus, is recorded a frost "whereby," in the words of an old chronicler, "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 broken up, and carried away." In 1281, is mentioned another frost and snow" such as no man living could remember the like;" five arches of London-bridge were on this occasion "borne downe and carried away with the streame."

were

The winter of 1564-5 was remarkable for a very severe frost which began on the 21st of December, and according to Holinshed continued to such an extremity, that on New Year's Eve "people went over and alongst the Thames on the ise from Londonbridge to Westminster."

Some plaied at the football as boldlie there as if it had beene on the drie land; diverse 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 fift 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."

The next remarkable frost recorded is that of 1608. It begun on the 8th of December, and continued until the 15th; a thaw then ensued until the 22nd, when 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, many people went quite over the Thames in divers places, and so continued until the 3rd of January."

The people passed daily betweene London and the Bankside at every halfe ebbe, for the floud removed the ice and forced the people daily to tread new paths, except onely 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, until 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, there were many that set up boothes and standings upon the ice, as fruit-sellers, victuallers, that sold beere and wine, shoomakers, and a barber's tent, &c."

In these tents were fires. The ice lasted till the afternoon of the 2nd of February, when "it was quite dissolved and clean gon."

Evelyn, however, who was an eye-witness of this scene, furnishes the following extraordinary account of it in his Diary, of January the 24th.

The frost continuing more and more severe, the Thames before London was still planted with boothes in formal streetes, all sortes of trades and shopes furnish'd, and ful 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_universally, that 'twas estimated the printer gain'd 57. a day, for printing a line onely, at sixpence a name, besides what he got by ballads, &c. Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other staires to and fro, as in the streetes; sleds, sliding with skertes, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet-plays, and interludes, cookes, tipling, and other places, so that it seem'd to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the

water.

Upon this occasion king Charles the Second, his queen, and several other personages of the Royal Family visited the diversions upon the ice; and even had their names printed on the ice in conformity with the "humour" which Evelyn mentions as so prevalent. There is still in existence one of the very papers on which the king and his royal companions had their names printed; and we need hardly say that among collectors of the curious, it is regarded as an invaluable rarity. It contains the names of "Charles, king;" his brother "James, duke" (of York) afterwards James II.; "Katherine Queen" the Infante of Portugal; "Mary, Dutchess;"" Mary D'Este, sister of the duke of Modena, and second wife of James; "Ann, Princesse," second daughter of the duke of York, afterwards Queen Anne; and "George, Prince" of Denmark, her husband. The king's visit is thus noticed in a small poem printed on the river, entitled Thamasis's Advice to the Painter from her Frigid Zone, or Wonders upon the Water.

Then draw the King, who on his Leads doth stay, To see the Throng as on a Lord Mayor's day; And thus unto his Nobles pleas'd to say; With these Men on this Ice, I'de undertake To cause the Turk all Europe to forsake: An army of these Men, arm'd and compleat, Would soon the Turk in Christendom defeat! The same poem contains the following advice to its readers :

to the Print-house go

Where Men the Art of Printing soon do know: Where for a Teuster 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 dround! In 1709 the Thames was again frozen over at intervals, and some persons crossed on the ice, but the frost was not sufficiently permanent to allow another Frost Fair. But in 1715-6 all the sports of 1683 were renewed, the frost beginning at the end of November, and lasting till the 9th of February following.

Our engraving represents a view of the memorable Frost Fair on the Thames in the Winter of 1739–40, the most severe which had occurred since the year 1716. In the beginning of it, the houses then stand

In the winter of 1683-4 the festivities of a frosting on London Bridge received considerable damage fair were again witnessed on the Thames at London. The frost commenced in the beginning of December, and lasted until the 5th of February. The river was congealed to that degree, that another city, as it were, was created thereon; where, by the great number of streets, and shops, with their rich furniture, it represented a great fair, with a great variety of carriages, and diversions of all sorts; and near Whitehall, a whole ox was roasted on the ice."

from the many vessels which broke from their moorings and lay beating against them. On the 31st of December, it was announced in one of the newspapers that "all the watermen above the bridge have hauled their boats on shore, the Thames being very nigh frozen over." The "rocks" and "shoals" of ice which for some time floated on the river, became at length united into one solid mass, and represented "a snowy field everywhere rising in masses and hills of ice and

snow."

Tents and printing-presses were speedily erected, and a complete Frost Fair was once more established; but some persons lost their lives in walking over the river. Among the productions of the press upon this occasion, were the following lines "Printed on the Ice upon the Thames at Queenhithe, January the 29th, 1739-40."

Behold the liquid THAMES now frozen o'er
That lately SHIPS of mighty burden bore.

Here you may PRINT your name tho' cannot write
'Cause numb'd with cold: 'Tis done with great delight.
And lay it by; That AGES yet to come

May see what THINGS upon the ICE were done.

In one of the newspapers for the 2nd of January, it was announced that

Several vintners in the Strand bought a large ox in Smithfield on Monday last, which is to be roasted whole on the ice on the River of Thames, if the frost continues.

Mr. Hodgeson, a butcher in St. James's Market, claims the privilege of selling, or knocking down, the beast, as a right inherent in his family, his father having knocked down the ox roasted on the river, in the great Frost, 1684; as himself did that roasted in 1715, near Hungerford-stairs. The beast is to be fixed to a stake in the open market, and Mr. Hodgeson comes dressed in a rich laced cambric apron, a silver steel, and a hat and feathers to perform the office. The breaking up of this famous frost was attended with some amusing scenes; it is thus noticed in a newspaper of January 22nd:

Yesterday morning the inhabitants of the west prospect of the bridge were presented with a very odd scene; for, on the opening of their windows there appeared underneath, on the river, a parcel of booths, shops, and huts, of different forms, and without any inhabitants, which, it seems, by the swell of the waters, and the ice separating, had been brought down from above. As no lives were lost, it might be viewed without horror. Here stood a booth with trinkets, there a hut with a dram of old gold; in another place, a skittle-frame and pins, and in a fourth "the Noble Art and Mystery of Printing, by a servant to one of the greatest trading companies in Europe." With much difficulty last night, they had removed the most valuable effects.

In 1768 another remarkable frost took place, and in 1785 another, which lasted for one hundred and fifteen days. In 1789 the Thames was again frozen over, and a Fair held on the ice, several booths being erected on the 9th of January. Passages across the ice, strewed with ashes, were formed at Gun-dock, Execution-dock, &c., and these parts seem to have constituted the principal scenes of attraction.

No sooner, (says a contemporary chronicle,) had the Thames acquired a sufficient consistency, than booths, turn-abouts, &c. &c., were erected; the puppet-shows, wild beasts, &c., were transported from every adjacent village; whilst the watermen, that they might draw their usual resources from the water, broke in the ice close to the shore, and erected bridges, with toll-bars, to make every passenger pay a halfpenny for getting to the ice. One of the suttling-booths has for its sign, "Beer, Wine, and Spirituous Liquors, without a License." A man who sells hot gingerbread, has a board, on which is written, "no shoptax nor window duty." All the adventurers contend, in these short sentences, for the preference of the company, and the Thames is in general crowded.

Another specimen of the humour exhibited at this place, was contained in the following 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 the final settlement of the whole intrusted to Mr. Thaw." On Wednesday, January the 7th, a large pig was roasted on one of the principal roads; and on Monday, the 12th, a young bear was hunted on the ice, near Rotherhithe. As usual, too, a printing-press was erected near the

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same spot; the following is one of the Bills printed. on the ice, at the Thames Printing Office, opposite St. Catherine's Stairs :"

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.

The frost was severely felt to a great distance down the river; the East India ships were hastily sent down to Gravesend, to which place, and even below it, large shoals of ice had floated. The navigation of boats was entirely stopped, and it was supposed that the river would soon be completely impassable from London Bridge to Woolwich. Every morning at London Bridge, vast quantities of boiling water were poured on the water-works before the wheels could be set in motion; and twenty-five horses were daily employed in removing the ice which surrounded them. At Blackfriars, the masses of floating ice were said to be eighteen feet in thickness; the surface of the river in some places was "smooth for a rough and mountainous" mile or two," and then “ from the bodies of frozen snow. Putney and Fulham, " from the morning dawn till the dusk of returning evening, were a scene of festivity and gaiety."

The thaw which followed this frost was rapid. It had been for some time expected, and at length it commenced with some rain about two o'clock on

Tuesday, January the 13th; and before night, the streets were almost overflowed.

Perhaps, (says a newspaper of the time,) the breaking up of the Fair upon the Thames last Tuesday night below bridge, exceeded every idea that could be formed of it, as it was not until after the dusk of the evening, that the busy crowd was persuaded of the approach of a thaw. This, however,, with the cracking of some ice about eight o'clock, made the whole a scene of the most perfect confusion; as men, beasts, booths, turn-abouts, puppet-shows, &c. &c., were all in motion, and pouring towards the shore on each side. The confluence here was so sudden and impetuous, that the watermen who had formed the toll-bars over the sides of the river, where they had broken the ice for that purpose, not being able to maintain their standard from this crowd, &c., pulled up the boards, by which a number of persons who could not leap, or were borne down by the press, were soused up to the middle. The difficulty of landing at the Tower-stairs was extreme, until near ten o'clock, occasioned by the crowding of the people from the shore, who were attracted by the confusion on the water. The inconvenience to the shipping is now increased more than ever, since the setting in of the frost, as no persons will venture upon the ice to fetch or carry anything for them, and it is not yet sufficiently disunited for a boat to live.

The last Frost Fair upon the River Thames at London, was held in the beginning of the year 1814. The frost commenced on the evening of the 27th of December preceding, with a thick fog which lasted for several days, and was suceeded by a remarkably heavy fall of snow, which continued for nearly two days with slight intermissions. The cold became intense, the wind blowing almost constantly from the north and north-east; the river was covered with vast fragments of ice and hardened snow, which floated along with the tide, and sometimes united to form a hard and fixed mass. After this frost had lasted for a whole month, a thaw of four days, from the 26th to the 29th of January, took place; and so large a quantity of ice was floated down in detached pieces, that the river between Blackfriars and London Bridges, became almost impassable. But this thaw was succeeded by a renewal of the frost, so severe, that the Thames very soon became one immoveable sheet of ice; and even on Sunday, the 30th, was crossed by some venturous persons on foot in different parts. On Tuesday, the 1st of February, the usual entries were formed by the unemployed water

men, particularly between Blackfriars Bridge and Three Cranes Wharf; and notices were posted in the streets leading thereto, announcing a safe footway over the river. It is said that many of the watermen received six pounds in the day by the toll which they took from persons passing over their little bridges, from the edge of the river to the firm ice.

The standing amusements of an English Frost Fair now commenced, (says Mr. Richard Thomson in his Chronicles of London Bridge,) and many cheerfully paid to see and partake of that upon the frozen Thames, which at any other time they would not have deigned to look upon. Beside the roughly-formed paths paved with ashes, leading from shore to shore, there was a street of tents called the "City Road," in which gay flags, inviting signs, music and dancing, evinced what excellent entertainment was to be found there. That ancient wonder, peculiar to the place, the roasting of a small sheep over a fire, was exhibited to many a sixpenny audience, while the provision itself, under the name of "Lapland Mutton," sold for one shilling a slice! Several printing-presses were also erected to furnish memorials of the Frost in old verse and new prose.

Some of these papers are amusing; especially those which apostrophize the Printing-press in its novel situation :

You that walk here, and do design to tell Your children's children what this year befell Come buy this print, and then it will be seen, That such a year as this hath seldom been. The logical precision of the inference in the last two lines of this effusion, is not more curious than the following grandiloquent burst of panegyric upon

the Press.

OMNIPOTENT PRESS! Tyrant Winter has enchained the noblest torrent that flows to the main; but Summer will return and set the captive free. So may tyranny for a time "freeze the genial current of the soul;" but a Free Press, like the great source of light and heat, will, ere long, dissolve tyranny of the mightiest. Greatest of the arts! What do we not owe to thee? The knowledge which directs industry, the liberty which encourages it, the security which protects it, and of industry how precious are the fruits! Glowing and hardy temperaments, which defy the vicissitudes of seasons, and comfortable homes which make you regret not the gloom that is abroad. But for Industry, but for Painting, you might now have been con

tent, like the Russ and Laplander, to bury yourselves under that snow over which you now tread with mirth and glee. Printed on the River Thames, and in commemoration of a great fair held upon it on the 31st of January, 1814, when it was completely frozen over from shore to shore. The frost commenced the 27th of December, 1813, and was accompanied by a thick fog that lasted eight days; and after the fog, came a heavy fall of snow, that prevented the country for several days. all communication with the northern and western parts of

Another bill upon the same subject, containing fewer reflections and more humour, promises that the press shall be kept going" in the true spirit of liberty,"-if the public buy impressions.

Friends! Now is your time to support the freedom of the Press! Can the Press have greater liberty? Here you find it working on the middle of the Thames; and if you encourage us by buying our impressions, we will keep it going in the true spirit of liberty during the frost. One of the last papers printed on the river ran thus :TO MADAM TABITHA THAW.]

Dear Dissolving Dame.

FATHER FROST and SISTER SNOW have bonyed my borders, formed an idol of ice upon my bosom, and all the LADS OF LONDON come to make merry; now, as you love mischief, treat the multitude with a few CRACKS by a sudden visit, and obtain the prayers of the poor upon both banks.

Given at my own Press, the 5th of February 1814. THOMAS THAMES. Upon the evening of the very day on which this invocation was printed, "Madam Tabitha Thaw," suddenly made her appearance with a fall of rain; the ice cracked and floated in several places, and about two o'clock on the following day, the tide, which during the frost had apparently not risen above half its usual height, began to flow very rapidly. The river was covered with detached masses of ice, and

every vestige of this last Frost-Fair speedily disappeared.

The features of this British Carnival (said Mr. Thomson a few years ago,) are in the memories of the greater part of the present generation; though if it were otherwise, the representations of it are few and scarce, and generally very

inferior.

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LONDON: Published by JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND; and sold by all Booksellers.

THE

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17TH, 1838.

QUEEN ELIZABETH; HER PROGRESSES AND PUBLIC PROCESSIONS.

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PART THE THIRD.

EDUCATION OF ELIZABETH-HER LITERARY
ATTAINMENTS-HER PORTRAIT.

THE Princess Elizabeth, in common with her brother Edward and her sister Mary, received an excellent education; for this she was much indebted to her step-mother Catherine Parr, the last queen of Henry the Eighth. Her instruction was not confined even to what may be called the ordinary learning of the age; for it embraced the Greek language, which, though rapidly rising into cultivation, had not then become an object of general study. Her first master of the learned languages was William Grindal, a pupil of the eminent Roger Ascham; and in 1548, upon Grindal's death, Ascham himself was called to court VOL. XII

to take his place. He had previously been employed in teaching Elizabeth, her brother Edward, and many other illustrious personages, the art " of writing a fair hand," an art in which he had attained great excellence, and in which, excellence was then highly valued on account of its rarity.

We have, from the pen of Ascham, a very interesting account of the course of study through which he led his illustrious pupil, and of the proficiency which she attained in learning; together with some remarks upon her manners and character at that early period of her life. It is contained in a letter which he wrote to a learned friend in the year 1550:

Never (he says), was the nobility of England more lettered than at present. Our illustrious King Edward, in

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talent, industry, perseverance, and erudition, surpasses both his own years and the belief of men. ...... Numberless honourable ladies of the present time, surpass the daughters of Sir Thomas More in every kind of learning. But amongst them all, my illustrious mistress, the lady Elizabeth, shines like a star, excelling them more by the splendour of her virtues and her learning than by the glory of her royal birth. In the variety of her commendable qualities I am less perplexed to find matter for the highest panegyric than to circumscribe that panegyric within just bounds. Yet I shall mention nothing respecting her but what has come under my own observation. For two years she pursued the study of Greek and Latin under my tuition; but the foundations of her knowledge in both languages were laid by the dilgent instruction of William Grindal, my late beloved friend, and seven years my pupil at Cambridge.

The lady Elizabeth has completed her sixteenth year; and so much solidity of understanding, such courtesy united with dignity, have never been observed at so early an age. She has the most ardent love of true religion, and of the best kind of literature. The constitution of her mind is exempt from female weakness, and she is endued with a masculine power of application. No apprehension can be quicker than hers, no memory more retentive. French and Latin she speaks like English; Latin with fluency, and judgment; she also spoke Greek with me frequently, and moderately well. Nothing can be more elegant than her handwriting, whether in the Greek or Roman character. In, music she is very skilful, but does not greatly delight.

He then gives an account of the different writings which were the object of her study under his tuition. She read with me almost the whole of Cicero, and a great part of Livy: from these two authors, indeed, her knowledge of the Latin language has been almost exclusively derived. The beginning of the day was always devoted by her to the New Testament in Greek, after which she read select orations of Isocrates and the tragedies of Sophocles, which I judged best adapted to supply her tongue with the purest diction, her mind with the most excellent precepts, and her exalted station with a defence against the utmost power of fortune. For her religious instruction she drew first from the fountains of Scripture, and afterwards from St. Cyprian, the Common Places of Melancthon, and similar works which convey pure doctrine in elegant language. In every kind of writing she easily detected any ill-adapted or far-fetched expression. She could not bear those feeble imitators of Erasmus who bind the Latin language in the fetters of miserable proverbs; on the other hand, she approved a style chaste in its propriety and beautiful by perspicuity, and she greatly admired metaphors when not too violent, and antitheses when just and happily opposed. By a diligent attention to these particulars, her ears became so practised and so nice, that there was nothing in Greek, Latin, or English, prose or verse, which, according to its merits or defects, she did not either reject with disgust or receive with the highest delight.

Ascham's employment as tutor to the Princess Elizabeth lasted only two years, at the expiration of which he left her a little abruptly, in consequence of a distaste which he had taken to some persons in her household. "Of this precipitation," says Dr. Johnson, "he long repented; and as those who are not accustomed to disrespect cannot easily forgive it, he probably felt the effects of his imprudence to his death." He was restored, however, before long, to the favour of Elizabeth; and when she ascended the throne, he was appointed to the offices of secretary for the Latin tongue, and likewise tutor to her Majesty in the learned languages. In this latter capacity he was in the habit of constantly reading with her. In his Scholemaster, he says,

After dinner (at Windsor Castle, on the 10th of December, 1568), I went up to read with the Queen's Majesty; we read there together in the Greek tongue, as I well remember that noble oration of Demosthenes against Eschines, for his false dealing in his embassage to Philip of Macedon.

Elizabeth retained a great regard for her tutor to the last; and when she heard of his death she is said to have exclaimed, that "she would rather have thrown ten thousand pounds into the sea than have

lost her Ascham," an opinion which, considering her economical disposition, must be taken to express a very high estimate of his merits. Of the extent to which she profited by his instructions, and of the proficiency which she long retained in the Latin tongue, a memorable illustration was afforded when the Polish Envoy, whom she received in great state, addressed her in a Latin speech, and poured forth, in his master's name, a string of complaints instead of compliments-which caused the Queen, in her own phrase, to "scour up her old Latin which had so long lain rusting," to rebuke the "malapert orator," an operation which she performed, according to the testimony of persons present, with great effect.

Elizabeth's studious turn of mind, probably contributed much to that peculiar regard which her brother Edward felt for her, and which she reciprocated. cated. "In tastes, feelings, pursuits, and religion," to use the words of Mr. Sharon Turner, "there was that congeniality of mind which most strongly attracts and perpetuates reciprocal affection."

Under Edward the Sixth, (says Sir Robert Naunton,) she was his, and one of the darlings of fortune, for besides the consideration of blood, there was between these two princes, a concurrence and sympathy of their natures and affections, together with the cœlestial bond (confirmative religion) which made them one; for the king never called her by any other appellation but his sweetest and dearest sister, and was scarce his own man she being absent; which was not so betweene him and the Lady Mary.

Camden tells us that she was in great grace and favour with her brother King Edward, "who called her by no other name than his Sweet Sister Temperance," as likewise in singular esteem with the nobility and people. "For she was of admirable beauty and well deserving a crown, of a modest gravity, excellent wit, royal soul, happy memory, and indefatigably given to the study of learning."

She wrote frequently to Edward; and though not many years older than himself, "strove to exhibit in her style some of the elaborate but least natural embellishments of literary composition." His affection for her led him to desire her portrait, though with the delicacy of inquiring if he might make the request; and she took some trouble to accompany it

with the "artificial flowers of rhetorical diction." Her letter is an interesting specimen of her style :—

Like as the richeman that dayly gathereth riches to riches, and to one bag of money layeth a greate sort til it come to infinit, so methinks your Majestie, not beinge suffised withe many benefits and gentilnes shewed to me afore this time, dothe now increase them in askinge and desiring wher you may bid and commande, requiring a thinge not worthy the desiringe for it selfe, but made worthy for your Highnes request. My pictur I mene, in wiche if the inward good mynde towarde your grace migth as wel be declared as the outwarde face and countenaunce shal be seen, I wold nor have taried the commandement, but preuent [prevented] it, nor have bine the last to graunt, but the first to offer it. For the face I graunt I might wel blusche to offer, but the mynde I shal never be ashamed to present. For thogth from the grace of the pictur the coulers may fade by time, may give by weather, may be spotted by chance; yet the other nor time with her swift winges shal ouertake, nor the mistie cloudes with ther loweringes may darken, nor chance with her slipery fote may overthrow. Of this althogth yet the profe coulde not be greate because the occasions hath bine but smal, notwithstandinge as a dog hathe a day, so may I perchaunce have time to declare it in dides wher now I do write them but in wordes. And further I shal most humbly beseche your Maiestie that when you shal loke on my pictur you wil witsafe [vouchsafe] to thinke that as you have but the outwarde shadow of the body afore you, so my inward minde wischeth that the body it selfe wer oftner in your presence; howbeit bicause bothe my so beinge I thinke coulde do your Maiestie litel pleasur thogth my selfe great good; and againe bicause I se as yet not the time agreing therunto, I shal lerne to folow this

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