FAMOUS FROSTS AND FROST FAIRS.
Number 389
Of Four-Hundred Copiesprinted.
FROST FAIR ON THE RIVER THAMES, IN 1814.
FAMOUS FROSTS
AND
FROST FAIRS
IN
GREAT BRITAIN.
Chronicled from the Earliest tothe 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 remarkablefrosts occurring in this country from the earliest period inour Annals to the present time. In many instances, I have givenparticulars as presented by contemporary writers of the scenes andcircumstances described.
In the compilation of this Chronology, several hundred books,magazines, and newspapers, have been consulted, and a complete listwould fill several pages. I must not, however, omit to state that Ihave derived much valuable information from a scarce book printedon the Ice of the River Thames, in the year 1814, and published underthe title of “Frostiana.” I have gleaned information from the lateMr. Cornelius Walford’s “Famines of the World,” which includes acarefully prepared summary of “The Great Frosts of History.”Some of the poems in my pages, bibliographical notes and facts, areculled from Dr. Rimbault’s “Old Ballads Illustrating the Great Frostof 1683-4,” issued by the Percy Society. It will be also observedthat I have drawn curious information from Parish Registers and oldParish Accounts.
Several ladies and gentlemen have rendered me great assistance,and amongst the number must be named, with gratitude, Mrs. GeorgeLinnæus 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 ofthe Western Antiquary; Mr. W. G. B. Page, of the Hull Subscription[viii]Library; Mr. Frederick Ross, F.R.H.S., and Mr. Ernest E. Baker, editorof the “Somersetshire Reprints.” Mr. E. H. Coleman kindly preparedfor me a long list of books and magazines containing articleson this subject. I have to thank Mr. Mason Jackson, the author of“The Pictorial Press,” for kindly presenting to me the quaint cutwhich appears on page 29 of my work.
In 1881, the greater part of the matter contained in this bookappeared in the Bradford Times, a well-conducted journal, under theable editorship of Mr. W. H. Hatton, F.R.H.S. The articles attractedmore than local attention, and I was pressed to reproduce them in avolume, but owing to various ci