



Produced by deaurider and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)










FAMOUS FROSTS AND FROST FAIRS.

_Number 389_

_Of Four-Hundred Copies printed._




[Illustration: 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.




[Illustration]

Famous Frosts and Frost Fairs in Great Britain.


[Sidenote: A.D.]

[Sidenote: 134]

Thames frozen over for two months.

[Sidenote: 153]

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

[Sidenote: 173]

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

[Sidenote: 220]

A continuous frost of five months in Britain.

[Sidenote: 250]

Thames frozen for nine weeks.

[Sidenote: 290-91]

Severe frost lasted six weeks. English rivers frozen.

[Sidenote: 359]

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

[Sidenote: 474]

Four months’ frost, and great snow.

[Sidenote: 507-8]

Frost lasted two months: rivers frozen.

[Sidenote: 525]

Thames frozen for six weeks.

[Sidenote: 604]

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

[Sidenote: 670]

“A fatal frost.”--SHORT.

[Sidenote: 695]

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

[Sidenote: 759-60]

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

[Sidenote: 821]

Great frost after two or three weeks’ rain.

[Sidenote: 827]

Thames frozen for nine weeks.

[Sidenote: 908]

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

[Sidenote: 923]

Thames frozen for thirteen weeks.

[Sidenote: 962]

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

[Sidenote: 975]

Severe frost.

[Sidenote: 987]

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

[Sidenote: 998]

Thames frozen for five weeks.

[Sidenote: 1020]

Very severe frost.

[Sidenote: 1035]

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

[Sidenote: 1059]

Great frost, followed by a severe plague and famine.

[Sidenote: 1061]

Thames frozen for seven weeks.

[Sidenote: 1063]

Fourteen weeks’ frost: Thames frozen.

[Sidenote: 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.”

[Sidenote: 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.”

[Sidenote: 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.”

[Sidenote: 1095-99]

Very severe winters.

[Sidenote: 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.”

[Sidenote: 1121-22]

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

[Sidenote: 1128]

Very severe frost.

[Sidenote: 1149-50]

Frost lasted from 10th December to 19th February.

[Sidenote: 1154]

A great frost.

[Sidenote: 1176]

A frost lasted from Christmas to Candlemas.

[Sidenote: 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.”

[Sidenote: 1207]

Fifteen weeks’ frost.

[Sidenote: 1209]

A long and hard winter followed by dearth.

[Sidenote: 1221]

Severe frost.

[Sidenote: 1226]

Severe frost and snow.

[Sidenote: 1233]

Frost lasted until Candlemas.

[Sidenote: 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.”

[Sidenote: 1241]

A great frost after a heavy fall of snow.

[Sidenote: 1250]

Very severe frost.

[Sidenote: 1254]

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

[Sidenote: 1263]

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

[Sidenote: 1269]

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

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 1288]

Great frost and snow.

[Siden