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and numerous pieces commemorative of the " great frost" were printed on the ice. Some of these frosty typographers displayed considerable taste in their specimens. At one of the presses, an orangecoloured standard was hoisted, with the watch-word" ORANGE BOVEN," in large characters. This was in allusion to the recent restoration of the stadtholder to the government of Holland, which had been for several years under the dominion of the French. From this press the following papers were issued.

"FROST FAIR.

Friday, Feb. 4. Each day brought a fresh accession of "pedlars to sell their wares;" and the greatest rubbish of all sorts was raked up and sold at double and treble the original cost. Books and toys, labelled "bought on the Thames," were in profusion. The watermen profited exceedingly, for each person paid a toll of twopence or threepence before he was admitted to "Frost Fair;" some douceur was expected on the return. Some of them were said to have taken six pounds each in the course of a day.

This afternoon, about five o'clock, three

"Amidst the arts which on the THAMES ap. persons, an old man and two lads, were

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fell,

Come, buy this print, and it will then be seen That such a year as this has seldom been." Another of these stainers of paper addressed the spectators in the following terms: 66 Friends, now is your time to support the freedom of the press. Can the press have greater liberty? here you find it working in 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 articles printed and sold contained the following lines: "Behold, the river Thames is frozen o'er, Which lately ships of mighty burden bore ; Now different arts and pastimes here you see, But printing claims the superiority."

The Lord's prayer and several other pieces were issued from these icy printing offices, and bought with the greatest avidity.

On Thursday, Feb. 3, the number of adventurers increased. Swings, book stalls, dancing in a barge, suttling-booths, playing at skittles, and almost every appendage of a fair on land, appeared now on the Thames. Thousands flocked to this singular spectacle of sports and pastimes. The ice seemed to be a solid rock, and presented a truly picturesque appearance. The view of St. Paul's and of the city with the white foreground had a very singular effect;-in many parts, mountains of ice upheaved resembled the rude interior of a stone quarry,

on a piece of ice above London-bridge, which suddenly detached itself from the main body, and was carried by the tide through one of the arches. They laid themselves down for safety, and the boatmen at Billingsgate, put off to their assistance, and rescued them from their impending danger. One of them was able to walk, but the other two were carried, in a state of insensibility, to a publichouse, where they received every attention their situation required.

at night, and the effect by moonlight was Many persons were on the ice till late singularly novel and beautiful. The bo

som of the Thames seemed to rival the

frozen climes of the north.

unfavourably for Saturday, Feb. 5. This morning augured the continuance of "FROST FAIR." The wind had veered

to the south, and there was a light fall of snow. The visitors, however, were not to be deterred by trifles. Thousands again ventured, and there was still much life and bustle on the frozen element; the footpath in the centre of the river was hard and secure, and among the pedestrians were four donkies; they trotted a nimble pace, and produced considerable merriment. At every glance, there was a novelty of some kind or other. Gaming was carried on in all its branches. Many of the itinerant admirers of the profits gained by E O Tables, Rouge et Noir, Te-totum, wheel of fortune, the garter, &c. were industrious in their avocations, and some of their customers left the lures without a penny to pay the passage over a plank to the shore. Skittles was played by several parties, and the drinking tents were filled by females and their companions, dancing reels to the sound of fiddles, while others sat round large fires, drinking rum, grog, and other spirits. Tea, coffee, and eatables, were provided

in abundance, and passengers were invited to eat by way of recording their visit. Several tradesmen, who at other times were deemed respectable, attended with their wares, and sold books, toys, and trinkets of almost every description.

Towards the evening, the concourse thinned; rain began to fall, and the ice to crack, and on a sudden it floated with the printing presses, booths, and merrymakers, to the no small dismay of publicans, typographers, shopkeepers, and sojourners.

A short time previous to the general dissolution, a person near one of the printing presses, handed the following jeu d'esprit to its conductor; requesting that it might be printed on the Thames.

To Madam Tabitha Thaw. "Dear dissolving dame, "FATHER FROST and SISTER SNOW have Boneyed 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 Feb. 1814. THOMAS THAMES."

The thaw advanced more rapidly than indiscretion and heedlessness retreated.

Two genteel-looking young men ventured on the ice above Westminster Bridge, notwithstanding the warnings of the watermen. A large mass on which they stood, and which had been loosened by the flood tide, gave way, and they floated down the stream. As they passed under Westminster Bridge they cried piteously for help. They had not gone far before they sat down, near the edge; this overbalanced the mass, they were precipitated into the flood, and overwhelmed for ever.

A publican named Lawrence, of the Feathers, in High Timber-street, Queenhithe, erected a booth on the Thames opposite Brook's-wharf, for the accommodation of the curious. At nine at night he left it in the care of two men, taking away all the liquors, except some gin, which he gave them for their own use.

Sunday, Feb. 6. At two o'clock this morning, the tide began to flow with great rapidity at London Bridge; the thaw assisted the efforts of the tide, and the booth last mentioned was violently hurried towards Blackfriars Bridge. There

were nine men in it, but in their alarm they neglected the fire and candles, which communicating with the covering, set it in a flame. They succeeded in getting into a lighter which had broken from its moorings. In this vessel they were wrecked, for it was dashed to pieces against one of the piers of Blackfriars Bridge: seven of them got on the pier and were taken off safely; the other two got into a barge while passing Puddledock.

On this day, the Thames towards high tide (about 3 p. m.) presented a miniature idea of the Frozen Ocean; the masses of ice floating along, added to the great height of the water, formed a striking scene for contemplation. Thousands of disappointed persons thronged the banks; and many a 'prentice, and servant maid, "sighed unutterable things," at the sudden and unlooked for destruction of "FROST FAIR."

Monday, Feb. 7. Immense fragments of ice yet floated, and numerous lighters, broken from their moorings, drifted in different parts of the river; many of them

were complete wrecks. The frozen element soon attained its wonted fluidity, and old Father Thames looked as cheerful and as busy as ever.

The severest English winter, however astonishing to ourselves, presents no views comparable to the winter scenery of more northern countries. A philosopher and poet of our own days, who has been also a traveller, beautifully describes a lake in Germany:

Christmas out of doors at Ratzburg.

By S. T. COLERIDGE, Esq

The whole lake is at this time one mass of thick transparent ice, a spotless mirror of nine miles in extent! The lowness of the hills, which rise from the shores of the lake, preclude the awful sublimity of Alpine scenery, yet compensate for the want of it, by beauties of which this very lowness is a necessary condition. Yesterday I saw the lesser lake completely hidden by mist; but the moment the sun peeped over the hill, the mist broke in the middle, and in a few seconds stood divided, leaving a broad road all across the lake; and between these two walls of mist the sunlight burnt upon the ice, forming a road of golden fire, intolerably bright! and the mist walls themselves partook of

the blaze in a multitude of shining colours. This is our second post. About a month ago, before the thaw came on, there was a storm of wind; during the whole night, such were the thunders and howlings of the breaking ice, that they have left a conviction on my mind, that there are sounds more sublime than any sight can be, more absolutely suspending the power of comparison, and more utterly absorbing the mind's self-consciousness in its total attention to the object working upon it Part of the ice, which the vehemence of the wind had shattered, was driven shoreward, and froze anew. On the evening of the next day at sunset, the shattered ice thus frozen appeared of a deep blue, and in shape like an agitated sea; beyond this, the water that ran up between the great islands of ice which had preserved their masses entire and smooth, shone of a yellow green; but all these scattered ice islands themselves were of an intensely bright blood colour-they seemed blood and light in union! On some of the largest of these islands, the fishermen stood pulling out their immense nets through the holes made in the ice for this purpose, and the men, their net poles, and their huge nets, were a part of the glory-say rather, it appeared as if the rich crimson light had shaped itself into these forms, figures, and attitudes, to make a glorious vision in mockery of earthly things.

The lower lake is now all alive with skaters and with ladies driven onward by them in their ice cars. Mercury surely was the first maker of skates, and the wings at his feet are symbols of the invention. In skating, there are three pleasing circumstances-the infinitely subtle particles of ice which the skaters cut up, and which creep and run before the skate like a low mist and in sunrise or sunset become coloured; second, the shadow of the skater in the water, seen through the transparent ice; and third, the melancholy undulating sound from the skate not without variety; and when very many are skating together, the sounds and the noises give an impulse to the icy trees, and the woods all round the lake trinkle.

In the frosty season when the sun Was set, and visible for many a mile, The cottage windows through the twilight blazed,

I heeded not the summons ;-happy time

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The orange sky of evening died away.

Not seldom from the uproar I retired
Into a silent bay, or sportively
Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous
throng

To cut across the image of a star
That gleamed upon the ice; and oftentimes
Where we had given our bodies to the wind,
And all the shadowy banks on either side
Came sweeping through the darkness, shun-
ning still

The rapid line of motion, then at once
Have I, reclining back upon my heels,
Stopped short; yet still the solitary cliffs
Wheeled by me even as if the earth had

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The earliest notice of skating in England is obtained from the earliest description of London. Its historian relates that," when the great fenne or moore (which watereth the walles of the citie on the north side) is frozen, many young men play upon the yce." Happily, and probably for want of a term to call it by, he describes so much of this pastime in Moorfields, as acquaints us with their mode of skating: "Some," he says, "stryding as wide as they may, doe slide swiftly," this then is sliding; but he proceeds to tell us, that "some tye bones to

their feete, and under their heeles, and
shoving themselves by a little picked
staffe doe slide as swiftly as a birde flyeth
in the air, or an arrow out of a crosse-
bow."*
Here, although the implements
were rude, we have skaters; and it seems
that one of their sports was for two to
start a great way off opposite to each
other, and when they met, to lift their
poles and strike each other, when one or
both fell, and were carried to a distance
from each other by the celerity of their
motion. Of the present wooden skates,
shod with iron, there is no doubt, we ob-
tained a knowledge from Holland.

The icelanders also used the shankbone of a deer or sheep about a foot long, which they greased, because they should not be stopped by drops of water upon them.+

It is asserted in the "Encyclopædia Britannica," that Edinburgh produced more instances of elegant skaters than perhaps any other country, and that the institution of a skating club there contributed to its improvement. "I have however seen, some years back," says Mr. Strutt," when the Serpentine river was frozen over, four gentlemen there dance, if I may be allowed the expression, a double minuet in skates with as much ease, and I think more elegance, than in a ball room; others again, by turning and winding with much adroitness, have readily in succession described upon the ice the form of all the letters in the alphabet." The same may be observed there during every frost, but the elegance of skaters on that sheet of water is chiefly exhibited in quadrilles, which some parties go through with a beauty scarcely imaginable by those who have not seen graceful skating. In variety of attitude, and rapidity of movement, the Dutch, who, of necessity, journey long distances on their rivers and canals, are greatly our superiors.

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature . . . 36 · 35.

...

January 23.

1826. Hilary Term begins.
LARKING.

It appears that our ingenious neighbours, the French, are rivalled by the lark-catchers of Dunstaple, in the mode of attracting those birds.

To the Editor of the Every-Day Book.
6, Bermondsey New Road-
January 18, 1826.

Sir,
In the present volume of your Every-
Day Book, p. 93, a correspondent at Ab-
beville has given an account of lark-
shooting in that country, in which he
mentions a machine called a miroir, as
having been used for the purpose of at-
tracting the birds within shot. Perhaps
you are not aware that in many parts of
England a similar instrument is employed
for catching the lark when in flight, and at
Dunstaple. At that place, persons go
out with what is called a larking glass,
which is, if I may so term it, a machine
made somewhat in the shape of a cucum-
ber. This invention is hollow, and has
holes cut round it, in which bits of look-
ing-glass are fitted; it is fixed on a pole,
and has a sort of reel, from which a line
runs; this line, at a convenient distance, is
worked backward and forward, so as to
catch the rays of the sun: the larks seeing
themselves in the glass, as some think,
but more probably blinded by the glare
of it, come headlong down to it, a net is
drawn over them, and thus many are
taken, deceived like ourselves with glit-
tering semblances. Yes! lords as we deem
ourselves of the creation, we are as easily
lured by those who bait our passions or
propensities, as those poor birds. This
simple truth I shall conclude with the fol-
lowing lines, which, be they good, bad,
or indifferent, are my own, and such as
they are I give them to thee :-

As in the fowler's glass the lark espies
His feath'ry form from 'midst unclouded skies;
And pleased, and dazzled with the novel sight,
Wings to the treacherous earth his rapid flight,
So, in the glass of self conceit we view
Our soul's attraction, and pursue it too,

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Winter's white shrowd doth cover all the grounde,
And Caecias blows his bitter blaste of woe;
The ponds and pooles, and streams in ice are bounde,
And famished birds are shivering in the snowe.
Still round about the house they flitting goe,

And at the windows seek for scraps of foode
Which Charity with hand profuse doth throwe,
Right weeting that in need of it they stoode,
For Charity is shown by working creatures' goode.

The sparrowe pert, the chaffinche gay and cleane,
The redbreast welcome to the cotter's house,
The livelie blue tomtit, the oxeye greene,

The dingie dunnock, and the swart colemouse;
The titmouse of the marsh, the nimble wrenne,

The bullfinch and the goldspinck, with the king
Of birds the goldcrest. The thrush, now and then,
The blackbird, wont to whistle in the spring,

Like Christians seek the heavenlie foode St. Paul doth bring.

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature . . . 36 60.

January 25.

Conversion of St. Paul." This Romish festival was first adopted by the church of England in the year 1662, during the reign of Charles II. ST. PAUL'S DAY.

Buck and Doe in St. Paul's Cathedral. Formerly a buck's head was carried in procession at St. Paul's Cathedral. This by some antiquaries is presumed to have been the continuation of a ceremony in more ancient times when, according to certain accounts, a heathen temple existed on that site. It is remarkable that this notion as to the usage is repeated by writers whose experience in other respects has obtained them well-earned regard

See vol. i. p. 175.

the origin of this custom, is stated by Stow to the following purport.

Mentioning the opinion already noticed, which, strange to tell, has been urged ever since his time, he says in its refutation, "But true it is I have read an ancient deed to this effect," and the "effect" is, that in 1274, the dean and chapter of St. Paul's granted twenty-two acres of land, part of their manor of Westley, in Essex, to sir William Baud, knt., for the purpose of being enclosed by him within his park of Curingham; in consideration whereof he undertook to bring to them on the feast day of the Conversion of St. Paul, in winter, a good doe, seasonable and sweet; and upon the feast of the commemoration of St. Paul in summer, a good buck, and offer the same to be spent (or divided) among the canons resident; the doe to be brought by one man at the hour of procession, and through the procession to the high altar, and the bringer to have nothing; the buck to be brought by all his men in like manner, and they to be

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