A view of frost fair on the Thames, February 1814.
Description:
"The Year 1814 will be long remembered for the severe frosts and heavy falls of snow with which it commenced .. At the beginning of February the river was completely blocked up with ice, between London and Blackfriars Bridges, where a fair was kept, 3 or 4 days, with booths, swings, skittles, presses printing tickets in commemoration, &c. &c.". Woodcut. Depicts a view of the frost fair held on the frozen Thames in 1814, looking upstream towards Blackfriar's Bridge and St. Paul's. Rows of booths are shown, including two beer tents (one named 'Moscow' the other 'Wellington') and a stall offering 'good gin'; there are also vendors of cakes or fruit. The fair is thronged with people, some of whom are sporting and sliding on the ice (including a group engaged in a game of skittles), while others are suffering accidents (including two men who have gone through the ice). There are swings in the foreground, and a donkey race going on in the distance, while in the centre of the print a long queue has built up around a printing press selling souvenirs of the occasion. "(8)" at right of title. Gift of Alfred Clark Chapin. The patriotism generated by the recent French wars can be seen in the names ssigned to several saloon tents in the foreground. In the immediate center and at the left of the "Moscot" can be seen printing presses, that used illustrated sheets previously printed land-side, onto which the visitor's name, set in type, was printed on the ice (for a few pence) as a souvenir of the occasion. Note also the boats in the foreground and far right along the bridge. The Thames watermen managed to stay in business during the freeze by chopping away the ice along the banks and bridge pylons and demanding 2d or 3d "tolls" to take Frost Fair visitors across their self-made open water. From the location of St. Paul's Cathedral on the right bank, this view encompasses the area from the old Blackfriars Bridge in the background down to Southwark Bridge. Formerly bound into a volume with binder's title Old Christmas carols, bellman's verses &c.. Huth collection. MWiW-C.
