“Having mentioned to you, Mr. Geoffrey, several famous Frosts which occurred in the earlier periods of our history, I must not omit to notice that which overspread the Thames from the beginning of December, 1683, until the 5th of February, 1684. ‘It congealed the River Thames,’--says Maitland, in his ‘_History_,’ volume i., page 484,--‘to that degree, that another City, as it were, was erected thereon; where, by the great number of streets, and shops, with their rich furniture, it represented a great fair, with a variety of carriages, and diversions of all sorts; and, near Whitehall, a whole ox was roasted on the ice.’ Evelyn, however, who was an eye-witness of this scene, furnishes the most extraordinary account of it in his ‘_Diary_,’ volume i., page 568; where, on January the 24th, 1684, he observes that ‘the frost continuing more and more severe, the Thames before London was still planted with boothes in formal streetes, all sorts of trades and shops furnish’d, and full 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 so universally, that ’twas estimated the printer gain’d £5. 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 skeetes, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet-plays, and interludes, cookes, tipling, and other lewd places, so that it seem’d to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water.’” “It is singular, Master Postern,” said I, as he finished this extract, “that the author whom you have now quoted, never once mentions that King Charles the Second visited these diversions, and even had his name printed on the ice, with those of several other personages of the Royal Family. The author of some curious verses, entitled, ‘_Thamasis’s Advice to the Painter, from her Frigid Zone: or Wonders upon the Water. London: Printed by G. Croom, on the River of Thames_,’ 74 lines, small folio half sheet, says, “‘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 original of this poem is in the possession of my friend, Mr. William Upcott, of the London Institution, whose invaluable collection of rarities can also boast one of the very papers on which the King and his Royal companions had their names printed! This truly interesting document consists of a quarter sheet of coarse Dutch paper, on which, within a type border, measuring 3-1/4 inches by 4, are the magnificent names of [Illustration: