“The principal scene of this Blanket-Fair, indeed,--for so the tents and sports on the Thames were denominated,--was opposite to the Temple stairs, for few, or none, of the festivities approached very near to London Bridge; as we are informed by the many rude, but curious memorials of it, which are yet in existence. One of the most interesting of these is an original and spirited, though unfinished, sketch in pencil, slightly shaded with Indian ink; supposed to have been the production of Thomas Wyck, an artist particularly eminent for his views at this period. In the right hand corner, at the top, the drawing is dated in an ancient hand, ‘_Munday, February the 4_: 1683-4;’ and it consists of a view down the River from the Temple-stairs to London Bridge, the buildings of which are faintly seen in the back ground. In front appear various groups of figures, and a side prospect of that line of tents which stretched all across the Thames, known during the frost by the name of Temple-street. You will find this drawing in volume viii. of Mr. Crowle’s Illustrated Pennant, in the British Museum, after page 262; and it measures 28 inches by 9-3/8. Gough, in his ‘_British Topography_,’ volume i., pages 731, 784,* mentions several other publications ‘illustrative of this frost, some of which are also in the same volume of Mr. Crowle’s Pennant, and the principal particulars of them I shall give you briefly in the following list. “A large copper-plate, 20-1/2 inches by 16-5/8, entitled ‘_A Map of the River Thames, merrily call’d Blanket Fair, as it was frozen in the memorable year 1683-4, describing the booths, footpaths, coaches, sledges, bull-baiting, and other remarks upon that famous river_.’ Dedicated to Sir Henry Hulse, Knt. and Lord Mayor, by James Moxon, the Engraver. “A large and coarse engraving on wood, representing the sports, tents, and buildings on the ice, taken from opposite the Temple buildings, which are shewn in the back ground; beneath are 106 lines of very inferior verse, and the title:--‘_A true description of Blanket-Fair, upon the River Thames, in the time of the great Frost. In the year of our Lord 1683._’ Broadside sheet, 12-3/4 inches by 16-1/2. “‘_Wonders on the deep, or the most exact description of the frozen river of Thames; also what was remarkably observed thereon in the last great frost, which began about the middle of December, 1683, and ended the 8th of February following: together with a brief Chronology of all the memorable strong frosts for almost 60 years, and what happened in the Northern kingdoms._’ A wood-cut.