The Minster was lighted with gas, to which the conflagration was at first attributed; but the fire appears to have originated in one of the vestries. When we remember the beauty of the carved work which has thus been destroyed, and the elaborate skill which had been bestowed on its execution, our sympathies are deeply awakened for its fate. Indeed, the most listless admirer of art, as well as the antiquarian devotee, has just cause to lament this accident; especially as the taste and labours of our times fall far short of the olden glories of architecture. When we think of the "unsubstantial pageant" of the recent "Festival," and associate its fleeting show with the desert remains of this venerable pile, our feelings deepen into melancholy, and the smoking fragments of art seem to breathe-- Tell thou the lamentable fall of me, And send the hearers weeping to their beds. * * * * * HARD FROSTS IN ENGLAND. _(For the Mirror.)_ In the year 220. Frost lasted 5 months. 250. The Thames frozen 9 weeks. 291. Most rivers frozen 6 weeks. 508. The rivers frozen 2 months. 695. The Thames frozen 6 weeks; booths built on it. 759. Frost from October the 1st, till February 26th, 760. 827. Frost for 9 weeks. 923. The Thames frozen 13 weeks. 987. Frost lasted 120 days. 998. The Thames frozen 5 weeks. 1035. Frost on Midsummer Day so vehement that the corn and fruits were destroyed. 1063. The Thames frozen for 14 weeks. 1076. Frost from November to April. 1114. Several wooden bridges carried away by the ice. 1407. Frost for 15 weeks. 1434. Thames frozen down to Gravesend; 12 weeks frost. 1683. Frost for 13 weeks. 1739. Frost for 9 weeks. 1788. Frost from November to January 1789, when the Thames was crossed opposite the Customhouse, the Tower, Execution Dock, Putney, Brentford, &c. It was general throughout Europe. 1796. Frost the most severe on Dec. 25th that had ever been felt in the memory of man. 1814. Severe frost, Thames frozen, and tremendous falls of snow. A French writer who visited England during the severe frost in the year 1688, says, (in a small volume which he published in Paris,) "that besides hackney-coaches, a large sledge, or sledges, were then exhibited on the frozen Thames, and that King Charles passed a whole night upon the ice."