“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
CHARLES, KING. JAMES, DUKE. KATHERINE, QUEEN. MARY, DUTCHESS. ANN, PRINCESSE. GEORGE, PRINCE. HANS IN KELDER.
_London_: Printed by _G. Croom_, on the ICE, on the River of _Thames, January 31, 1684_.]
“Here, then, we have King Charles the Second; his brother James, Duke of York, afterwards James the Second; Queen Catherine, Infanta of Portugal; Mary D’Este, sister of Francis, Duke of Modena, James’s Second Duchess; the Princess Anne, second daughter of the Duke of York, afterwards Queen Anne; and her husband, Prince George of Denmark: and the last name, which I think was doubtless a touch of the King’s humour, signifies ‘Jack in the Cellar,’ alluding to the pregnant situation of Anne of Denmark. This most remarkable paper may, with great probability, be considered _unique_; and not to mention several of a similar nature containing common names, I may notice to you that there is in the same collection another bearing the noble titles of ‘Henry, Earl of Clarendon,’ son of the Chancellor; ‘Flora, Countess of Clarendon,’ and ‘Edward, Lord Cornbury.’ The date of this is February the 2nd, and I will conclude these notices of printing on the ice, by some lines from the poem I have already quoted, which tell its readers