“Thou beauteous River Thames, whose standing tide Equals the glory of thy flowing pride, The city, nay the world’s transferr’d to thee Fin’d as the land, and richer than the sea. The various metals, Nature can produce, Or Art improve, for ornament or use, From the Earth’s deepest bowels brought are made To shine in thee, and carry on thy trade. Here Guilledum, fam’d for making silver pass Through various forms; and Sparks as fam’d for brass, There’s T⸺ ’tween God and gold who ne’er stood neater, And trusty Nicholson, who lives by pewter, Wrote o’er their doors, having affix’d their names, We under-writ, remov’d are to the Thames. There miles together for the common good The Slippery Substance offers dainty food. Here healing Port-wine, and there Rhenish flows, Here Bohea Tea, and there Tobacco grows. In one place you may meet good Cheshire cheese, Another proffers, whitest Brentford peas: Here is King George’s picture, there Queen Anne’s, Now nut-brown ale in cups, and then in canns: One sells an Oxford dram as good as can be, Another offers General Peper’s brandy. See! there’s the Mall, and in that little hut The best Geneva’s sold, and live to boot, See there, a sleek Venetian Envoy walks; See here, an Alderman more proudly stalks. Behold the French Ambassador, that’s he; And this the honest Sire, and Captain Leigh. Here is St. James’s street, yonder the Strand: In this place Bowyer plies; that’s Lintot’s stand.”
The chief illustrations of this frost are as follows:--
A copper plate representing London Bridge on the right hand, and a line of tents on the left, leading from Temple Stairs. In front, another line of tents, marked “Thames Street,” and the various sports, &c., before them: below the print are alphabetical references, with the words “Printed on the Thames, 1715-16;” and above it, “Frost Fair on the River Thames.”
A copper-plate of much larger dimensions, representing London at St. Paul’s, with the tents, &c., and with alphabetical references; “Printed and sold by John Bowles, at the Black Horse, in Cornhill.” In the right-hand corner above, the arms and supporters of the City; and on the left a cartouche, with the words “Frost Fayre, being a True Prospect of the Great Varietie of Shops and Booths for Tradesmen, with other Curiosities and Humors, on the Frozen River of Thames, as it appeared before the City of London, in that memorable Frost in yᵉ year of the Reigne of Our Sovereigne Lord King George, Anno Domini 1716.”