Great frost commenced in October, and lasted four months. The Thames frozen, and heavy carriages driven over it.
It is recorded in Drake’s “Eboracum” as follows: “On the 16th of January the same year [1614] it began to snow and freeze, and so by intervals snowing without any thaw till the 7th of March following; at which time was such a heavy snow upon the earth as was not remembered by any man then living. It pleased God that at the thaw fell very little rain, nevertheless the flood was so great, that the Ouze ran down North Street and Skeldergate with such violence as to force all the inhabitants of those streets to leave their houses. This inundation chanced to happen in the Assize week, John Armitage, Esquire, being then High Sheriff of Yorkshire. Business was hereby much obstructed; at Ouze bridge end were four boats continually employed in carrying people [a]cross the river; the like in Walmgate [a]cross the Foss. Ten days this inundation continued at the height, and many bridges were driven down by it in the country, and much land overflown. After this storm, says my manuscript, followed such fair and dry weather, that in April the ground was as dusty as in any time of summer. This drought continued till the 20th of August following without any rain at all; and made such a scarcity of hay, beans, and barley, that the former was sold at York for 30s. and 40s. a wayne load, and at Leeds for four pounds.”
A severe frost from the 17th January to 7th March. In 1814 a tract was republished entitled “The Cold Yeare: a Deep Snow in which Men and Cattle perished; written in Dialogue between a London Shopkeeper and a North-countryman.” 1615. 4to.
“This year a frost enabled the Londoners to carry on all manner of sports and trades upon the river.” “Old and New London,” by E. Walford, M.A., v 3, p. 312.
Says a contributor to “Notes and Queries” in the _Nottingham Guardian_, the following is an extract from Prynne’s “Divine Tragedie lately acted,” 1636:--“On January the 25th, 1634, being the Lord’s Day, in the time of the last great frost, fourteen young men, presuming to play at football on the river Trent, near Gainsborough, coming altogether in a scuffle, the ice suddenly broke, and there were eight of them drowned.” The “Divine Tragedie,” like several other works of that period, was written to show how judgments were overtaking the people because of the recent order that the Book of Liberty should be read in churches, which legalised sports on Sunday after service.