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[Illustration: FROST FAIR ON THE RIVER THAMES, IN 1814.]
FAMOUS FROSTS AND FROST FAIRS IN GREAT BRITAIN.
Chronicled from the Earliest to the Present Time.
BY _WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S._, Author of “Historic Romance,” “Modern Yorkshire Poets,” etc.
LONDON: GEORGE REDWAY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1887.
The aim of this book is to furnish a reliable account of remarkable frosts occurring in this country from the earliest period in our Annals to the present time. In many instances, I have given particulars as presented by contemporary writers of the scenes and circumstances described.
In the compilation of this Chronology, several hundred books, magazines, and newspapers, have been consulted, and a complete list would fill several pages. I must not, however, omit to state that I have derived much valuable information from a scarce book printed on the Ice of the River Thames, in the year 1814, and published under the title of “Frostiana.” I have gleaned information from the late Mr. Cornelius Walford’s “Famines of the World,” which includes a carefully prepared summary of “The Great Frosts of History.” Some of the poems in my pages, bibliographical notes and facts, are culled from Dr. Rimbault’s “Old Ballads Illustrating the Great Frost of 1683-4,” issued by the Percy Society. It will be also observed that I have drawn curious information from Parish Registers and old Parish Accounts.
Several ladies and gentlemen have rendered me great assistance, and amongst the number must be named, with gratitude, Mrs. George Linnæus Banks, author of “The Manchester Man;” Mr. Jesse Quail, F.S.S., editor of the _Northern Daily Telegraph_; Mr. C. H. Stephenson, actor, author, and antiquary; Mr W. H. K. Wright, F.R.H.S., editor of the _Western Antiquary_; Mr. W. G. B. Page, of the Hull Subscription Library; Mr. Frederick Ross, F.R.H.S., and Mr. Ernest E. Baker, editor of the “Somersetshire Reprints.” Mr. E. H. Coleman kindly prepared for me a long list of books and magazines containing articles on this subject. I have to thank Mr. Mason Jackson, the author of “The Pictorial Press,” for kindly presenting to me the quaint cut which appears on page 29 of my work.