Taylor’s broadside commemorates the freezing of the Thames in January 1621. In the water poet’s lyrical description, it is the frosty east wind, “Boreas (all with Isickles bedight)”, who turns “Thames streames, to hard congealed flakes, / And pearled water drops to Christall cakes.” From the 14th to the 19th century, the Thames froze over at irregular intervals, which caused problems for Londoners (watermen, for instance, could not ply their trade2) but also brought some surprising pleasures. Various forms of entertainment and gastronomy could be organized on the ice. The first documented Frost Fair on the river took place in 1608, when the river was frozen for six solid weeks. Other notable fairs on the ice took place in 1683/84 and 1715/16. The last and final one was held in 1814 – at no later point was the ice thick enough to support the hustle and bustle of a fair. In the past, the Thames could freeze over because, on the one hand, it was colder during the period known as the ‘little ice age’ (14th to 19th century) but there were other factors involved: The river was shallower and its flow slower; Old London Bridge, with its nineteen arches, obstructed the flow still more, which meant that ice could more easily form (cf. Selli).
Taylor’s description of the 1621 freeze is ambivalent. On the one hand, the prolonged cold brings misery in the form of exposure and starvation to those without adequate income and shelter. Charity herself is left out in the cold and made to suffer the abuse of passers-by. One particularly uncaring soul suggests she be deported to the colonies or locked up and beaten:
There was a Vs’rer, with his Purse fast shut,
Did rayle at her and call’d her Idle slut:
And said she to Virginia should be Shipt,
Or to Bridewell be sent, and soundly whipt.
Finally, Charity is taken in by the masters of a hospital where “at the last (to many a mizers Griefe) / Shee in an Hospitall did finde Reliefe” (Colde Tearme). The brighter side of the frosty clime is the range of fun activities which can take place on the frozen river: a variety of games have been set up and the range of foods available from improvised stalls is impressive. Still, some people prefer just to go about their business as usual, in unusual conditions. Taylor sums up the scene:
There might be seene spic’d Cakes, and roasted Pigs,
Beere, Ale, Tobacco, Apples, Nuts, and Figs,
Fires made of Char-coles, Faggots, and Sea-coles,
Playing and couz’ning at the Pidg’on-holes:
Some, for two Pots at Tables, Cards, or Dice:
Some slipping in betwixt two Cakes of Ice:
Some going on their businesse and affaires,
From the Bank-side to Pauls, or to Trig-staires.
