213 



" booths and shops of all sorts on the ice, horse and coach races, and 

 amusements" ; and again in 1788-9, when " all manner of diver 

 sions, and the various amusements of Bartholomew Fair " took 

 place on the ice. 



I have already mentioned the twelve severe winters during the 

 17th century. I do not find records of actual fairs upon the 

 Thames in connection with all of them, but other circumstances 

 are spoken of to show their severity. Thus, in 1607, there were 

 " fires and diversions on the ice on the river Thames " as early as 

 "the first week in December." The frost of 1G83-4 was "the 

 longest on record, and the ice on the river Thames eleA^en inches 

 thick " ; Evelyn says, " there were whole streets of booths and 

 shops on the river Thames till February, and about 40 coaches 

 plied for liire on the river daily." It is also "said that ice 

 between Dover and Calais joined together within about a league." 

 The frost, too, of 1694-5 was of seven weeks' duration, and " so 

 intense that many forest trees and oaks were split by the frost." 



Records on this subject of earlier date than the 17th century 

 are scanty, and perhaps not entirely to be depended upon. It 

 may be remarked, however, that mention is made of frosts in 

 the 15 th and 16tli centuries which, for their severity and long 

 continuance, can hardly be paralleled by any in modern times. 

 There was a frost, for instance, in 1407-8 which is said to have 

 lasted for 15 weeks, when even " the Danube was frozen over, 

 and the sea in several places, and in France the vineyards and 

 orchards were destroyed." 



But it is time to pass from this digression to the subject of 

 temperature, in connection with, our last winter of 1878-9 and the 

 spring that followed, as experienced in Bath. For this puqiose 

 I have put into a tabular form, first, the mean temperature of 

 each of the seven months from November 1878 to May 1879 

 inclusive, and secondly, the extreme temperatures, of each of the 

 same months, the whole being compared with averages obtained 

 from 14 years' meteorological observations in the gardens of the 

 Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution. 



