Frost Fair on the Thames

When the Thames froze hard at London, a fair grew up on the ice with booths, skittles, swings, dancing and gaming tables. In January 1684 printers set up presses on the ice and people paid sixpence to have their names printed with the date, as Charles II and his family did; in 1715 to 1716 an ox was roasted whole. At the last Frost Fair, in 1814, sheep were roasted and sold in slices as Lapland mutton, watermen charged tolls for getting onto the ice, and a thaw carried off booths and presses. Chambers noted that there had been no Frost Fair since.