This painting by Thomas Wyke shows what the river Thames in London looked like in the winters of 1683/4. This was the worst frost ever recorded in England and the Thames was completely frozen for two months, with the ice reaching a thickness of 11 inches.
The scene was described by John Evelyn -
Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other stairs to and fro, as in the streets; sleds, sliding with skeetes (sic), a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet plays and interludes, cooks, tipling (sic) and other lewd places, so that it seemed to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water.
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At the Entering of the New Year
by Thomas Hardy
Our songs went up and out the chimney,
And roused the home-gone husbandmen;
Our allemands, our heys, poussettings,
Our hands-across and back again,
Sent rhythmic throbbings through the casements
On to the white highway,
Where nighted farers paused and muttered,
"Keep it up well, do they!"
The contrabasso’s measured booming
Sped at each bar to the parish bounds,
To shepherds at their midnight lambings,
To stealthy poachers on their rounds;
And everybody caught full duly
The notes of our delight,
As Time unrobed the Youth of Promise
Hailed by our sanguine sight.
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Are You a Worrier?
At the Entering of the New Year
by Thomas Hardy
Our songs went up and out the chimney,
And roused the home-gone husbandmen;
Our allemands, our heys, poussettings,
Our hands-across and back again,
Sent rhythmic throbbings through the casements
On to the white highway,
Where nighted farers paused and muttered,
"Keep it up well, do they!"
The contrabasso’s measured booming
Sped at each bar to the parish bounds,
To shepherds at their midnight lambings,
To stealthy poachers on their rounds;
And everybody caught full duly
The notes of our delight,
As Time unrobed the Youth of Promise
Hailed by our sanguine sight.
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Are You a Worrier?
If you worry excessively and needlessly, then according to www.freedictionary.com, you're a worrywart.
The free encyclopedia wikipedia describes worry as “thoughts, images and emotions of a negative nature in which mental attempts are made to avoid anticipated potential threats. As an emotion it is experienced as anxiety or concern about a real or imagined issue.”
Apparently, going on holiday is one of the main causes of worry.
For example - your alarm clock will fail to wake you; the taxi won't turn up and you'll miss your connection; your luggage will be lost on the journey; you discover you've left your credit card, travel tickets, passport on the kitchen table; you don't remember locking the back door; you wonder what would happen if your coach tumbled over a precipice or perhaps a crazed man with a bomb will hijack your plane.
But there IS a cure. Stay at home and STOP WORRYING!!!
For example - your alarm clock will fail to wake you; the taxi won't turn up and you'll miss your connection; your luggage will be lost on the journey; you discover you've left your credit card, travel tickets, passport on the kitchen table; you don't remember locking the back door; you wonder what would happen if your coach tumbled over a precipice or perhaps a crazed man with a bomb will hijack your plane.
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"I pleaded with them but they told me to stay and look after the house."
Next post - Monday
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