No sooner had the Thames acquired a sufficient consistency than booths, turnabouts, etc. were erected, and puppet-shows, wild beasts, etc. transported from every adjacent village. Many thousands of persons crossed upon the ice from Tower Wharf to the opposite shore. The watermen broke in the ice close to the shore and erected bridges with toll-bars to make every passenger pay a halfpenny for getting to the ice. A large pig was roasted on one of the roads, and the print-press was erected, as usual, to commemorate the strange scene.
- John Timbs, Curiosities of London, 1855 (1789)
I’m strangely attracted to stories about people who manipulate water. Clare Clark’s wonderful novel The Great Stink details the business of boatmen as one predicated on controlling something that is always moving, and Jeanette Winterson’s brilliant book The Passion is finely attuned to the embodied desires of people who spend much of their time in the ebb and flow. When I read the passage above, I couldn’t help but think how interesting it is that the watermen controlled access to the ice because it was still their territory, even though it was moving so slowly that everyone treated it as if it were land.
While not quite as exciting as late 18th century London, Ottawa’s Rideau Canal Skateway is also very nice and it might open soon if the cold stays…
- Anne