22 • BeginningsThe winter of 1664 – 65 passed quietly enough. Europe was in the throes of
a little ice age, and sharp frosts and bitter cold had descended on London be-
fore Christmas. A heavy snowfall blanketed the city early in January, and the
Thames River froze over for the second winter in a row. The weather turned
worse in February. On Shrove Tuesday, Samuel Pepys managed to enjoy a
plate of fritters with his wife, Elizabeth, before embarking on the forty days
of Lent, when he would have to give up some of the indulgences he periodi-
cally vowed to forego. (In January he had made a private oath to “leave the
ladies alone” for a while but failed to keep it.) His mind dwelled on the
weather outside: “One of the coldest days, all say, they ever felt in England,”
he wrote in his diary. Pepys fretted about coming down with an ague,
brought on, he feared, by wearing a coat that had lain unaired too long.^14
London’s poorer residents faced a much grimmer prospect: the price of sea-
coals (the coal shipped into London from Newcastle and other northern
mining centers) had soared beyond their means, leaving their dank living
quarters without heat.
The adverse weather offered one pleasure to substantial citizens like
Pepys. A frost fair, a tempered Protestant English version of Catholic Eu-
rope’s pre-Lenten carnival festivities, was in progress right on the solid ice of
the Thames.^15 Wrapped in long coats of wool or fur, skaters whirled around
on blades of bone or wood. Up at the Musique House near Saint Paul’s ca-
thedral, a grand assortment of rarities could be viewed. A popular newssheet
of the time heralded the thigh bone of a “gyant,” a twenty-foot serpent, a
dragon, a rare Egyptian mummy with hieroglyphics, “the antbeare of Bra-
sel,” a remora, a moonfish, numerous salamanders, and a twenty-eight-inch
“Camelion,” among other wonders. Sporting games such as bear baiting, al-
ways popular on the south bank of the Thames, added to the capital’s carni-
val spirit.^16
The Lure of London
O London is a dainty place
A great and gallant city!
For all the Streets are pav’d with gold
And all the folks are witty.Well-to-do Londoners had much to be thankful for as they tallied their
gains and losses on the first of January 1665.^17 The political scene seemed
harmonious by comparison with the turmoil of the previous two decades.