Frozen River Thames.

Sometimes its good to take a look back at what people were saying and doing in the past. Reading old newspapers can throw up some interesting stories. In this instance 200 years ago the Thames was frozen. Here is what we would call today a public interest story.


Cheltenham Chronicle – Thursday 20 January 1814

A pig was yesterday seen sailing down the river Thames, between Westminster and Blackfriars Bridge on a large fragment of ice, with great gravity. He occasionally squeaked with a peculiar shrillness, which a waterman construed into a call for a pilot, he put off, and after a strong, contest with the floating masses of snow, succeeded in delivering the swinish navigator from his perilous situation. Whether he was not rescued from one death to meet another, is a question which no doubt has been already solved. It is conjectured that the animal was feeding on the banks of the river, and imprudently venturing too far on the ice in search of some delicious morsel, was carried away by the stream. 

Hopefully the pig was not disgruntled about its adventure!  

Later.....