The weather continuing intolerably severe, streets of booths were set up on the Thames
January 9
I went across the Thames on the ice, now become so thick as to bear booths, in which they roasted meat...
January 24
The frost continues more and more severe the Thames ... planted with... a printing press, where the people and ladies took a fancy to have their names printed and the day and year set down when printed on the Thames...so universally... that the printer gained five pounds a day for printing a line only, at sixpence a name...
in the streets bullbaiting, horse and coach races, puppet plays... and other lewd places, so that it seemed to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water, while it was a severe judgment on the land ... all our exotic plants and greens universally perishing...and all sorts of fuel so dear that there were great contributions to preserve the poor alive.
London by reason of the excessive coldness of the air... was so filled with the fuliginous steam of the sea coal that hardly could one see across the street, and this filling the lungs with its gross particles exceedingly obstructed the breast so as one could scarcely breathe... and every moment was full of disastrous accidents.
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