Star.
London, England, 1814-02-03 00:00:00

WEITIIEII.

ICE GALA.--The confidence of the Public in the
safety of the passage over the frozen surface of the
Thames was yesterday increased. All the avenues
from Cheapside to the different stairs on the banks
of the river were distinguished by large chalked
boards announcing " a safe footway over the River
to Bankside ;" and, in consequence, thousands of in•
dividuals were induced to go and witness so novel a
spectacle, and many hundreds had, what we cannot
help terming the fool-hardiness, to venture on the
fragile plain, and wiffik, not alone elver, but from
London to Bl ickfriar's Bridge. Several booths, form.
ed of blankets and sail-cloths, and ornamented with
streamers and various signs, were also erected in the'
very centre of the river, where the visitors could be
accommodated with various mobocratical luxuries.—
In one of the booths, too, the entertaining spectacle
of a sheep roasting was exhibited. The passability of
this part of the Thames may be accounted for by the
stoppage of the masses of ice, floating down the
river, at London Bridge, and those havOng become
frozen together in rude and shapeless lumps. One
young man fell into the river at Blacklriar's Bridge,
and was drowned ; several others sunk, and were
with difficulty extricated, particularly one boy, who
fell through an aperture in the ice among some
bashes near Blackfriar's Bridge, and was got out
with peat difficulty ; these examples, however, seem-
ed
to have little effect on the thoughtless multitude.
The warermen contrived to turn the public curiosity
to their advantage, not only by levying contributions
for the liberty of walking over planks from the diffe-
rent stairs, but by making channels in the middle of
the river, by breaking the ice with pick-axes, and
then laying planks across, for walking over which a
toll was demanded.

A fisherman's boy, of the name of Carter, incau-
tiously ventured at low water on a large sheet of ice
near Westminster Bridge, which from the turtling of
the tide and the thaw suddenly separated from the
side and carried him. up the middle of the river to-
wards Millbank, where his cries attracted the notice
of a waterman, who very humanely put off to his as-
sistance, and fortunately, by the application of his
oars, he relieved him from his perilous situation.
The postman who goes between Penrith and Al-
ston, it is feared, has been lost in the snow, as he has
n-,t been heard of since Tuesday s':'nnight, at which
time he was seen at the village of Gamblesby, about
half way from l'enri:ll. 111 had two horses with him,
which likewise have not been heard of.

Wednesday morning, a house at Asterton, near
Nozbtry, Shropshire, was thrown down by the vio-
lence of the wind and the weight of snow upon the
roof. The occupier William Poppet, with his wife
and three children, were in bed, and a beam falling
on the man, his wife, and one child, crushed them to
death. Two Children escaped.

Last week a man and his horse were found frozen
to death on Hingston Down, near Callington.
A Coroner's Inquest sat yesterday at the house of
Mr. Greenfull, in Newington-road, on the body of a
woman, who was found dead in the road on Monday
morning last. The deceased was a pauper, on her
way 100 miles from London with a pass, and pro.
bably met her death from the inclemency of the
weather.

A remarkably large bittern was shot on the 17th
ult. in the parish of Wellow, by Mr. I'. Coles ; and
on Saturday a heron was caught at Batheaston—its
wings were so encumbered with ice as to prevent us
rising : it was taken by the hand, and is now in the
possession of a person in Bath.
The Solway Frith and channel towards the Isle of
Man, for the whole of last week, presented a pheno-
menon never before witnessed by the oldest inhabi-
tant. While the tide was making, ell to the north-
ward of Workington seemed like a large plain co-
vered with hillocks of snow, and on the ebbing of the
tide,.this scene was exhibited till the eye met the hori-
zon. Oa Monday last, the Revenue boat, statineed
at Whitehaven, made an attempt to visit Maryport,
to which place it got within about a mile, when it
was enveloped among innumerable lumps of ice, some
of which were from 7to 10 feet in thickness. The
boat was obliged to return to Whitehaven. The oldest
seamen say they never saw such a field of ice (as they
termed it) but in high northern latitudes, or on the
banks of Newfoundland.
PERTH, JAN. 27.—The late host has been more
severe than any which has occurred since the famous
year 1740.—People have been crossing en the ice,
above and below Newburgh, which was never done
since the year to which we have referred. the in-
tenseness ofthe cold is indicated by another circum-
stance. Wild swans hare been observed on the open
parts of the. river, below Newburgh. These birds
pass the summer in Lapland, Iceland, and other polar
regions, • and migrate to lower latitudes in winter,
They are seldom seen, however, farther south than
the lakes by which the Tay is fed ; and it must be
owing either to The want of unfrozen water, or to a
cold which is too great, even (or their hyperborean
constitutions, that they have been forced to extend
their journey to our vicinity. On Tuesday several.
people walked up the whole way, from Newburgh to
Perth, upon the ice.
LONDONDERRY, JAN. 25.—For the last three weeks
the weather here has been such, as has not, we believe,
been before experienced in this past of the world.—
We had previously some slight freezing, but on the
night of the 7th it became very intense, and on the
following day it snowed almost incessantly, which
was succeeded by more freezing and various falls of
snow, until about the 10th, when it had accumulate&
to such a degree that the road became impracticable
to the Dublin and Belfast mail coaches, and indeed
to almost every other kind of vehicle. Towards the
middle of the month the ice had closed in our river
nearly to the !midge, and on the 18th several persons
ventured to walk across at Prehen. On Thursday,
numbers walked over at our quays, opposite the wind-
mill, a thing unprecedented crnce the great frost in
1739-40. Many thousands have since passed over,
and some few have crossed on horseback. Indeed
the ice appears sufficiently firm to carry a loaded cart.
It is melancholy to state, that in consequence of
the dreadful state of the weather for some time past,
the p or in Limerick and its vicinity have suffered so
much from cold and other incidental disorders, that
there were not less than 19 interred in one dal last
week 4 the church-yard of &. Patrick. alone..