On Friday 23 January 1795, a parson and his family share breakfast at their Norfolk home. “The Weather more severe than ever, it froze apples within doors, tho’ covered with a thick carpet. The cold today was the severest I ever felt,” writes James Woodforde, in The Diary of a Country Parson 1758-1802.

The following Sunday, he says the frost is “this Morning more severe than Yesterday. It froze last night the Chamber Pots above Stairs.” The cold is so extreme there is no church service but his gout is much better (“Thank God!”) and he is able to record his favourite subject: dinner – on this day he has “very good” boiled pike and “a nice small Neck of Pork” roasted with applesauce.

He hears news of the war and learns that the French have taken all of Holland (the frost was so intense, says John Beresford, the editor of the 1978 Oxford selection, that French hussars rode over the ice to capture the Dutch fleet in the Texel) and the Prince of Orange, the princess and their family have landed at Yarmouth and Harwich for London.

“Dread and terrible times appear to be near at hand. Pray God! Deliver us and send us an happy Peace. The Ice in the Pond in the Yard which is broke every morning for the Horses, froze two Inches in thickness last night, when broke this morning,” he writes.