A fingle 



F 



Ywcnty-five degrees below froft ; in the morning rome 

 little Ihow fell, but the violence of the wind carried 

 it ofFi but cold ftill increafing, the waters were all 

 frozen over, and that day it was fo intenfe, as to 

 freeze the water of the river, which was raifed by the 

 force of the wind into ice, before it fell down again. 

 The wind continued to blow with the fame force, and 

 from the fame quarter, all the 30th day, the cold 

 ftill increafing, fo that at this time the froft penetrated 

 into moft of the green-houfes in England, but efpe- 

 cially into all thofe whofe fronts had the leaft incli- 

 nation to the eaft ; and fuch of them as fronted the 

 fouth-weft efcaped beft, where the back walls were of 

 a fufficient thicknefs to keep out the froft; the fpirits 

 in the thermometer fell in the night of the 30th day 

 to thirty-two degrees below the freezing point, which 

 was lower than it had been known in England be- 

 fore ; the violence of the wind made it very trouble- 

 fome for peribns of the moft robuft conftitutions to 

 be abroad, and this alfo caufed the froft to penetrate 

 through thick wallsj and in the fpace of two days, 

 the Evergreen- trees and ftirubs appeared as if they had 

 been fcorched by firej fo that they feemed to have no 

 life v the only trees of all the forts of Evergreens 

 which retained their verdure at this time, were the 

 Portugal Laurel, Savin, and fhrubby Hartwood ; 

 thefe in the midft of this fevere froft femaihed un- 

 hurt, when all the others were as brown as if they 

 had been dead a year ; and it was very late in the 

 fpring, before any of them refumed their ufual ver- 

 dure : during thefe fevere days there had but little 

 fnow fallen, fo that the froft penetrated deep in the 

 ground, and deftroyed the roo^ of great part of the 

 vegetables, where they were not well fecufed -, the 

 Artichoke roots were moft of them killed in all the 

 kitchen-gardens, fome few only efcaped, thefe were 

 fuch as were not intended to be prefervedi 

 row of thefe roots, which were growing in a place 

 where a grejlt quantity of dung had been wheeled 

 over them, whereby the ground was rendered as hard 

 iife that of a common foot-wa) , though there was no 

 covering upon thefe roots^ yet they furvived the froft 

 and did well j another parcel which was growing near 

 a tan-yafdj where, by accident, fome tan had been 

 thrown, were prefefved, fo that from fome of thefe 

 accidents we were fo lucky as to retrieve the good 

 kind of Artichoke, which the Englifh gardens were 

 fo famous for being ftocked with. 

 By the fharp piercing winds the Grafs was almoft to- 

 tally burned up, fo that there was not the leaft ver- 

 tjure to be feen in the fields, and in many places the 

 fweeteft and beft kinds of the herbage were entirely 

 killed, fo that there remained only the ftrong rough 

 kinds of grafs, whereby the paftures were in general 

 ftiuch damaged ; but on the 31ft day in the evening, 

 the wind being much abated, the feverity of the froft 

 was not fo great, and there feemed an appearance of 

 a thaw on the firft and fecond of January, but on the 

 third in the evening the froft fet in again with great 

 yiolertce ; and on the fourth of January in the morn- 

 ing, the thermometer was fallen one degree lower 

 than it had been before. The fame morning there 

 was the greateft hoary froft which had been feen, the 

 woods, trees, and hedges, appeared ' as if they had 

 been covered with fnow ^ and although there was no 

 wind ftirring, yet the air Was fo ftiarp and penetrating, 

 as to render it difficult to endure the cold, even with 

 great exercife. 



The timber-trees fufFered greatly that morning, ef- 

 pecially the Oaks, which were fplit with great vio- 

 lence * and the noife in the woods that morning, re- 

 fembled that of great branches breaking down in 

 every part of the woods, and when heard at a dif- 

 tance, like the firing of guns. This was little at- 

 tended to at the time, but the timber which has been 

 fince fallen, fufficiently proves the great damage 

 which the woocjs then fuftained ; nor was it here the 

 calamity ftopped, for the Oaks in general had re- 

 ceived fo much injury from the froft, as to occafion 

 llich a wcaknefs and diftemper among them^ that the 



following fpring they v:erc infcfted with inJeiJls ; 

 fuch a degree, as that their leaves were eaten and e 

 tirely deftroyed by them ; fo that at Midfumnicr t' " 

 trees were as naked as if it had been the bc&lnnin 

 of April ; and this diftemper continu^!d for tWo \ti^ 



s 



after, almoft as bad as at firft, and has leflened b 

 degrees, as the trees have recovered their ftrencrti/ 



ftrength j 



and where the trees were old and weak, they hav' 

 not vet eotten the better of this diftemcer 



diftemper. 



The herbage was alfo fo much weakened by thefe 

 verity of the froft, as not to be able to refift the a*^ 

 tack made upon it by infedts, fo that innumerable 

 quantities of them were difcovered in the pafttfrts L 

 many parts of Europe, beginning firft in the ncrtHerri 

 countries, and afterward fpreading to the fouth; and 

 thefe infedts in many places were fo numerous, 'as to 

 deftroy the fward of Grafs, and it is to be feared the 

 diftemper which fo long raged among the catde may 

 have been owing to this caufe ; for wherever the dif- 

 temper fpread, it has been obferved, that numbers of 

 thefe infefts have harboured about the roots of the' 

 Grafs : and as a farther proof of this, it has c^n- 

 ftantly been remarked, that, when thefe grubs are 

 changed into a fort of beetle, and take their flight 

 (which is commonly about the beginning of May,) 

 the diftemper ceafes ; and when thefe beetles have 

 depofited their eggs in autumn, the diftemper has 

 raged again. Another remark has been made, that 

 thefe beetles always chufe to depofit their eggs not 

 at a great diftance from rivers, or large pieces of 

 water, and in fuch places the cattle have bceri moft 

 attacked. There might be many other circumftancc* 

 mentioned in favour of this opinion, as alfo the fc-= 

 veral experiments which have been made by fome dt 

 the members of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, 

 which are fufficient to prove, that the diftemper was 

 not infedious, nor can be communicated by the 

 Cattle, notwithftanding it has bSen treated as fuch in 

 many countries, where has been an immenfe lofs to the 

 public of fuch numbers of cattle and their hides ; fcut 

 this may require a particular treatife, therefore I ihall 

 not enlarge farther on this head at prefent. 

 The froft ftill continued very hard till toward the 

 end of January, but not fo violent as at the b ^ 

 for had the wind continued to blow with To much 

 force as it had done the three firft days of the froft, 

 for any confiderable time longer, there would hs^'c 

 been few vegetables able to have refifted the cold, 

 nor would the animal kingdom have fared much 

 better; for the cold was fo intenfe during thofe fe# 

 days, as to kill feveral of the weaker fort of catde, 

 where they were much expofed to the wind. 

 The Walnut-trees, Afti, and feveral other trees, had 

 moft of their ftioots of the former year deftroyed, 

 which caufed them to be very late before they put cue 

 their new fiioots the following fpring, and thefe fhoots 

 were produced from the two and three years branches. 

 The Fig-trees in many places were killed almoft to 

 the ground, efpecially thofe which were growing 

 againft the beft afpefted walls, for thofe on the north 

 and north-weft afpefts, as alfo the old ftandard Fig- 

 trees efcaped better-; but all thofe ftools and layers of 

 thefe trees, which were growing in the nurfery-gar- 

 dens, were fo much injured by the froft, as not to be 

 recovered under three years, during which time there 

 were fcarce any of thefe plants to be fold. The layers 

 of Vines, as alfo of the Oriental Plane-tree, in the 

 nurferies, were likewife killed to the ground, and the 

 old ftools fo much injured, that they had better have 

 been dug up and thrown away, than to have con- 

 tinued them \ for in ten years after they did not recover 

 their former vigour, making their fhoots fo late in 

 the fummer, that their wood had not time to harden, 

 and the firft froft in autumn frequently killed them 

 half way to the ground. 



Many other deciduous trees were equal fufferers by 

 this fevere froft, and the Evergreens were more ge- 

 nerally injured, and abundance of them killed. The 

 Pine and Pinafter v/ere fo much hurt, as to lofe all 



th#ir verdure, and in fome pia^^cc the young plants ot 



■^ • the 



