198 Notes on Natural History, 



[Vernal Appearances in the Neighbourhood of Godalming."} 

 I wrote the above on the 1 5th of February ; the following on 

 the 13th of March : — 



The thermometer has sunk 27° since this time last month, 

 when I began this epistle, and the snow has nearly blinded 

 me to-day in a gallop along the Hog's Back : but never 

 mind ; " a cold and dry March, and a crop of wheat," is an 

 old and a very true proverb ; we shall have a cheap loaf. 

 The crocuses have remained for three weeks precisely in statu 

 quo, and the hedgerows are still as black as on St. Valen- 

 tine's day, except where a warm nook has allowed them sun, 

 and has protected them from the keen wind. In such 

 situations, the whitethorn is beginning to be gemmed with 

 green, and the palm willow displays its velvety catkins look- 

 ing as though they would gladly return to the winter cover- 

 ings which they have lost. In the park the giant aspens 

 have put forth their catkins in unusual quantities, so that the 

 ground below is strewed with those which the fierce wind has 

 carried away from their moorings on the twigs ; none of them 

 have shed their pollen, and, as they lie on the ground, they 

 look more like great red caterpillars than any thing vegetable. 

 The female blossoms of the hazel, which a month back, under 

 the influence of a mild south-wester, were fresh and clear, 

 and bright red as the happy and innocent lips of a young 

 laughing beauty, have turned dark and withery as that 

 beauty may hereafter turn under the destroying influence of 

 the bitter blast, unrequited love. Even now the wind is 

 whistling under the door of my little room, in spite of a 

 leathern binding, and heaving up my carpet into the most 

 unseemly convexities ; while the feathery snow is driving in 

 horizontal lines past my window ; yet at this moment I hear 

 the harsh loud song of the missel- thrush, bravely defying 

 wind and weather. I am, Sir, yours, &c. 



Godalming, March 13. 1833. Rusticus. 



Art. II. Notes on Butterflies, and other Natural Objects ; made 

 in Cumberland, through the Month of May, 1832. By G. W. 



Low Hall, near Whitehaven, May 1. 1832. — The 

 "genial" month of May has commenced in a most un- May- 

 like way, the day being extremely cold. 



10th. The weather hitherto has been bitter cold and 

 piercing, with occasional chilling showers from the north and 

 east. Of the continued cold, in my own person, I feel the 



