64 



hot summers that I remember to have occurred in back 

 years ; but I have notes of some, and I find one circumstance 

 worth mentioning that attended most of them, viz., that 

 of their having been preceded by a mild winter. Such 

 was the case with the hot summers of 1822, 1825, 1834, 

 J 835, 1846, and 1859. The winter preceding that of 1822 

 was, perhaps, the mildest on record, as the summer itself 

 was one of the most extraordinary, dry weather continuing 

 for some months, the harvest beginning in many parts of 

 England on 25th June, and corn being brought to market 

 on the 30th.* The summer of 1825 was very hot and 

 dry, the thermometer, according to Howard,*!* rising on the 

 18th July to 97°, and being above 90° for six days in succes- 

 sion : the previous winter was mild, though much less so 

 than in the last case. The two consecutive summers of 1834 

 and 1835 were both of them hot and dry, and were very much 

 of the same character, and of about the same mean tempera- 

 ture, having been both likewise preceded by a very mild 

 winter, though the spring in each case was cold and un- 

 genial. The summer of 1846 was extremely fine and hot 

 throughout, one of the hottest of which I have any record of 

 my own. It had a mean temperature in Cambridgeshire, 

 where I was at that time resident, of nearly 66°, more than 

 5° above the average, and nearly 2°. 5 hotter than the last 

 summer of 1868. This also was preceded, like last summer 

 (1 868), by a very mild winter, and a spring likewise unusually 

 mild and forward. The same was the case, as regards the 

 character of the winter, with the very hot summer of 1859. 

 The summer of 1842, which was particularly hot in the month 

 of August, was preceded by a winter of moderate character, 

 the early part mild ; spring seasonable, with a dry April and 



*" Jesse's Gleanings in Nat. Hist.," 1st Series, p. 250. 

 t "Climate of London," 2nd edit., vol. iii., p. 194. 



