WINTER OF 1776. 323 



living. According to all appearances, we might now 

 have expected the continuance of this rigorous wea- 

 ther for weeks to come, since every night increased 

 in severity ; hut behold, without any apparent cause, 

 on the first of February, a thaw took place, and some 

 rain followed before night ; making good the observa- 

 tion above, that frosts often go off, as it were, at 

 once, without any gradual declension of cold. On 

 the second of February, the thaw persisted ; and on 

 the third, swarms of little insects were frisking and 

 sporting in a court-yard at South Lambeth, as if they 

 had felt no frost. Why the juices in the small bodies 

 and smaller limbs of such minute-beings are not frozen, 

 is a matter of curious inquiry. 



Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to run in cur- 

 rents; for at the same juncture, as. the author was 

 informed by accurate correspondents, at Lyndon, in 

 Jhe county of Rutland, -the thermometer stood at 19; 

 at Blackburn, in Lancashi^grt 19 ; and at Manches- 

 ter, at 21, 20, and 18. j?hus does some unknown 

 circumstance strangeljH&verbalance latitude, and ren- 

 der the cold sometiiifes much greater in the southern 

 than the northern .prts of^this kingdom. 



The consequences of this severity were, that, in 

 Hampshire!' dt theviftelting of the snow, the wheat 

 looked wfell, arid the turnips came forth little injured. 

 The laurels aifd lailimstiliesfwere somewhat damaged, 

 but only # hot -Expects. No evergreens were quite 

 destroy/la; and not half the damage sustained that 

 befell 'in Januarf, 1-768. Those laurels that were a 

 little scorched on the south sides, were perfectly 

 untouched on their north sides. The care taken to 

 shake the snow, day by day, from the branches, 

 seemed greatly to avail the author's evergreens. A 

 neighbour 's-ffaurel hedge, in a high situation, and 

 facing to the north, was perfectly green and vigorous ; 

 and the Portugal laurels remained unhurt. 

 Y 2 



