SUMMERS OF 1781 AND 1783. 327 



LETTER CVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



As the effects of heat are seldom very remarkable 

 in the northerly climate of England, where the 

 summers are often so defective in warmth and sun- 

 shine, as not to ripen the fruits of the earth so well 

 as might be wished, I shall be more concise in my 

 account of the severity of a summer season, and so 

 make a little amends for the prolix account of the 

 degrees of cold, and the inconveniences that we 

 suffered from some late rigorous winters. 



The summers of 1781 and 1783, were unusually 

 hot and dry ; to them, therefore, I shall turn back in 

 my journals, without recurring to any more distant 

 period. In the former of these years, my peach and 

 nectarine trees suffered so much from the heat, that 

 the rind on the bodies was scalded and came off; 

 since which, the trees have been in a decaying state. 

 This may prove a hint to assiduous gardeners to 

 fence and shelter their wall-trees with mats or boards, 

 as they may easily do, because such annoyance is 

 seldom of long continuance. During that summer, 

 also, I observed that my apples were coddled, as it 

 were, on the trees ; so that they had no quickness of 

 flavour, and would not keep in the winter. This 

 circumstance put me in mind of what I have heard 

 travellers assert, that they never ate a good apple or 

 apricot in the south of Europe, where the heats were 

 so great as to render the juices vapid and insipid. 



The great pests of a garden are wasps, which de- 

 stroy all the finer fruits just as they are coming into 

 perfection. In 1781, we had none; in 1783, there 

 were myriads, which would have devoured all the 



