XIX RIVERSIDE LETTERS 145 



cover and feeding places. In most other 

 winters, since I have lived here, the river was 

 low when the frost began, so that the banks 

 became hard and frostbound at once ; in 

 those winters the moorhens came much into 

 my kitchen garden and frequently on to the 

 lawn, even close up to the house, after the 

 food we threw out. 



The river has not been frozen right across 

 here during this long frost, neither has the ice 

 at the edges been of sufficient strength for 

 skating on, no doubt owing to the constant 

 fall of the water. Above the weir at Benson, 

 where the water is penned up and still, how- 

 ever, some very strong ice has formed, on 

 which plenty of skating has been carried on. 



The flocks of gulls, which I hear have visited 

 London owing to the long protracted frost, 

 have not, as far as I know, been seen on the 

 upper reaches of the Thames, though I have 

 seen a solitary gull or two occasionally pass by. 



I was much astonished to discover this 

 morning that a clump of daffodils, which are 



L 



