250 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



employed, had their fingers so affected by the frost, while 

 they were thrashing in a barn, that a mortification followed, 

 from which they did not recover for many weeks. 



This frost killed all the furze and most of the ivy, and 

 in many places stripped the hollies of all their leaves. It 

 came at a very early time of the year, before old November 

 ended ; and yet it may be allowed from its effects to have 

 exceeded any since 1739-40. 



LETTER LXIV 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



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 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 



