36 JANUARY. 



lege of theirs to make slides upon every causeway, 

 maugre the curses and menacing canes of old gen- 

 tlemen, and the certain production of falls, bruises, 

 and broken bones. Sometimes, too, rain freezing 

 as it falls, or a sudden thaw, and as sudden a re- 

 freezing, covers the whole ground with a sheet of 

 the most glassy ice. Such a frost occurred in 1811, 

 when great numbers of birds were caught, and 

 amongst them several bustards, their wings being 

 glazed to their sides, and their feet to the ground. 

 But of all the phenomena of winter, none equals in 

 beauty 



THE HOAR FROST. A dense haze most commonly 

 sets in over-night, which has vanished the next morn- 

 ing, and left a clear atmosphere, and a lofty arch of 

 sky of the deepest and most diaphanous blue, beam- 

 ing above a scene of enchanting beauty. Every 

 tree, bush, twig, and blade of grass, from the utmost 

 nakedness has put on a pure and feathery garniture, 

 which appears the work of enchantment, and has 

 all the air and romantic novelty of a fairy land. 

 Silence and purity are thrown over the earth as a 

 mantle. The hedges are clothed in a snowy foliage, 

 thick as their summer array. The woods are filled 

 with a silent splendour ; the dark boles here and 

 there contrasting strongly with the white and spark- 

 ling drapery of the boughs above, amongst which 

 the wandering birds fly, scattering the rime around 

 them in snowy showers. There is not a thicket but 

 has assumed a momentary aspect of strange loveli- 

 ness ; and the mind is more affected by it from its 



