40 JANUARY. 



work ; many flowers were blowing in the gardens, 

 as anemones, wall-flowers, primroses ; and the 

 monthly roses thickly crimsoned the walls of our 

 cottages. Birds' nests were found in various places, 

 not only with eggs but with young ones, as that of 

 a thrush at Cobham in Surrey. In one savage night 

 (the 7th of January), all this delusive and unseason- 

 able pride of nature was demolished by a tremen- 

 dous frost. Every thing which the day before had 

 worn a blossoming aspect, now hung down its head 

 in death and ruin. The flowers stood dismal objects 

 of blackness and deformity. When, after six weeks 

 of unmitigated fury of frost, spring began to give 

 tardy and timid intimations of return, it was only 

 to discover the extent of vegetable devastation which 

 had taken place. Never, perhaps, had so extensive 

 a destruction of evergreens occurred. The warmth 

 of the weather up to the very night of the frost 

 setting in, by occasioning a free flow of sap, had 

 made this destruction inevitable ; and in low and 

 warm situations scarcely a laurel or a bay was left 

 alive above ground. In higher and colder situations 

 many escaped ; but for the most part it was neces- 

 sary to cut down and clear away the whole ever- 

 green growth of the last forty years. In our own 

 shrubbery, bays, laurels, and arbutuses of that age 

 were destroyed ; thus bearing testimony that for this 

 period they had not experienced the same excessive 

 and sudden change. What appeared singular at the 

 time was, that branches of evergreen shrubs, which 

 were cut off and lay under the snow, were not appa- 



