FEBRUARY. 



it without being influenced by incommunicable ideas 

 of power, majesty, and the stupendous energies of the 

 elements ! 



Oh storm and darkness, ye are wondrous strong ! 



What picturesque ruin is there scattered around you ! 

 Trees overwhelmed, immense branches torn down, 

 small boughs broken, and dry leaves whirled along, 

 or quivering in the air like birds. What a harvest 

 of decayed sticks for the Goody Blakes, who, with 

 their checked-aprons held up, will not fail to discover 

 it ! What a harvest too for the newspapers, which 

 will be filled for a season with calamitous accounts 

 of accidents and deaths by falling of chimneys, 

 shipwrecks, and so forth ! 



Towards the end of the month, we are gladdened 

 with symptoms of approaching spring. On warm 

 banks the commencement of vegetation is per- 

 ceptible ; the sap is stirring in the trees, swelling 

 and feeding the buds : in gardens a variety of green 

 things are peeping from the earth, and snowdrops, 

 hepaticas, etc. are actually in bloom. 



In towns it is a cheering sight, even while all 

 without is frosty and wintry, to see, as we pass, in 

 cottage windows, tufts of crocuses and snowdrops 

 flowering in pots ; and in those of wealthier dwell- 

 ings, hyacinths, narcissi, etc. in glasses, displaying 

 their bulbs and long fibrous roots in the clear water 

 below, and the verdure and flowery freshness of 

 summer above. It is a sight truly English. It is 



