288 WEATHER. 



barometers at this village, and so continues to do, be the 

 weight of the atmosphere what it may. The plate of the 

 barometer at Newton is figured as low as 27 ; because, in 

 stormy weather, the mercury there will sometimes descend 

 below 28. We have supposed Newton House to stand two 

 hundred feet higher than this house ; but if the rule holds 

 good, which says that mercury in a barometer sinks one-tenth 

 of an inch for every hundred feet elevation, then the Newton 

 barometer, by standing three-tenths lower than that of Sel- 

 borne, proves that Newton House must be three hundred 

 feet higher than that in which I am writing, instead of two 

 hundred. 



It may not be impertinent to add, that the barometers at 

 Selborne stand three-tenths of an inch lower than the baro- 

 meters at South Lambeth ; whence we may conclude, that 

 the former place is about three hundred feet higher than the 

 latter ; and with good reason, because the streams that rise 

 with us run into the Thames at "Weybridge, and so to London. 

 Of course, therefore, there must be lower ground all the 

 way from Selborne to South Lambeth ; the distance between 

 which, all the windings and indentings of the streams consi- 

 dered, cannot be less than a hundred miles. 



LETTER CY. 



TO THE SAME. 



SINCE the weather of a district is undoubtedly part of its 

 natural history, I shall make no farther apology for the four 

 following letters, which will contain many particulars con- 

 cerning some of the great frosts, and a few respecting some 

 very hot summers, that have distinguished themselves from 

 the rest during the course of my observations. 



As the frost in January, 1768, was, for the small time it 

 lasted, the most severe that we had then known for many 

 years, and was remarkably injurious to evergreens, some 

 account of its rigour, and reason of its ravages, may be useful, 



