298 SUMMERS or 1781 A^D 1783. 



I forgot to mention before, that during the two severe 

 days, two men, who were tracing hares in the snow, had their 

 feet frozen ; and two men, who were much better employed, 

 had their fingers so affected by the frost, while they were 

 thrashing in a barn, that mortification followed, from which 

 they did not recover for many weeks. 



The 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 may yet be allowed, from its effects, to have exceeded 

 any since 1739-40. 



LETTEB CVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



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 sunshine, 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 sea- 

 son, and so make a little amends for the prolix account of 

 the degrees of cold and the inconveniences that we suffered 

 from some 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 conti- 

 nuance. 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 



