122 COLD MARCH. 



Heath, the other on Highdown Ball. In both instances, 

 the rabbit seemed stupefied or fascinated by fright ; in one 

 instance running round and round, and not taking the 

 right precaution for escape ; in the other, starting, stop- 

 ping, and, as I fancied, trembling with fear. When its 

 prey is taken, the weasel rarely eats more than the brain. 

 The thermometer has sunk 27 since this time last 

 month, when I began this epistle, and the snow has nearly 

 blinded me to-day in a gallop along the Hog's Back :* 

 but never mind ; " a cold March, and a crop of wheat," 

 is an old and a very true proverb ; we shall have a 

 cheap loaf. The crocuses have remained for three weeks 

 precisely in statu quo, and the hedgerows are still as 

 black as on St. Valentine's day, except where a warm 

 nook has allowed them sun, and has protected them from 

 the keen wind. Jn such situations the whitethorn is be- 

 ginning to be gemmed with green, and the palm willow 

 displays its velvety catkins looking as though they would 

 gladly return to the winter coverings which they have lost. 

 Up Godbold's the giant aspens have put forth their catkins 

 in unusual quantities, so that the ground below is strewed 

 with those which the fierce wind has carried away from 

 their moorings on the twigs j none of them have shed 

 their pollen, and, as they lie on the ground, they look 

 more like great, red caterpillars than anything vegetable. 

 The female blossoms of the hazel, which a month back, 

 under the influence of a mild south-wester, were fresh and 

 clear, and bright red as the happy and innocent lips of a 

 young, laughing beauty, have turned dark and withery, as 

 that beauty may hereafter turn under the destroying influ- 



* Dated 13th March, 1835. J?. N. 



