OF SELBORNE. 147 



fronted, they went exactly together : so 

 that, for one night at least, the cold at 

 Newton was 18 degrees less than at Sel- 

 borne; and, through the whole frost, 10 or 

 12 degrees ; and, indeed, when we came to 

 observe consequences, we could readily 

 credit this ; for all my laurustines, bays, 

 ilexes, arbutuses, cypresses, and even my 

 Portugal laurels* and (which occasions 

 more regret) my fine sloping laurel-hedge, 

 were scorched up ; while, at Newton, the 

 same trees have not lost a leaf ! 



We had steady frost on to the 25th, 

 when the thermometer in the morning was 

 down to 1 with us, and at Newton only to 

 21. Strong frost continued till the 31st, 

 when some tendency to thaw was observed ; 

 and, by January the 3rd, 1785, the thaw 

 was confirmed, and some rain fell. 



* Mr. Miller, in his Gardener's Dictionary, says 

 positively that the Portugal laurels remained untouched 

 in the remarkable frost of 1739-4-0. So that either that 

 accurate observer was much mistaken, or else the 

 frost of December 1784? was much more severe and 

 destructive than that in the year above-mentioned, 

 L 2 



