NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 231 



the wheels or the horses' feet, so that the carriages ran about 

 without the least noise. Such an exemption from din and 

 clatter was strange, but not pleasant ; it seemed to convey an 

 uncomfortable idea of desolation : 



. . . " Ipsa silentia terrent." 



On the 27th much snow fell all day, and in the evening the 

 frost became very intense. At South Lambeth, for the four 

 following nights, the thermometer fell to 11, 7, 6, 6; and 

 at Selborne to 7, 6, 10 ; and on the 3ist January, just before 

 sunrise, with rime on the trees and on the tube of the glass, 

 the quicksilver sank exactly to zero, being 32 below the freez- 

 ing point ; but by eleven in the morning, though in the shade, 

 it sprang up to i6J-, 2 a most unusual degree of cold this for 

 the south of England ! During these four nights the cold was 

 so penetrating that it occasioned ice in warm chambers and 

 under beds ; and in the day the wind was so keen that persons 

 of robust constitutions could scarcely endure to face it. The 

 Thames was at once so frozen over both above and below the 

 bridge that crowds ran about on the ice. The streets were now 

 strangely encumbered with snow, which crumbled and trod 

 dusty ; and, turning gray, resembled bay-salt ; what had fallen 

 on the roofs was so perfectly dry that, from first to last, it lay 

 twenty-six days on the houses in the city : a longer time than 

 had been remembered by the oldest housekeepers living. Ac- 

 cording to all appearances we might now have expected the 

 continuance of this rigorous weather for weeks to come, since 

 every night increased in severity; but behold, without any 

 apparent cause, on the ist February a thaw took place, and 

 some rain followed before night, making good the observation 

 above, that frosts often go off as it were at once, without any 

 gradual declension of cold. On the 2nd February the thaw 

 persisted ; and on the 3rd swarms of little insects were frisk- 

 ing and sporting in a court-yard at South Lambeth, as if they 

 had felt no frost. Why the juices in the small bodies and 

 smaller limbs of such minute beings are not frozen is a mat- 

 ter of curious inquiry. 



Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to run in currents ; for at 

 the same juncture, as the author was informed by accurate 



