THE YEAR 1825. 393 



Monday and Tuesday, July 18th and 19th, will 

 long be remembered as the acme of our suffering, 

 the thermometer standing in the shade of a passage 

 communicating immediately with the outer air, in 

 an open situation, at 82 of Fahrenheit. A few 

 yards nearer the air, on which the sun shone, it 

 rose to 93, without any influence from reflection or 

 other causes. In towns, and more confined places, 

 it is said, the heat was much greater. The current 

 of air now felt like that near the mouth of an oven, 

 heavy and oppressive, and occasioning more un- 

 pleasant sensations than such a temperature usually 

 creates ; animals became distressed, the young rooks 

 of the season entered our gardens, and approached 

 our doors, as in severe frosts, with open bills, pant- 

 ing for a cooler element ; horses dropped exhausted 

 on the roads ; many of the public conveyances, 

 which usually travelled by day, waited till night, to 

 save the cattle from the overpowering influence of 

 the sun. The leaves of our apple and filbert trees, 

 in dry situations, withered up ; large forest trees, 

 especially the elm, had their leaves so scorched by 

 the sun, that they fell from their sprays as in au- 

 tumn, rustling along the ground ; the larch became 

 perfectly deciduous. In our gardens, the havoc 

 occasioned by the heat was very manifest. The 

 fruit of the gooseberry, burnt up before maturity, 

 hung shrivelled upon the leafless bushes ; the straw- 

 berry and raspberry quite withered away ; the 

 stalk of the early potato was perfectly destroyed, and 

 the tubers near the surface in many places became 



