T'he Natural History of Se I borne 393 



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 bridge that crowds ran 

 about on the ice. The streets were now strangely encum- 

 bered with snow, which crumbled and trod dusty; and. 

 turning grey, 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. Accord- 

 ing to all appearances we might now have expected the continu- 

 ance of this rigorous weather for weeks to come, since every 

 night increased in severity ; but, behold, without any apparent 

 cause, on the ist of 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 of February the 

 thaw persisted; and on the third swarms of little insects 

 were frisking and sporting in a courtyard 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 matter 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 

 correspondents, at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, the 

 thermometer stood at 19; at Blackburn, in Lancashire, at 

 19; and at Manchester at 21, 20, and 18. Thus does 

 some unknown circumstance strangely overbalance latitude, 

 and render the cold sometimes much greater in the southern 

 than the northern parts of this kingdom. 



The consequences of this severity were, that in Hampshire, 

 at the melting of the snow, the wheat looked well, and the 

 turnips came forth little injured. The laurels and laurustines 

 were somewhat damaged, but only in hot aspects. No ever- 

 greens were quite destroyed ; and not half the damage 

 sustained that befell in January 1768. Those laurels that 



