202 LETTERS TO MARCO xxx 



baneful nature does not seem to be influenced 

 by the quarter from whence it blows. Most 

 of us can remember when an east wind was 

 dry and cold, a south wind warm and wet, a 

 west wind bright and clear, and a north wind 

 bright and cold, but now we seem to have 

 dark, cold winds, persistently recurring from 

 all quarters alike. The Professor allows that 

 there are intervals of fine and even lovely 

 weather, but the phenomenon is in the ever- 

 returning spells of this plague wind. A few 

 years ago this wind was of a damp and rainy 

 character, but certainly during this year and 

 the last it has been one of cold and drought. 1 

 In all years it has been attended with dark- 

 ness and gloom ; the clouds being, as he 



1 The drought which has again prevailed this present spring, 

 for even a longer period than it did last year, has, according to my 

 observations, been attended by the same cold north - east wind ; 

 though this has been much tempered by the extraordinary amount of 

 bright sunshine. Amongst other curious results of the prevalence 

 of bright sunshine this year, the tulip tree has bloomed freely in 

 England : a friend of mine yesterday gave me a beautiful specimen 

 of the flower from a tree in Hertfordshire. I never saw it in 

 England but once before, about forty years ago, on a tree in 

 Cashiobury Park. \7thjune 1893. 



