246 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



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 1 1, 7, 6, 6 ; 

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

 just before sunrise, with rime on the trees and on the tube 

 of the glass, the quicksilver sunk exactly to zero, being 32 

 degrees below the freezing point : but by eleven in the 

 morning, though in the shade, it sprung up to i6% 1 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 bridge 

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

 strangely incumbered 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. According 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 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 second of February the thaw 

 persisted; and on the 3d swarms of little insects were 

 frisking and sporting in a court-yard at South Lambeth, as 

 if they had felt no frost. Why the juices in the small 



1 At Selborne the cold was greater than at any other place that the 

 author could hear of with certainty : though some reported at the time 

 that at a village in Kent the thermometer fell two degrees below zero, viz. 

 34 degrees below the freezing point. 



The thermometer used at Selborne was graduated by Benjamin Martin, 



