252 NATURAL HISTORY OF 8ELBORNE. 



a sort of Laplandian-scene, very wild and grotesque indeed. But 

 the metropolis itself exhibited a still more singular appearance 

 than the countiy ; for, being bedded deep in snow, the pavement 

 of the streets could not be touched by 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 de- 

 solation : 



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 fol- 

 lowing nights, the thermometer fell to 11, 7, 6, 6; and at Sel- 

 borne to 7, 6, 10; and on the 31st of January, just before sun- 

 rise, 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 164* a most unusual degree of cold this 

 for the south of England !f 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 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 nouses in the city ; a longer time than had been remem- 

 bered by the oldest housekeepers living. According to all ap- 

 pearances 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 1st 

 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. 



* 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. 



f As a proof what extremes of temperature the human body can endure, when gradually habit- 

 uated, may be mentioned a curious fact which occurred two or three winters ago in Quebec. 

 After a course of intensely severe weather, the thermometer rose very suddenly to zero ! when 

 the workmen were actually seen labouring without their jackets, so uncomfortably warm did it 

 then appear. ED. 



