SEVERE FROSTS. 253 



On the 2d 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 bodies and smaller limbs of such minute beings are 

 not frozen is a matter of curious enquiry. 



Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to run in currents ; for, at 

 the same juncture, as the author was informed by accurate cor- 

 respondents, at Lyndon in the county of Rutland, the ther- 

 mometer 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 evergreens 

 were quite destroyed ; and not half the damage sustained that 

 befel in January 1768. Those laurels that were a little scorched 

 on the south sides were perfectly untouched on their north sides. 

 The care taken to shake the snow day by day from the branches 

 seemed greatly to avail the author's evergreens. A neighbour's 

 laurel hedge, in a high situation, and facing to the north, was 

 perfectly green and vigorous ; and the Portugal laurels remained 

 unhurt. 



As to the birds, the thrushes and blackbirds were mostly de- 

 stroyed ; and the partridges, by the weather and poachers, were 

 so thinned that few remained to breed the following year. 



LETTER LXIII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



As the frost in December 1784 was very extraordinary, you, I 

 trust, will not be displeased to hear the particulars ; and especially 

 when I promise to say no more about the severities of winter 

 after I have finished this letter. 



The first week in December was very wet, with the barometer 

 very low. On the 7th, with the barometer at 28 five tenths, 

 came on a vast snow, which continued all that day and the next, 

 and most part of the following night ; so that by the morning of 

 the 9th the works of men were quite overwhelmed, the lanes 



