THE YEAR 1825. 259 



will emit a fragrance like that which proceeds from the 

 violet or mezerion, and this it will diffuse in particular 

 states of the air to a considerable distance, a property 

 that, I believe, is not observable in any other British 

 wood : it is in the country only that we can be sensible 

 of this, and it is particularly to be perceived in passing 

 through a village when the cottagers are lighting their 

 fires, or by a farm-house, when this wood, fresh cloven, 

 or newly lopped off, is burning; as the wood dries, 

 this sweet smell is in a great measure exhaled with the 

 moisture, for in this state we are not sensible of any 

 odor arising from it different from other woods. 



THE YEAR 1825. 



WE are naturally solicitous to look back upon seasons 

 remarkable for atmospheric phenomena, and compare 

 their results with those passing before us, though we 

 may be fully sensible that no conclusions can safely be 

 drawn from them, a variety of circumstances not 

 known, or not comprehended, combining to produce 

 results beyond our means of calculation. There have 

 been times when such recollections brought no pleasure 

 with them, by displaying the injuries and sufferings that 

 hurricanes and floods have occasioned ; and thus we 

 who were witnesses of the distress occasioned by the 

 lamentable rains of 1793, and the several successive 

 years, when every wheat-sheaf presented a turf of 

 verdant vegetation, cannot recollect it without sorrow, 

 or ever forget that famine in our land. Yet it is amusing, 

 on some occasions, to note the extremes of weather that 

 our island has experienced ; for though in general our 

 seasons pass away without any very considerable dis- 

 similitude, still we have known periods of great irregu- 

 larity, drought or moisture, cold or heat. The freezing 

 of great rivers, with the roasting of animals and passage 

 of carriages upon the ice, our calendars and diaries 

 relate ; but instances of an opposite temperature, afford- 

 ing less striking events, are not so fully detailed as 

 might be wished. The winter of* 1661 appears to have 



