390 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 uncomfort- 

 able idea of desolation : 



ipsa silentia terrent.' 



On the 27th much snow fell all day, and in the even- 

 ing the frost became very intense. At South Lambeth, 

 for the four following nights, the thermometer fell to 11, 

 7, 6, 6 ; and at Selborne to 7, 6, 10; and on the 31st 

 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 16| 2 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 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 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 rigor- 

 ous weather for weeks to come, since every night in- 

 creased in severity ; but behold, without any apparent 



3 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 2 degrees below zero, viz. 

 34 degrees below the freezing point. 



The thermometer used at Selborne was graduated by Benjamin 

 Martin. 



