NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SELBORNE. 27 1 



pease-haum, straw, reeds, or any such covering, for a short time ; 

 or, if his shrubberies are extensive, to see that his people go about 

 with prongs and forks, and carefully dislodge the snow from the 

 boughs : since the naked foliage will shift much better for itself, 

 than where the snow is partly melted and frozen again. 



It may perhaps appear at first like a paradox ; but doubtless the 

 more tender trees and shrubs should never be planted in hot aspects ; 

 not only for the reason assigned above, but also because, thus 

 circumstanced, they are disposed to shoot earlier in the spring, and 

 to grow on later in the autumn than they would otherwise do, and 

 so are sufferers by lagging or early frosts. For this reason also 

 plants from Siberia will hardly endure our climate ; because, on the 

 very first advances of spring, they shoot away, and so are cut off 

 by the severe nights of March or April. 



Dr. Fothergill and others have experienced the same incon- 

 venience with respect to the more tender shrubs from North 

 America, which they therefore plant under north walls. There 

 should also perhaps be a wall to the east to defend them from the 

 piercing blasts from that quarter. 



This observation might without any impropriety be carried into 

 animal life ; for discerning bee-masters now find that their hives 

 should not in the winter be exposed to the hot sun, because such 

 unseasonable warmth awakens the inhabitants too early from their 

 slumbers ; and by putting their juices into motion too soon, subjects 

 them afterwards to inconveniences when rigorous weather returns. 



The coincidents attending this short but intense frost were, that 

 the horses fell sick with an epidemic distemper, which injured the 

 winds of many, and killed some ; that colds and coughs were 

 general among the human species ; that it froze under people's 

 beds for several nights ; that meat was so hard frozen that it could 

 not be spitted, and could not be secured but in cellars ; that several 

 redwings and thrushes were killed by the frost ; and that the large 

 titmouse continued to pull straws lengthwise from the eaves of 

 thatched houses and barns in a most adroit manner for a purpose 

 that has been explained already.* 



On the 3rd of January, Benjamin Martin's thermometer within 

 doors, in a close parlour where there was no fire, fell in the night 

 to 20, and on the 4th, to 1 8, and on the 7th, to 1 7^, a degree of 

 cold which the owner never since saw in the same situation ; and 

 he regrets much that he was not able at that juncture to attend his 



* See Letter XLI. to Mr. Pennant. 



