COLD WINTERS. 127 



spring or autumn days, unnoted and unremembered. But a 

 bitter winter, or even a spell of bitter weather such as is felt 

 almost every year, is remembered. Even though it lasts but 

 for a short time, it produces as much effect on the childish 

 imagination as a long and bitter winter produces on the 

 minds of grown folk. Looking back at the days of child- 

 hood, the middle-aged man or woman recalls what seems 

 like a series of bitter winters, because recalling many occa- 

 sions when, during what seemed a long time, the snow lay 

 deep, the waters were frozen, and the outdoor air was shrewd 

 and biting. 



Before considering some of the remarkable winters which 

 during the last century have been experienced in Great 

 Britain and in Europe generally, I would discuss briefly 

 the evidence on which I base the belief that the winter 

 weather of Europe, and of Great Britain especially, has 

 undergone no noteworthy change during the last century. 



If there is any validity in the theory at present in vogue that 

 our winters are milder now than they were forty or fifty years 

 ago, and the theory in vogue as we have seen forty years ago 

 that the winters then were milder than they had been forty 

 or fifty years earlier, it is manifest that there ought to be a 

 very remarkable contrast between our present winter weather 

 and that which was commonly experienced eighty or ninety 

 years since. Now, it so chances that we possess a record of 

 the weather from 1768 to 1792, by a very competent observer 

 Gilbert White of Selborne which serves to show what 

 weather prevailed generally during that interval ; while the 

 same writer has described at length, in his own happy and 

 effective manner, some of the winters which were specially 

 remarkable for severity. Let us see whether the winters 

 during the last third of the eighteenth century were so 

 much more bitter or long-lasting than those now experienced 

 as common ideas on the subject would suggest. 



In 1768, the year began with a fortnight's frost and snow. 

 The cold was very severe, as will presently be more particu- 

 larly noted. Thereafter wet and rainy weather prevailed to 



