CHAPTER II. 



AN EASTER OUTING (AND INNING). 

 April isth, 1893. 



Splendid March Gilbert White's weather record Troubles 

 Netting for jack Coming to grief in a quicksand. 



HE oldest inhabitant whom I have encoun- 

 tered lately, and he was between eighty 

 and ninety, assured me that he never re- 

 membered such a splendid March as this 

 last one. It by no means follows that during the 

 eighty odd years of the old man's memory there has 

 not been many such March months. 



I have seen many months of March in my time, but 

 in such matters my memory is so treacherous that I 

 could not say with certainty what sort of a March we 

 had even two or three years ago. I leave it to chro- 

 nologers to say how many such months of March there 

 may have actually been during the time of this old 

 man's pilgrimage. My general impression about the 

 month of March is that it has almost always been 

 cold and wet, and sleety and snowy, with biting 



