AN EASTER OUTING (AND INNING). 25 



easterly and north-easterly winds, and altogether dis- 

 agreeable. 



My old and venerated friend, Gilbert White, gives 

 us a record of the weather for every month for twenty- 

 four years (1768-1792), and of all those months of 

 March there is only one, that of 1770, which can be 

 quoted as even approaching the one which has so 

 pleasantly, and alas, so swiftly just passed from us, all 

 the rest have the bad character my own memory attri- 

 butes generally to this ungenial month. 



" 1770, the whole of March frosty with bright 

 weather. " 



Our March has been somewhat "frosty," and I 

 know not what our fruit growers think of it. My own 

 small garden seems to have enjoyed it thoroughly, 

 though now looking out for the warm April showers, 

 which as yet do not seem to be forthcoming ; apple 

 and pear, plum, apricot, and gooseberry buds all 

 appear to be plentiful and firm. Gilbert White's 

 April of 1770, following the bright March, was 

 " cloudy, with rain and snow." 



So much for the weather, bright and beautiful it 

 has been since March came in, and still continues, for 

 April though now far advanced, hath not yet "with 

 his sweet showers pierced the drought of March, and 

 bathed every vein in the balm that produces flowers," 

 as he did in Chaucer's time. 1 



Such bright weather with an easterly wind, how- 

 ever gentle and breezy it may be, is not the best kind 

 of weather for angling for trout ; nevertheless when 



1 Leigh Hunt's paraphrase of Chaucer. 



