SNOW-DRIFT 183 



My companions were a gentleman and his two 

 dauochters, from the West Indies, one of whom carried a 

 paiTot, and the other a small monkey, in their respective 

 laps. AYith this company was I doomed to sit, cramped 

 up, as it were, in a band-box, two long days and a night 

 — for we did not arrive in London till seven the next 

 evening — and glad was I to have got thus far on my 

 journey homeward. 



After stopping the following day in London, I pro- 

 ceeded by the night-coach to Horndean, from whence I 

 had to walk a mile up a narrow lane, into which the snow 

 had drifted, and had become frozen in j^laces, so that this 

 became really the most dangerous part of my long and 

 arduous journey ; for, falling up to my shoulders in the 

 drift, I was only extricated by some labouring men who 

 were going early to their work. Thus I accomplished 

 my task — that is, had travelled nearly 1,100 miles in 

 eleven days, and had been up seven nights out of the 

 eleven — a feat not very common in such an unpleasant 

 season. 



This long frost, which lasted thirteen weeks, and did 

 not break up tiU the last day in March, was followed by 

 a delightful spring and summer, which gave additional 

 enjoyment to the festivities and rejoicings that took place 

 all over the kingdom, in consequence of the successful 

 termination of the longest and most expensive war in 

 which the country had ever been engaged. Joy seemed 

 to be lit up in every countenance ; and the continual 

 arrival of soldiers and sailors from foreign stations, with 

 the sudden revival of commerce, caused such an increase 

 of travelling, that conveyances could scarcely be found, or 



