318 WEATHER. 



this, for all my laurustines, bays, ilexes, arbutuses, 

 cypresses, and even my Portugal laurels *, and, 

 which occasions more regret, my fine sloping 

 laurel-hedge, were scorched up, while at Newton 

 the same trees have not lost a leaf ! 



We had steady frost on the 25th, when the 

 thermometer in the morning was down to 1 with 

 us, and at Newton only to 21. Strong frost con- 

 tinued till the 31st, when some tendency to thaw 

 was observed, and by January the 3d, 1785, the 

 thaw was confirmed, and some rain fell. 



A circumstance that I must not omit, because 

 it was new to us, is, that on Friday, December 

 the 10th, being bright sunshine, the air was full 

 of icy spicula, floating in all directions, like atoms 

 in a sunbeam let into a dark room. We thought 

 them at first particles of the rime falling from 

 my tall hedges, but were soon convinced to the 

 contrary, by making our observations in open 

 places where no rime could reach us. Were 

 they watery particles of the air frozen as they 

 floated, or were they evaporations from the snow 

 frozen as they mounted ? 



We were much obliged to the thermometers 

 for the early information they gave us, and 

 hurried our apples, pears, onions, potatoes, &c. 

 into the cellar and warm closets ; while those 

 who had not, or neglected such warnings, lost all 

 their stores of roots and fruits, and had their very 

 bread and cheese frozen. 



I must not omit to tell you that, during those 



1 Mr. Miller, in his Gardener's Dictionary, says posi- 

 tively that the Portugal laurels remained untouched in 

 the remarkable frost of 1739-40. So that either that 

 accurate observer was much mistakep, or else the frost of 

 December, 1784, was much more severe and destructive 

 than that in the year above-mentioned. 

 12 



