JANUARY. 11 



however, walking is none of the safest. From 

 time immemorial boys have used it as an es- 

 pecial privilege of theirs to make slides upon 

 every causeway, maugre the curses and me- 

 nacing canes of old gentlemen, and the certain 

 production of falls, bruises, and broken bones. 

 Sometimes, too, rain freezing as it falls, or a 

 sudden thaw, and as sudden a re-freezing, 

 covers the whole ground with a sheet of the 

 most glassy ice. Such a frost occurred in 1811, 

 when great numbers of birds were caught, and 

 amongst them several bustards, their wings 

 being glazed to their sides, and their feet to 

 the ground. But of all the phenomena of win- 

 ter, none equals in beauty 



The Hoar Frost. A dense haze most com- 

 monly sets in over night, which has vanished 

 the next morning, and left a clear atmosphere, 

 and a lofty arch of sky of the deepest and most 

 diaphanous blue, beaming above a scene of en- 

 chanting beauty. Every tree, bush, twig, and 

 blade of grass, from the utmost nakedness has 

 put on a pure and feathery garniture, which 

 appears the work of enchantment, and has all 

 the air and romantic novelty of a fairy-land. 

 Silence and purity are thrown over the earth 

 as a mantle. The hedges are clothed in a 

 snowy foliage, thick as their summer array. 

 The woods are filled with a silent splendour; 



