12 JANUARY. 



the dark boles here and there contrasting 

 strongly with the white and sparkling drapery 

 of the boughs above, amongst which the wan- 

 dering birds fly, scattering the rime around 

 them in snowy showers. There is not a thicket 

 but has assumed a momentary aspect of strange 

 loveliness ; and the mind is more affected by 

 it from its suddenness of creation, and the con- 

 sciousness of its speedy departure : — for hoar- 

 frosts and gipsies are said never to remain nine 

 days in a place, — the former, indeed, seldom 

 continue three days. 



In this most fierce and inhospitable of all 

 months, besides the beautiful features we have 

 already noted, we are ever and anon pre- 

 sented with momentary smiles and isolated in- 

 stances of vegetable life, which come, as it 

 were, to keep the heart from withering amidst 

 the despondency of this season of deadness. 

 The Helleborus niger, or Christmas Rose, ex- 

 pands its handsome white chalices, undaunted 

 by the sharpest frosts, and blooms amidst over- 

 whelming wreaths of snow long before that 

 poetical and popular favourite, the Snowdrop, 

 dares to emerge from its shrouding earth. 



Mild and even sunny days sometimes break 

 the sullen monotony of January, which the 

 country people look upon less with a pleased 

 than a foreboding eye, denominating them u-ca- 



