DECEMBER. 305 



overwhelmed with vapour and cloud ; the 

 ground stiff, grey, and rough ; the branches 

 rattling ; the sides of the hill looking black and 

 hard with the driving blasts ; the dew-drops 

 congealed on the stubble and rind of trees ; the 

 sharp hailstones, deadly-cold, hopping on the 

 thatch and the neighbouring causeway." 



We are now placed in the midst of such win- 

 try scenes as this. Nature is stripped of all her 

 summer drapery. Her verdure, her foliage, her 

 flowers have all vanished. The sky is filled 

 with clouds and gloom, or sparkles only with a 

 frosty radiance. The earth is spongy with wet, 

 rigid with frost, or buried in snows. The winds 

 that in summer breathed gently over nodding 

 blooms, and undulating grass, swaying the leafy 

 boughs with a pleasant murmur, and wafting 

 perfumes all over the world, now hiss like ser- 

 pents, or howl like wild beasts of the desert ; 

 cold, piercing, and cruel. Every thing has 

 drawn as near as possible to the centre of 

 warmth and comfort. The farmer has driven 

 his flocks and cattle into sheltered home inclo- 

 sures, where they may receive from his provi- 

 dent care that food which the earth now denies 

 them ; or into the farm-yard itself, where some 

 honest Giles pi.'es their cratches plentifully with 

 fodder. The labourer has fled from the field to 

 the barn, and the measured strokes of his flail 



x 



