CLIMATE, SEASONS, &C 63 



ny very fine and without Jire in March. 

 In England winter really begins in No- 

 vember, and does not end 'till mid-March. 

 Here we have greater cold ; there four 

 times as much we^. I have had my great 

 coat on only twice ^ except when sitting 

 in a stage travelling. 1 have had gloves 

 on no oftener ; for, I do not, like the 

 Clerks of the Houses of Boroughmongers, 

 write in gloves. I seldom meet a wa- 

 goner with gloves or great coat on. It 

 is generally so dry. This is the great 

 friend of man and beast. Last summer 

 I wrote home for nails, to nail my shoes for 

 winter. I could find none here. What 

 a foolish people not to have shoe-nails ! 

 I forgot, that it was likel}^ that the ab- 

 sence of shoe-nails argued an absence of 

 the want of them. The nails are not 

 come ; and I have not wanted them. 

 There is no dirt except for about ten days 

 at the breaking up of the frost. The dress 

 of a labourer does not cost half so much 

 as in England. This dryness is singular- 

 ly favourable to all animals. They are 

 hurt far less by dry cold than by warm 

 drip, drip, drip, as it is in England. 

 — There has been nothing green in the 

 garden, that is to say, above ground, since 

 December ; but, we have had, all win- 

 ter, and have now, white cabbages, green 

 savoys, parsnips, carrots, beets, young 

 onions, radishes, white turnips, Swedish 

 turnips, and potatoes ; and all these 

 in the greatest abundance (except ra- 

 dishes, which were a few to try), and 

 always at hand at a minute's warning. 

 The modes of preserving will be given in 

 another part of the work. What can any 



