THE LEVELLING POWER OF RAIN. 383 



If we limit our attention to any given month of winter, 

 we find the same mixture of cold and dry with wet and 

 open weather as we are familiar with at present. Take, for 

 instance, the month usually the most wintry of all, viz., 

 January. Passing over the years already considered, we 

 have January, 1776, dark and frosty with much snow till the 

 26th (at this time the Thames was frozen over), then foggy 

 with hoar frost ; January, 1777, frosty till the loth, then foggy 

 and showery; 1778, frosty till the i3th, then rainy to the 

 24th, then hard frost; 1779, frost and showers throughout 

 January; 1780, frost throughout; 1781, frost and snow to 

 the 25th, then rain and snow; 1782, open and mild ; 1783, 

 rainy with heavy winds; 1784, hard frost; 1785, a thaw on 

 the 2nd, then rainy weather to the 28th, the rest of the 

 month frosty; 1786, frost and snow till January 7, then a 

 week mild with much rain, the next week heavy snow, and 

 the rest mild with frequent rain; 1787, first twenty-four 

 days dark moist mild weather, then four days frost, the rest 

 mild and showery; 1788, thirteen days mild and wet, five 

 days of frost, and from January 18 to the end of the month 

 dry windy weather; 1789, thirteen days hard frost, the rest 

 of the month mild with showers; 1790, sixteen days of 

 mild foggy weather with occasional rain, to the 2ist frost, 

 to the 28th dark with driving rains, and the rest mild dry 

 weather; 1791, the whole of January mild with heavy rains; 

 and lastly 1792, "some hard frost in January, but mostly 

 wet and mild." 



There is nothing certainly in this record to suggest that 

 any material change has taken place in our January weather 

 during the last eight years. And if we had given the record 

 of the entire winter for each of the years above dealt with 

 the result would have been the same. 



We have, in fact, very striking evidence in Gilbert 

 White's account of the cold weather of December, 1784, 

 which he specially describes as " very extraordinary," to 

 show that neither our severe nor our average winter weather 

 can differ materially from that which people experienced 



