SUMMERS OF 1781 AND 1783. 277 



I forgot to mention before, that, during the two severe days, 

 two men, who were tracing hares in the snow, had their feet 

 frozen ; and two men, who were much better employed, had 

 their fingers so affected by the frost, while they were thrashing 

 in a barn, that mortification followed, from which they did not 

 recover for many weeks. 



This frost killed all the furze and most of the ivy, and in 

 many places stripped the hollies of all their leaves. It came 

 at a very early time of the year, before old November ended, 

 and may yet be allowed, from its effects, to have exceeded any 

 since 1739-40.* 



LETTER CVIIL 



TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON, 



As the effects of heat are seldom very remarkable in the 

 northerly climate of England, where the summers are often so 

 defective in warmth and sunshine, as not to ripen the fruits of 

 the earth so well as might be wished, I shall be more concise in 

 my account of the severity of a summer season, and so make a 

 little amends for the prolix account of the degrees of cold, and 

 the inconveniencies that we suffered from some late rigorous 

 winters. 



The summers of 1781 and 1783, were unusually hot and 

 dry ; to them, therefore, I shall turn back in my journals, 

 without recurring to any more distant period. In the former 

 of these years, my peach and nectarine trees suffered so much 

 from the heat, that the rind on the bodies was scalded and 

 came off; since which, the trees have been in a decaying 

 state. This may prove a hint to assiduous gardeners to fence 

 arid shelter their wall-trees with mats or boards, as they may 

 easily do, because such annoyance is seldom of long continu- 

 ance. During that summer, also, I observed that my apples 

 were coddled, as it were, on the trees ; so that they had no 

 quickness of flavour, and would not keep in the winter. This 



which made me stop with surprise. Suspecting, however, that this 

 might be imaginary, 1 again proceeded ; and shortly after I felt another 

 shock, which made me almost involuntarily throw the twig with the 

 creature upon the ground." ED. 



* Mr Miller, in his Gardener's Dictionary, says positively, that the 

 Portugal laurels remained untouched in the remarkable frost of 1739-40 : 

 so that either that accurate observer was much mistaken, or else the 

 frost of December, 1784, was much more severe and destructive than that 

 in the year above mentioned. 



