276 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



and thinks he never before or since has encountered such 

 rugged Siberian weather. Many of the narrow roads were 

 now filled above the tops of the hedges, through which the 

 snow was driven into most romantic and grotesque shapes, 

 so striking to the imagination as not to be seen without 

 wonder and pleasure. The poultry dared not to stir out of 

 their roosting places ; for cocks and hens are so dazzled and 

 confounded by the glare of snow that they would soon 

 perish without assistance. The hares also lay sullenly in 

 their seats, and would not move till compelled by hunger, 

 being conscious poor animals that the drifts and heapa 

 treacherously betray their footsteps, and prove fatal to 

 numbers of them. 



From the 14th the snow continued to increase, and began 

 to stop the road waggons and coaches, which could no 

 longer keep on their regular stages ; and especially on the 

 western roads, where the fall appears to have been deeper 

 than in the south. The company at Bath, that wanted to 

 attend the Queen's birthday, were strangely incommoded 

 many carriages of persons, who got in their way to town from 

 Bath as far as Marlborough, after strange embarrassments, 

 here met with a ne plus ultra. The ladies fretted, and 

 offered large rewards to labourers if they would shovel them 

 a track to London ; but the relentless heaps of snow were 

 too bulky to be removed ; and so the 18th passed over, 

 leaving the company in very uncomfortable circumstances 

 at the Castle and other inns. 



On the 20th the sun shone out for the first time since 

 the frost began ; a circumstance that has been remarked 

 before much in favour of vegetation. All this time the 

 cold was not very intense, for the thermometer stood at 

 29, 28, 25, and thereabout; but on the 21st it descended 

 to 20. The birds now began to be in a very pitiable and 



