On the 14th the writer was obliged to be much 

 abroad ; 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 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 com- 

 pelled by hunger ; being conscious, poor animals, that 

 the drifts and heaps treacherously betray their foot- 

 steps, 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 : more 

 especially on the western roads, where the fall ap- 

 pears to have been deeper than in the south. The 

 company at Bath, that wanted to attend the Queen's 

 birthday, were strangely incommoded : the carriages 

 of many persons, who got on their way to town from 

 Bath as far as Marlborough, after strange embarrass- 

 ments, here met with a ne phis 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 re- 

 moved ; and so the i8th passed over, leaving the 



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