gan to be in a very pitiable and starving condition. 

 Tamed by the season, skylarks settled in the streets 

 of towns, because they saw the ground was bare ; 

 rooks frequented dunghills close to houses; and 

 crows watched horses as they passed, and greedily 

 devoured what dropped from them ; hares now came 

 into the gardens, and, scraping away the snow, de- 

 voured such plants as they could find. 



On the 22nd the author had occasion to go to 

 London through a sort of Laplandian scene, very 

 wild and grotesque indeed. But the metropolis itself 

 exhibited a still more singular appearance than the 

 country ; for, being bedded deep in snow, the pave- 

 ment of the streets could not be touched by the 

 wheels or the horses' feet, so that the carriages ran 

 about without the least noise. Such an exemption 

 from din and clatter was strange, but not pleasant ; 

 it seemed to convey an uncomfortable idea of deso- 

 lation : 



" ipsa silentia terrent." 



*' By silence terrified." 



On the 27th much snow fell all day, and in the 

 evening the frost became very intense. At South 

 Lambeth, for the four following nights, the thermom- 

 eter fell to II, 7, 6, 6; and at Sel borne to 7, 6, 10; 

 and on the 31st of January, just before sunrise, with 

 rime on the trees and on the tube of the glass, the 

 quicksilver sank exactly to zero, being 32 degrees 



below the freezing-point : but by eleven in the morn- 



184 



