of little insects were frisking and sporting in a court- 

 yard at South Lambeth, as if they had felt no frost. 

 Why the juices in the small bodies, and smaller limbs, 

 of such minute beings are not frozen, is a matter of 

 curious inquiry. 



Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to run in cur- 

 rents ; for, at the same juncture, as the author was 

 informed by accurate correspondents, at Lyndon, in 

 the county of Rutland, the thermometer stood at 19 ; 

 at Blackburn, in Lancashire, at 19; and at Manches- 

 ter at 21, 20 and 18. Thus does some unknown cir- 

 cumstance strangely overbalance latitude, and render 

 the cold sometimes much greater in the southern 

 than in the northern parts of this kingdom. 



The consequences of this severity were, that in 

 Hampshire, at the melting of the snow, the wheat 

 looked well, and the turnips came forth little injured. 

 The laurels and laurustines were somewhat damaged, 

 but only in hot aspects. No evergreens were quite 

 destroyed ; and not half the damage sustained that 

 befell in January 1768. Those laurels that were a 

 little scorched on the south side were perfectly un- 

 touched on their north sides. The care taken to 

 shake the snow day by day from the branches seemed 

 greatly to avail the author's evergreens. A neigh- 

 bour's laurel-hedge, in a high situation, and facing 

 to the north, was perfectly green and vigorous ; and 

 the Portugal laurels remained unhurt. 



As to the birds; the thrushes and blackbirds 

 186 



