To Miss Anne Barker. 



Selborne : Feb : t^th : 1785. 



Dear Niece, 



I was just thinking to write 

 to somebody in your family, when 

 your agreeable letter came in. 



As the late frost was attended 

 with some unusual circumstances, 

 your father, I trust, will not be 

 displeased to hear the particulars. 

 The first week in Dec was very 

 wet, with the Barom'' very low. 

 On the 7th with the Bar: at 28 - 

 5 - 10 : there came on a vast 

 snow, which continued all that 

 day and the next, and most part 

 of the following night ; so that by 

 the morning of the 9th the works 

 of men were quite overwhelmed, the lanes filled so 

 as to be rendered impassable, and the ground cov- 

 ered 12 or 14 inches where there was no drifting. 

 In the evening of the 9th the air began to be so 

 very sharp that we thought it would be curious to 

 attend to the motions of a Therms We therefore 

 hung out two, one made by Martin and one by 

 Dolland, w^hich soon began to shew us what we 

 were to expect. For by 10 o'clock they fell to 21 : 



— and at 11^: to 4, when we went to bed. On the 



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