NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORXE. 195 



cold this for the south of England ! During these four nights the cold 

 was so penetrating that it occasioned ice in warm chambers and under 

 beds ; and in the day the wind was so keen that persons of robust 

 constitutions could scarcely endure to face it. The Thames was at once 

 so frozen over both above and below bridge that crowds ran about on 

 the ice. The streets were now strangely encumbered with snow, which 

 crumbled and trod dusty ; and, turning grey, resembled bay-salt ; what 

 had fallen on the roofs was so perfectly dry that, from first to last, it 

 lay twenty-six days on the houses in the city : a longer time than had 

 been remembered by the oldest housekeepers living. According to all 

 appearances we might now have expected the continuance of this 

 rigorous weather for weeks to come, since every night increased in 

 severity; but behold, without any apparent cause, on the 1st of 

 February a thaw took place, and some rain followed before night, 

 making good the observation above, that frosts often go off as it were 

 at once, without any gradual declension of cold. On the 2nd of 

 February the thaw persisted ; and on the 3rd swarms 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 currents ; 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 Manchester at 21, 20, and 

 18. Thus does some unknown circumstance strangely overbalance 

 latitude, and render the cold sometimes much greater in the southern 

 than 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 sides were perfectly untouched 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 

 neighbour'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 were mostly destroyed ; 

 and the partridges, by the weather and poachers, were so thinned that 

 few remained to breed the following year. 



LETTEE LXIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



As the frost in December 1784 was very extraordinary, you, I trust, 

 will not be displeased to hear the particulars ; and especially when I 



