54 OX THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



In 1854-5, just before I became a postal servant, 

 the winter was remarkable for the duration of frosty 

 weather, but I have no note of the extent to which it 

 affected the mails. I was more concerned in those 

 days with telegraphs, and the frostier the weather, 

 the better we got on, until the wires snapped and 

 struck work altogether. 



In February, 1855, there were seventeen daj^s in 

 which the mean temperature was below thirty-two 

 degrees. The like had not since been known until 

 1895, when from January 25 to February 18 there 

 were twentj'-five such days. Darwin seems to have 

 been impressed by the cold of the earlier period. ' I 

 estimated,' he wrote, 'that the winter of 1854-5 de- 

 stroyed four-fifths of the birds in my own grounds.'* 



But the posts ran in 1854-5, to the best of my 

 knowledge, with reasonable punctuality. History, 

 as far as the weather went, did but repeat itself. 

 'December 24, 1785, to January 7, 1786,' records 

 Gilbert White, + ' hard frost ; 14th to 21st, deep snow; 

 February 22 to March 10, hard frost. On May 1 

 and 2, thick ice.' He saj^s, however, nothing about 

 the Selborne postman, nor, indeed, of mail-riders, 

 who somehow had to struggle through the snow. 



It was in London on January 22, 1881, as White 

 had found it on January 22, 1776. ' But the Metro- 

 polis itself exhibited a still more singular appearance 

 than the country; for, being bedded deep in snow, 



■^ ' Origin of Species,' John Murray, 1860. 

 t White's ' Selborne.' 



