tEESIDBNl's ABDKESS. l7l 



Ireland or places to the north more might have been observed, 

 as we often find a considerable number do come at that time, but 

 my keeper tells me he does not think any more have made their 

 appearance. 



During the past winter the weather was so mild, and so seldom 

 even were the nights very cold, that many flowers kept their 

 blooms during the winter, and we had from time to time some 

 spring flowers prematurely appearing as if they were bewildered, 

 some Butterflies emerged also extraordinarily soon from where 

 they had been hybernating ; but as if to remind us that our cli- 

 mate is not to be trusted, we have had some very cold weather 

 during the last six or eight weeks, the thermometer once or twice 

 having gone down so low as 25°, and on several days during 

 April never got much beyond 40° during the day ; this I fear 

 would injure the fruit blossoms, which were very forward; it 

 certainly blackened the tops of the early Potatoes in my garden. 



One often hears it said in an offhand way that our climate is 

 much changed for the worse, I mean especially in the N.E. part 

 of England. Is this so ? There are things which seem at first 

 sight at any rate to indicate it. For instance, I can remember 

 when in the village of East Boldon House-Martins and Swallows 

 were very abundant, the nests of the former being built in the 

 comers of most of the upstairs windows facing the south, and 

 there were dozens of them under the eaves of the cottages. It 

 was interesting to see them continually on the wing from early 

 morning till late in the evening. IS'ow for many years there has 

 scarcely been a pair seen there. An occasional pair of Swallows 

 still visits us. Is this occasioned by the scarcity of some fa- 

 vourite article of food? I understand that certain insects which 

 were formerly abundant in localities known to entomologists are 

 now rare. On the other hand I can testify that some insects 

 not loved by gardeners are still only too plentiful. Here is 

 another memory of a happier state of things. "Within my recol- 

 lection abundance of fine Peaches, ISTectarines, and Apricots used 

 to ripen on the walls of my garden facing the south, now for a 

 good many years we have only been able to get a precarious 

 few, small and imperfectly ripened. "We find also that trees 



