278 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



borough, after strange embarrassments, here met with a 

 ne plus ultra. The ladies fretted, and offered large 

 rewards to labourers, if they would shovel them a track to 

 London ; but the relentless heaps of snow were too bulky 

 to be removed ; and so the 18th passed over, leaving 

 the company in very uncomfortable circumstances at the 

 Castle and other inns. 



On the 20th the sun shone out for the first time since 

 the frost began ; a circumstance that has been remarked 

 before much in favour of vegetation. All this time the 

 cold was not very intense, for the thermometer stood at 

 29, 28, 25, and thereabout ; but on the 21st it descended 

 to 20. The birds now began to be in a very pitiable and 

 starving condition. Tamed by the season, skylarks 

 settled in the streets of towns, because they saw the 

 ground was bare ; rooks frequented dunghills close to 

 houses ; and crows watched horses as they passed, and 

 greedily devoured what dropped from them ; hares now 

 came into men's gardens, and, scraping away the snow, 

 devoured such plants as they could find. 



On the 22nd the author had occasion to go to London 

 through a sort of Laplandian-scene, very wild and 

 grotesque indeed. But the metropolis itself exhibited a 

 still more singular appearance than the country ; for, 

 being bedded deep in snow, the pavement of the streets 

 could not be touched by the wheels or the horses' feet, so 

 that the carriages ran about without the least noise. 

 Such an exception from din and clatter was strange, but 

 not pleasant ; it seemed to convey an uncomfortable idea 

 of desolation : 



..." ipsa silcntia torrent." 



On the 27 th much snow fell all day, and in the 

 evening the frost became very intense. At South 

 Lambeth, for the four following nights, the thermometer 



