OF SELBORNE. 143 



the thaw persisted ; and on the 3rd swarms 

 of little insects were frisking and sporting 

 in a court-yard of South Lamheth, as if they 

 had felt no frost. Why the juices in the 

 small bodies and smaller limbs of such mi- 

 nute 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 tur- 

 nips 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 



