OF SELBORNE. 



147 



fronted, they went exactly together: so 

 that, for one night at least, the cold at 

 Newton was 1 8 degrees less than at Sel- 

 home ; and, through the whole frost, 10 or 

 12 degrees; and, indeed, when we came 

 to observe consequences, we could readily 

 credit this ; for all my laurustines, bays, 

 ilexes, arbutuses, cypresses, and even my 

 Portugal laurels,^ and (which occasions 

 more regret) my fine sloping laurel-hedge, 

 were scorched up ; while, at Newton, the 

 same trees have not lost a leaf ! 



We had steady frost on to the 25th, 

 when the thermometer in the morning was 

 down to 10 with us, and at Newton only to 

 21. Strong frost continued till the 31st, 

 when some tendency to thaw was observed ; 

 and, by January the 3rd, 1785, the thaw 

 was confirmed, and some rain fell. 



* Mr. Miller, in his Gardener's Dictionary, says posi- 

 tively that the Portugal laurels remained untouched in 

 the remarkable frost of 1739-40. So that either that 

 accurate observer was much mistaken, or else the frost 

 of December 1784 was much more severe and destructive 

 than that in the year above-mentioned. 



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