OF SELBORNE. 
305 
about on the ice. The streets were now strangely incum- 
bered with snow^ which crumbled and trod dusty, and, 
turning gray, resembled bay-salt : what had fallen on the 
roofs was so perfectly dry, that, from first to last, it lay 
twenty-six days on the houses in the city — a longer time 
than had been remembered by the oldest housekeepers 
living. According to all appearances we might now have 
expected the continuance of this rigorous weather for weeks 
to come, since every night increased in severity; but behold, 
without any apparent cause, on the 1st of February a thaw 
took place, and some rain followed before night — making 
good the observation above, that frosts often go off as it 
were at once, without any gradual declension of cold. On the 
2nd of February the thaw persisted, and on the 3rd swarms 
of little insects were frisking and sporting in a court-yard at 
South Lambeth, as if they had felt no frost. Why the 
juices in the small bodies and smaller limbs of such minute 
beings are not frozen, is a matter of curious inquiry. 
Severe frosts seems 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 Id"" : and at Manchester at 21°, 20'', and 18^ 
Thus does some unknown circumstance strangely overbal- 
ance latitude, and render the cold sometimes much greater 
in the southern than in the northern parts of this kingdom. 
The consequences of this severity were, that in Hamp- 
shire, at the melting of the snow, the wheat looked well, 
and the turnips 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 
damage sustained that befell in January, 1768. Those 
laurels that were a little scorched on the south sides were 
perfectly untouched on their north sides. The care taken 
to shake the snow day by day from the branches seemed 
greatly to avail the author^s evergreens. A neighbour's 
laurel-hedge, in a high situation, and facing to the north, 
was perfectly green and vigorous ; and the Portugal laurels 
remained unhurt. 
