252 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
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 exemption from din and clatter was strange, but not 
pleasant; it seemed to convey an uncomfortable idea of de- 
solation : 
" ipsa silentia terrent." 
On the 27th much show fell all day, and in the evening the 
frost became very intense. At South Lambeth, for the four fol- 
lowing nights, the thermometer fell to 11, 7, 6, 6 ; and at Sel- 
borne to 7, 6, 10; and on the 31st of January, just before sun- 
rise, with rime on the trees and on the tube of the glass, the 
quicksilver sunk exactly to zero, being 32 degrees below the 
freezing point : but by eleven in the morning, though in the 
shade, it sprung up to — a most unusual degree of cold this 
for the south of England If During these four nights the cold 
was so penetrating that it occasioned ice in warm chambers and 
under beds ; and in the day the wind was so keen that persons 
of robust constitutions could scarcely endure to face it. The 
Thames was at once so frozen over both above and below bridge 
that crowds ran about on the ice. The streets were now strangely 
incumbered 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 remem- 
bered by the oldest housekeepers living. According to all ap- 
pearances 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. 
* At Selborne the cold was greater than at any other place that the author could hear of with 
certainty : though some reported at the time that at a village in Kent the thermometer fell two 
degrees below zero, viz. 34 degrees below the freezing point. 
The thermometer used at Selborne was graduated by Benjamin Martin. 
t As a proof what extremes of temperature the human body can endure, when gradually habit- 
uated, may be mentioned a curious fact which occurred two or three winters ago in Quebec. 
After a course of intensely severe weather, the thermometer rose very suddenly to zero ! when 
the workmen were actually seen labouring without their jackets, so uncomfortably warm did it 
then appear. — Ed. 
