o6i NATURAL HISTORY 
Jcimary ytli.— Snow driving all the day, which was followed by 
froil, fleet, and fome fnow, till the 12th, when a prodigious mafs 
overwhelmed all the works of men, drifting over the tops of the 
gates and filling the hollow lanes. 
On the 14th the writer was obliged to be much abroad; 
and thinks he never before or fince has encountered fuch r-jo-oed 
Siberian weather. Many of the narrow roads were now filled 
above the tops of the hedges ; through which the fnow was driven 
into moft romantic and grotefque fliapes, fo ftriking to the imagi- 
nation as not to be fccn v/ithout wonder and pleafure. The 
poultry dared not to ftir out of their roofting places ; for cocks 
and hens arc fo dazzled and confounded by the glare of fnow 
that they would foon perlfli without afliftance. The hares alfo lay 
fullenly in their feats, and would not move till compelled by 
hunger ; being confcious, poor animals, that the drifts and heaps 
treacheroully betray their footileps, and prove fatal to numbers of 
them. 
From the 14th the fnow continued to increafe, and began 
to ilop the road waggons and coaches, which could no longer 
keep on their regular ftages ; and cfpecially on the weftern roads, 
where the fall appears to have been deeper than in the fouth. The 
company at Bath, that wanted to attend the ^leens birth-day, were 
ftrangely incommoded : many carriages of perfons, who got in 
their way to town from Bath as far as Marlborough, after ftrangc 
embarralfments, here met wii-h a ne plus ultra. The ladies fretted, 
and offered large rewards to labourers if they would fliovel them 
a track to London : but the relentlefs heaps of fnow were too 
bulky to be removed; and fo the 18th paffed over, leaving the 
company in very uncomfortable circumftances at the Cajfle and 
other inns« 
On 
