OF SELBOPvNE. 
293 
• Oil the 20th the fun {"hone out for the firft time fince the 
ffoPc began ; a cuxumftance that has been remarked before much 
in favour of vegetation. All tills time the cold Vv'as not very 
intenfc, for the diermometer f ood at 29, 28, 25, and there- 
about; but ca the 2ift it defcended to 20. The birds now 
began to be in a very pitiable and ftarving condition. Tamed 
by the feafon, fky-larks fettled in the ftreets of towns, becaufe 
they faw the ground Vv'as bare ; rooks frequented dunghills clofe to 
houfes ; and crows watched horfes as they pafled, and greedily 
devoured what dropped from them ; hares now came into men's 
gardens, and, fcraping away the fnow, devoured fuch plants as 
they could find. 
On the 22d the author had occafion to go to London 
through a fort of Laplandian-fcene, very wild and grotefque indeed. 
But the metropolis itfelf exhibited a ftill more Angular appearance 
than the country; for, being bedded deep in fnow, the pavement 
of the ftreets could not be touched by the wheels or the horfes' feet, 
fo that the carriages ran about without the lead noife. Such an 
exemption from din and clatter was ftrange, but not pleafant ; it 
feemed to convey an uncomfortable idea of defolation : 
" — — — — — — — — ipfa nientla terrent." 
On the 27th much fnow fell all day, and in the evening- 
the froft became very intenfe. At South Lambeth, for the four 
following nights, the thermometer fell to 11, 7, 6, 6; and at 
SelboTiie to 7, 6, 10; and on the 311I: of jL.nycvy, juft before 
fun-rife, with rime on the trees and on the tube of the glais, 
the quickfdver funk exaftly to zero, being 32 degrees below the 
freezing point : but by eleven in the mornmg, though in che 
fnade^ 
