OF SELBORNE. 
297 
to one degree helozv zero ! This ftrange feverity of the weather made 
me very defirous to know what degree of cold there might be iu 
fuch an exalted and near fituation as Nezvton. We had therefore, 
on the morning of the loth, written to Mr. , and entreated 
him to hang out his thermometer, made by Adams ; and to pay 
fome attention to it morning and evening ; expedt ng wonderful 
phienomena, in fo elevated a region, at two hundred feet or more 
above my houfe. But, behold ! on the loth, at eleven at night, it 
was down only to 17, and the next morning at 22, when mine was 
at ten ! We were lb diflurbed at this unexpedled reverfe of com- 
parative local cold, that we fent one of my glaffes up, thinking 
that of Mr. muft, fome how, be wrongly conftrufted. But, 
when the inftruments came to be confronted, they went exadly 
together : fo that, for one night at leaft, the cold at Nezvton was 
18 degrees Icfs than at Selhorne ; and, through the whole froft, 10 
or 1 2 degrees ; and indeed, when vv-e came to obfcrve confequences, 
we could readily credit this ; for all my lauruftines, bays, ilexes, 
arbutufes, cyprefles, and even my Porti^rod laurels and (which 
occafions more regret) ray fine floping laurel-hedge, were fcorched 
up ; while, at Newton, the fame trees have not loft a leaf! 
We had fteady froft on to the 25th, when the thermometer in the 
morning was down to 10 with us, and at Nezvton only to 21. 
Strong froft continued till the 31ft, when fome tendency to thaw 
was obferved ; and, by fanuary the 3d, 1785, the thaw was con- 
firmed, and fome rain fell. 
^ Mr. Miller, in his Gardener's DliStlonary, fays pofitively that the Portugal laurels re- 
mained untouched In the remarkable froft of 1739-40. So thjt either that accurate ob- 
ferver was much miftaken, or elfe the froft of Decemhsr 1784. was much more fevere and 
deftruilive than that in the year above-mentioned. 
A circumitance 
