122 
COLD MARCH. 
Heath, the other on Highdown Ball. In both instances, 
the rabbit seemed stupefied or fascinated by Mght ; in one 
instance running round and round, and not taking the 
right precaution for escape ; in the other, starting, stop- 
ping, and, as I fancied, trembling with fear. When its 
prey is taken, the weasel rarely eats more than the brain. 
The thermometer has sunk since this time last 
month, when I began this epistle, and the snow has nearly 
blinded me to-day in a gallop along the Hog's Back :* 
but never mind ; a cold March, and a crop of wheat," 
is an old and a very true proverb ; we shall have a 
cheap loaf. The crocuses have remained for three weeks 
precisely in statu quo, and the hedgerows are still as 
black as on St. Valentine's day, except where a warm 
nook has allowed them sun, and has protected them from 
the keen wind. In such situations the whitethorn is be- 
ginning to be gemmed with green, and the palm willow 
displays its velvety catkins looking as though they would 
gladly return to the winter coverings which they have lost. 
Up Godbold's the giant aspens have put forth their catkins 
in unusual quantities, so that the ground below is strewed 
with those which the fierce wind has carried away from 
their moorings on the twigs ; none of them have shed 
their pollen, and, as they lie on the ground, they look 
more like great, red caterpillars than anything vegetable. 
The female blossoms of the hazel, which a month back, 
under the influence of a mild south-wester, were fresh and 
clear, and briglit red as the happy and innocent lips of a 
young, laughing beauty, have turned dark and withery, as 
that beauty may hereafter turn under the destroying influ- 
* Dated 13th March, 1835.—^. N. 
