THE YEAR 1825. 
259 
will emit a fragrance like that which proceeds from the 
violet or mezerion, and this it will diffuse in particular 
states of the air to a considerable distance, a property 
that, I believe, is not observable in any other British 
wood : it is in the country only that we can be sensible 
of this, and it is particularly to be perceived in passing 
through a village when the cottagers are lighting their 
fires, or by a farm-house, when this wood, fresh cloven, 
or newly lopped off, is burning ; — as the wood dries, 
this sweet smell is in a great measure exhaled with the 
moisture, for in this state we are not sensible of ahy 
odor arising from it different from other woods. 
THE YEAR 1825. 
We are naturally solicitous to look back upon seasons 
remarkable for atmospheric phenomena, and compare 
their results with those passing before us, though ive 
may be fully sensible that no conclusions can safely be 
drawn from them, — a variety of circumstances not 
known, or not comprehended, combining to, produce 
results beyond our means of calculation. The^e have 
been times when such recollections brought no pleasure 
with them, by displa)dng the injuries and sufferings that 
hurricanes and floods have occasioned ; and thus we 
who were witnesses of the distress occasioned by the 
lamentable rains of 1793, and the several successive 
years, when every wheat-sheaf presented a turf of 
verdant vegetation, cannot recollect i| without sorrow, 
or ever forget that famine in our land. Yet it is amusing, 
on some occasions, to note the extremes of weather that 
our island has experienced ; for though in general our 
seasons pass away without any very considerable dis- 
similitude, still we have known periods of great irregu- 
larity, drought or moisture, cold or heat. The freezing 
of great rivers, with the roasting of animals and passage 
of carriages upon the ice, our calendars and diaries 
relate ; but instances of an opposite temperature, afford- 
ing less striking events, are not so fully detailed as 
might be wished. The winter of 1661 appears to have 
