[ 3 00 ] 
as fuch, I think, by feveral authors. In fhort, the 
maxim is this ; viz. that a plentiful year of mail is 
an infallible prognoftic of an hard or fevere winter. 
Now, it happened lad; year, that providons of this fort 
were as plentiful as ever was known ; the trees and 
hedges being loaded in fuch a manner, as to bend and 
break under the preflure of their own weight : and 
yet the winter was the mildefl, perhaps, that ever 
happened in this country : and accordingly not one 
quarter of nature’s dore was confirmed. We had no 
ice, but once, and that not the thicknefs of an half 
crown, which did not continue 24 hours. I fee by 
Cuff s tables, publiihed in a monthly paper, that, in 
London, the thermometer was never below 32 j and 
fo low as this but twice, and then only by darts. I 
had ranunculus’s in full bloom from the middle of 
December to the middle of February, and they not 
fheltered, but by a wall north, 2y° ead. In the 
middle of January, I had felf-fowed marigolds and 
violets in bloom. Jan. 1 y, the bees roared, and were 
as bufy as they are in the height of the working fea- 
ion : and Jan. 1 8, the birds fung as chearfully as they 
generally do in May. 
It feems probable to me, that the great abundance 
of berries and wild fruits (by which I mean mad) is 
intirely owing to a very backward fpring ; for, when 
the blofloms do not open till pretty late in May, they 
are fecure from thofe inclement blads, which, when 
they unfold themfelves fooner, do pinch and blight 
the greated part of them. I am. 
Reverend Sir, 
Your affectionate brother, 
and mod obliged humble fervant, 
Richard Forfter. 
XXXII. An 
