Visions and Rumours of War 
February 20. — The water-gate on the river has been 
carried away by the ice breaking up and coming down in 
great floes. These blocks have been swept along the haugh, 
and are now covered with snow. Snow everywhere ! For 
two Sundays we had no service : the congregation could not 
struggle through the drifts. Yesterday there was a scarcity 
of baker’s bread in the village, as the baker did not “ get 
thro’,” and when at last he did appear he drove a pair ! 
We hear the telegraph-wires are broken down near Edin- 
burgh, and for two whole days the capital of the North was 
cut off from London, and messages had to come round by 
Ireland. Posts are late, of course. What a weary tramp poor 
“ Posty,” the old soldier, has, to be sure ! — yet we think we 
are lucky to get letters at all. But the delay in the trans- 
mission of war news is very hard, so many Border-men are 
at the front. I picked a basketful of Snowdrops where the 
snow had melted on the banks; it was so curious to see 
them ! A funeral was blocked on the road to the church, 
and the mourners had to camp in the drift. Altogether the 
present aspect of things is very like the graphic picture given 
of Winter in old Bishop Gawain Douglas’ rugged verse, 
rendered intelligible to modern folk by Mr. Warton. 
It is curious how these severe Winters seem to recur at 
intervals. By the way, this ought to have been Leap-year, 
but it happens to be the one when the leap has to be taken, 
so now there will not be a Leap-year till 1904, so I shall 
have to wait till then to inspect the Beanpods and Peascods, 
to see if the old saying be true, that the Peas and Beans 
grow reversed in their pods in Leap-year, because it is the 
Ladies’ year, and all things go by contraries. 
There was no new moon this February, but two new 
moons in January and two in March; if it had been a 
Leap-year there would have been one in February and only 
one in March. 
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