March 0. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
D 
M 
D 
W 
MARCH 6—12, 1855. 
Weather near London in 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. 
1853. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
6 
To 
Hydroporus glanularis. 
30.636—30.437 
44—24 
E. 
_ 
37 a 0 
46 a 5 
8 48 
18 
11 
34 
65 
7 
w 
Hydroporus trifidus. 
30.424—30.377 
50—44 
S.W. 
— 
35 
48 
10 1 
19 
11 
20 
66 
8 
Til 
Hydroporus confluens. 
30.332—30.285 
55— 46 
S.W. 
— 
33 
49 
u 20 
20 
11 
5 
67 
9 
F 
Laccophilus hyalinus. 
30.258—30.195 
62—47 
S.W. 
— 
31 
51 
morn. 
21 
10 
50 
68 
10 
S 
Laccophilus minutus. 
30.101—30.991 
56—40 
S.W. 
01 
28 
53 
0 41 
22 
10 
34 
69 
11 
Son 
3 Sunday in Lent. 
30.140—30.101 
61—27 
S.W. 
26 
55 
2 2 
6 
10 
18 
70 
12 
M 
Elater nitidulus. 
30.061—30.924 
63—27 
1 s. 
24 
56 
3 18 
24 
10 
2 
71 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 50°, and 32.5°, respectively. The greatest heat, 68°, occurred on the 9th, in 1826; and the lowest cold 7°, 
on the loth, in 1847* During the period 125.days were fine, and on 71 rain fell. 
Not the least remarkable accompaniment of the severe 
frost which has now passed, is the fact, observed in the 
Times, Morning Chronicle, and other daily papers, that 
not only the exact day of its commencement, January 
15th, was foretold by Mr. Beaton two months before, 
but also the time of its duration. 
There are, however, some other facts connected with 
it deserving notice, and first of these is, that it is one of 
those severe frosts which periodically visit us every 
twenty-four or twenty-five years. Thus, there was one 
in 1683-4, another in 1708-9, and others followed in 
1730, 1753-4, 1763, 1789, 1814, 1838, and now 1854-5- 
Of course, there were many intermediate severe winters ; 
but the foregoing were pre-eminently so. They are all 
mentioned in the following communication to the 
Gentleman’s Magazine :— 
“Holinshed informs us that in 150.5, ‘the one and 
twentytli of December began a frost, which continued so 
extremelie that on New Years Euen, people went ouer and 
alongst the Thames on the ise from London Bridge to 
Westminster. Some plaied at foot ball as boldlie there as 
if it had been on the drie land; diuerse of the Court shot 
daily at targets, set upon the Thames, and the people both 
men and women went on the Thames in greater numbers 
than in anie street of the citie of London. On the 31 daie 
of Januarie, at night, it began to thaw, and on the fift daie 
was no ise to be seen between London Bridge and Lambeth; 
which sudden thaw caused great floods and high waters, that 
bare downe bridges and houses, and drowned manie people 
in England; especiallie in Yorkshire, Owes bridge xvas borne 
awaie with others' 
“ Dr. Derham, in the Transactions of the Royal Society, 
records a remarkable frost in 1083-4, when the Thames was 
frozen so as to bear carriages.—This frost began about the 
beginning of December, and lasted till the 5th February 
(O. S.) Rapin says, at London there was another city as it 
were on the ice; by the great number of booths between 
the Temple and Southwark; in- which a fair was held 
upwards a fortnight. 
“Dr. Derham gives a more particular account of the great 
frost in 1708-9, when it appears from a comparison of the 
scale of the thermometers then in uso with that of Fahren¬ 
heit, that Fahrenheit’s thermometer would have fallen to 
about 1-J- degrees. During this frost, he says, though 
several people crossed the Thames at some distance above 
the Bridge, it was only towards low water, when the great 
flakes of ice which came down stopped one another at the 
Bridge, till they made one continued bed of ice from thence 
almost to the Temple; but when the flood came, the ice 
broke and was all carried with the current up the river.— 
He further states, that though this frost was extremely 
rigorous in the Southern parts of the Island, yet the 
Northern felt little of it; and he quotes a letter from the 
then Bishop of Carlisle, dated Rosa, who says ‘ none of our 
rivers or lakes were frozen over : ’ and a letter from a gentle¬ 
man at Edinburgh, who writes, ‘ We had not much frost to 
speak of, and it lasted not long.’ 
“ This frost appears to have been long remembered on 
the Continent for its remarkable severity. In England trees 
and shrubs were greatly injured, which was attributed to 
temporary thaws, succeeded by intense cold. 
“ The next frost particularly noticed by Dr. Derham was 
in 1715-16, when the Thames was frozen over several miles, 
booths and streets were made on the ice, an ox roasted, &c. 
“The cold this winter never appears to have been lower 
than 11 degrees of Fahrenheit; and Dr. Derham observes, 
‘ the true cause of the freezing of the Thames that year 
was not barely the excess of the cold, but the long con¬ 
tinuance of it.’ 
“ Professor Weidder, of Wittenburg, describes the Winter 
of 1723 to have been severer in Germany than that of 1709. 
“In 1730-1, Dr. Derham says, the frost was as excessive 
as in any of the years of his observations; and the cold 
appears to have again been about 1J degrees of Fahrenheit 
in 1709. 
“In 1739-40, there was a remarkably long and severe 
frost, which appears to have extended over the Continent- 
The lowest degree of the thermometer observed by Lord 
Charles Cavendish in Malborough-street, was 13 degrees on 
the 5th of January, on which day it was observed to be 10 
at Stoke Newington. At Oxford, the thermometer this 
Winter fell to 13 degrees. This frost began December 24th, 
and is said to have lasted nine weeks. Smollett says, a 
multitude of people dwelt on the Thames in tents, and a 
great number of booths were erected on it. 
“ The Transactions of the Royal Society also record a 
remarkable frost in the Winter of 1753-4. The thermometer 
varied 40 or 50 degrees in 24 hours; the cold coming as it 
w r ere by fits, in an unusual manner. The lowest degree this 
Winter was 15. 
“In 1762-3, the frost set in on the 25th December, and 
continued with little intermission till the 29th of January. 
This frost commenced earlier in France, Holland, and the 
North-east parts of Europe, and was proportionably severer. 
Mr. Pigott, of York, observed a remarkable degree of cold 
in January, at Caen, in Normandy. At London the Thames 
was frozen so as to bear carriages. The lowest degree of 
the thermometer at Cardington, in Bedfordshire, was 10§. 
In Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland, the Winter was milder 
than usual. 
“The Winters of 1707 and 1708 were severe. In 
No. CCCXXXV'L Vo l. XIIE 
