that the carriages ran about without the least noise. Such an
exception from din and clatter was strange, but not pleasant; it
seemed to convey an uncomfortable idea of desolation:

... ipsa silentia terrent.

On the 27th much snow fell all day, and in the evening the frost
became very intense. At South Lambeth, for the four following
nights, the thermometer fell to 11, 7, 6, 6; and at Selborne to 7, 6,
10; and on the 31st January, just before sunrise, with rime on the
trees and on the tube of the glass, the quicksilver sunk exactly to
zero, being 32 degrees below the freezing point; but by eleven in
the morning, though in the shade, it sprung up to 16.5 * -- a most
unusual degree of cold this for the south of England! During these
four nights the cold was so penetrating that it occasioned ice in
warm chambers and under beds; and in the day the wind was so
keen that persons of robust constitutions could scarcely endure to
face it. The Thames was at once so frozen over both above and
below bridge that crowds ran about on the ice. The streets were
now strangely incumbered with snow, which crumbled and trod
dusty; and, turning grey, resembled bay-salt; what had fallen on the
roofs was so perfectly dry that, from first to last, it lay twenty-six
days on the houses in the city; a longer time than had been
remembered by the oldest housekeepers living. According to all
appearances we might now have expected the continuance of this
rigorous weather for weeks to come, since every night increased in
severity; but behold, without any apparent cause, on the 1st of
February a thaw took place, and some rain followed before night;
making good the observation above, that frosts often go off as it
were at once, without any gradual declension of cold. On the