situation, and facing to the north, was perfectly green and vigorous;
and the Portugal laurels remained unhurt.

As to the birds, the thrushes and blackbirds were mostly destroyed;
and the partridges, by the weather and poachers, were so thinned
that few remained to breed the following year.



Letter LXIII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington

As the frost in December, 1784, was very extraordinary, you, I
trust, will not be displeased to hear the particulars; and especially
when I promise to say no more about the severities of winter after I
have finished this letter.

The first week in December was very wet, with the barometer very
low. On the 7th, with the barometer at 28-five-tenths, came on a
vast snow, which continued all that day and the next, and most part
of the following night; so that by the morning of the 9th the works
of men were quite overwhelmed, the lanes filled so as to be
impassable, and the ground covered twelve or fifteen inches
without any drifting. In the evening of the 9th the air began to be so
very sharp that we thought it would be curious to attend to the
motions of a thermometer: we therefore hung out two; one made by
Martin and one by Dollond, which soon began to show us what we
were to expect; for, by ten o'clock, they fell to 21, and at eleven to
4, when we went to bed. On the 10th, in the morning, the
quicksilver of Dollond's glass was down to half a degree below