ceedingly
sad and irreparable loss. The gale blew hardest in special tracks, the
course of which could be followed by the destruction of trees and
branches in distinct lanes, cut through woods and plantations.

The winter of 1880-1881 was very severe, the mean temperature of
January, 1881, being 27.8 degrees F., the coldest January since 1820.
Ten years later, 1890-1891, another very prolonged winter occurred:
the frost began on the 6th of December, and, with scarcely a break,
continued till well into February. The feature of this frost was the
fine settled weather, and the warmth of the midday sun in the
brilliant air, when skaters could sit on the river banks and enjoy
their rest and lunch in its rays. I took my elder daughter back to
school at Richmond at the end of January, and in London we saw the
Thames choked by huge hummocks of ice, on which people were crossing
the river. An ox was roasted whole on the Avon at Evesham, and, when
the frost broke up, the ice on our millpond was 17 inches thick.

Another great frost happened in 1894-1895, beginning late in December,
and lasting till the end of February, with a single intervening week
of thaw; and in March the ground, in places, was too hard to plough.
It was the only time that I was completely at a loss to find work for
my men; all the carting was finished in the early days of the frost,
and all the thrashing possible followed; ploughing and all working of
the land, or draining, were impracticable. The men, seeing that there
would be no employment for them until the frost broke up, told me that
if they might get what wood they could from fallen trees in the brook,
and if I would lend them horses and carts to get it home, they would
be glad to work in that way for themselves for a time. Just as they
had cleared both brooks from end to end of the farm which occupied
them about ten days, the thaw came and I was able to find them plenty
to do.

We suffered very little from droughts at Aldington, the land was
naturally so retentive of moisture, but 1893 was a dry year, not
easily forgotten; no rain fell from early in March to July 13; the hay
crop was the lightest in remembrance, and straw was so short and
scarce that the hay-ricks of the following year, 1894, had to go
unthatched until the harvest of that year provided the necessary
straw.

The spring of 1895 was remarkable for a plague of the caterpillars of
the winter-moth, due to the destruction of insect-eati