Note 118 — HIND, 28

Mr. Marriott, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Meteorological Society, has kindly supplied the following note:—The frost began about the middle of December 1794, was excessively severe in January, and continued till the end of March. There were large falls of snow, and the consequent floods were so great that nearly all the bridges in England were injured. The greatest cold recorded was at Maidstone on January 25, when a thermometer laid on the snow showed –14° F., and another, five feet above the surface, –10° F. There was a thaw on January 26–7, but on the 28th the frost returned and continued. Mr. A. Rollin, secretary to the captain superintendent at Sheerness, has also been so good as to send the following note, at the instance of Rear-Admiral C. H. Adair: ‘In January 1795 King’s Ferry was frozen and also Sheerness Harbour. People walked from ships in the harbour and from the Little Nore to Sheerness on the ice for provisions.’ Mr. Rollin mentions similar frosts in January 1776, and January 1789; but has no record of the frost of January 1855, when the harbour, and seaward as far as the eye could reach, was frozen over, forcibly recalling Arctic memories.