On the 14th the writer was obliged to be much abroad; and thinks
he never before or since has encountered such rugged Siberian
weather. Many of the narrow roads were now filled above the tops
of the hedges; through which the snow was driven into most
romantic and grotesque shapes, so striking to the imagination as
not to be seen without wonder and pleasure. The poultry dared not
to stir out of their roosting-places; for cocks and hens are so
dazzled and confounded by the glare of snow that they would soon
perish without assistance. The hares also lay sullenly in their seats,
and would not move until compelled by hunger; being conscious,
poor animals, that the drifts and heaps treacherously betray their
footsteps, and prove fatal to numbers of them.
From the 14th the snow continued to increase, and began to stop
the road waggons and coaches, which could no longer keep on
their regular stages; and especially on the western roads, where the
fall appears to have been deeper than in the south. The company at
Bath, that wanted to attend the Queen's birth-day, were strangely
incommoded: many carriages of persons, who got, in their way to
town from Bath, as far as Marlborough, after strange
embarrassments, here met with a ne plus ultra.
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