On chalky and sandy soils, and in the hot villages about London,
the thermometer has been often observed to mount as high as 83 or
84; but with us, in this hilly and woody district, I have hardly ever
seen it exceed 80; nor does it often arrive at that pitch. The reason,
I conclude, is, that our dense clayey soil, so much shaded by trees,
is not so easily heated through as those above-mentioned: and,
besides, our mountains cause currents of air and breezes; and the
vast effluvia from our woodlands temper and moderate our heats.
Letter LXV
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
The summer of the year 1783 was an amazing and portentous one,
and full of horrible phaenomena; for besides the alarming meteors
and tremendous thunder-storms that affrighted and distressed the
different counties of this kingdom, the peculiar haze, or smokey
fog, that prevailed for many weeks in this island, and in every part
of Europe, and even beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary
appearance, unlike anything known within the memory of man.
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