a few weather dates
Posted by P. Bingham on June 03, 1998 at 16:58:09:
In response to Please do! :-), written by Caroline on June 03, 1998 at 11:52:31
] Patricia, when you have the time, I'd love to see that info, especially since that particular book is very hard for me to track down,and I refuse to try anfd buy it wothout at least giving it the once-over first! ]
Weather from The Regency Companion
(& related items I thought might be due to the weather though might also be due to various political conditions) This is taken from a list of "important dates."
1800
Summer & Fall Food scarse and costly generated a series of food riots in London.
1814
Winter One of the coldest winters ever settled over London. The Thames was frozen over between London Bridge and Blackfriars.
Feb. 1 A Great frost Fair featuring all sorts of amusements and booths opened on the stretch of frozen Thames River. It closed on Feb 5 when the ice began to crack.
] It also brings me to another point, which you have brought up. Historical accounts in diaries and letters, although very idiosyncratic, can be the the best source of information on this kind of thing. For example, when Gilbert White comments on the severity of temperatures and the amount of snow of December 1775, it gives a very good picture of the state of Hampshire at Austen's birth. All the scietific analysis, modeling and mapping of various weather phenomena back up his description, making it believeable (as if we wouldn't believe him anyway), but it rarely adds any extra information, I find. It's nice to know that the science backs up the history, but no-one should go away thinking that because this conversation is veering towards the technical(and that's partly my fault)that the diaries and notes and newspapaer comments of the times are a lesser source of information.]
Very true. I've found in such literature a wealth of information which has helped me more than anything anyone has ever compiled, regardless of the subject. It involves time-consuming research research but I find it is well worth the trouble. (and you remember what you read more! Unless you are like me and inately lackadaisical and entirely too forgetful)
Patricia
- Thanks! (Nfm) Caroline 22:54:42 6/06/98
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