The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-02-25
A WEATHER MYTH
The Idea That 30 Old Fashioned
Winter Was a Fury
FAMOUS FRosTss WERE RARE.

Records Show mar HemaFkaoso S0oW-
storms and Long Seasons Of Hard
Freezing Were Not All The RSIs.
Testimony Of Pspys and Evelyn.
Perhaps the greatest Of weather
myths Is the legend Of the "old fash
toned winter"-that prolonged season
of ice and snow which is supposed to
have held the land in its grip every
year SO firmly has this idea been held
for many years that 1t came as shock
when meteorologists first began to
deIve into the records of the past and
prove its 'inaccuracy.
- There can be no doubt that Charles
Dickens. Washington Irving. artists
who depicted winter scenes and. In q
alter era. the Christmas number and
he Christmcs card are mainly respOn
,ib.e for the Lclicf that up to about
aulf,sseentury ago the British winters
we're always extremely severe.
Such records rs we possess prove the
fallacy of the idea. No records or the
weather were kept up to about fifty
or sixty years ago. SO that we have to
rely on the statements, Of private dla
ries and old family records. and there
fore 1t takes Il lot Of research to obtain
any data at all.
In olden times no one troubled to
make note Of average weather. for
writing was an art possessed only by
few, and writing materials were hard
to obtain: hence It Is that mention is
made only Of something unusual, some
abnormally mild winter or heavy fall
Of snow or prolonged frosts.
And when all is said there are COM
paratIyely few OF the, latter, although
they were likely to be recorded, while
the milder ones would be passed over.
A few years ago there were published
In France some notes concerning very
mild winters 10 early times. Gregory
OF Tours tells us that 5S4 was excep-
tionally mild. as were the winters of
S0S, S34, S44 and loot. when influenza
was rife. .4..
Another mild season occurred in
1920, when the birds are said to have
hatcher their young by February,
while the weather journal Of the Rev.
William Merle, which is in the Bod
leian library at Oxford, shows us that
during the middle OF the fourteenth
century the weather was very much as
it is now aud that mild winters were
not uncommon.
There were roiie Or two mild winters
during the nest hundred years. the
most notable Dne being that Of 1405.
when barley AID corn were Ia the ear
at the end of;Jrnuayy Writings OK the
sixteenth century lave similar testi-
.mony to Offer, the one or two excep-
lions only yoin;: ~ prove the rnle be
cause they FrniT,t sMIiuih Comment
tPepys anil Eyeiyn eoans 10 Jour, aid
from.tbe middle TO me md Of The sew
enteeDth century andrroye conclusive
~ that the Old Fashioned winter is a
myth. The dalrics Of these famous
writer's have been analysed. aud as a
result II is found that falls Of snow
ere mentioned only thirteen times over
nearly sixty years, while exceptionally
heavy storms are referred to only three
times rs ns
In the same period there were but
SIX prolonged frosts. and apparently
only the famous one Of 1884 and nm
other a few years later were SO severe
us the modern ones OF 1901 and 1898,
In January, 1861, Pepys comments on
the mild winter, aid in December of
the following year he notes that he
awoke to find the roofs covered with
snow. which he had not seen for three
years.
Evelyn has the same story to tell
few hard winters and many mild
ones. Such years were 1867. Dec.
90. Little appearance of winter as
yet" and 1923. Feb. 4. Hitherto
an exceedingly mild winter-an ex
traordinalily4adrg and warm season.
without frost and like new spring.
such rs has not been known for many
years"
Here and there we come across ref
erences to the weather which are just
like the letters written to modern
newspapers Informing readers tina,
roses and primroscs were in bloom IN
my garden Oh Christmas day" Gil.
bert Whites record of the weather be-
tween l76S and 1908 helps to end the
myth, for the same number Of years
at the present day would show pretty
much the same sort OF weather. az
thirteen OF the Defenders were mild
and wet.
Z There were mild winters in the begin.
ming Of the nineteenth century. as well
as one or two severe ones. SO that we
may rest assured that the "old fash
Toned winter" was just like the new
fashioned ones.-Ernest c. PuIbrook
in London Family Herald.
Cx.eL - Lie p ..In