A. D. In 1423 both the North Sea and the Baltic were frozen. Travellers passed on foot from Lübeck to Dantzic. In France the frost penetrated into the very cellars. Corn and wine failed, and men and cattle perished for want of food. The successive winters of 1432, 1433, and 1434, were uncommonly severe. It snowed forty days without interruption. All the rivers in Germany were frozen; and the very birds took shelter in the towns. The price of wheat rose, in England, to 27s. a quarter, but was reduced to 5s. in the following year.

In 1460 the Baltic was frozen, and both foot and horse passengers crossed over the ice from Denmark to Sweden. The Danube likewise continued frozen two months, and the vineyards in Germany were destroyed.

In 1468 the winter was so severe in Flanders, that the wine distributed to the soldiers was cut in pieces with hatchets.

In 1544 the same thing happened again, the wine being frozen into solid lumps. In 1548 the winter was very cold and protracted. Between Denmark and Rostock, sledges drawn by horses or oxen travelled over the ice.

In 1564, and again in 1565, the winter was ex

tremely severe over all Europe. The Scheldt froze so hard as to support loaded waggons for three months.

In 1571 the winter was severe and protracted.

All the rivers in France were covered with hard and solid ice, and fruit trees, even in Languedoc, were killed by the frost.

In 1594 the weather was so severe, that the Rhine and the Scheldt were frozen, and even the sea at Venice.

The year 1608 was uncommonly cold, and snow lay of immense depth even at Padua. Wheat rose, in the Windsor market, from 36s. to 56s. a quarter.

In 1621 and 1622 all the rivers of Europe were frozen, and even the Zuyder Zee. A sheet of ice covered the Hellespont, and the Venetian fleet was choaked up in the lagoons of the Adriatic.

In 1655 the winter was very severe, especially in Sweden. The excessive quantities of snow and rain which fell did great injury in Scotland.

The winters of 1658, 1659, and 1660, were intensely cold. The rivers in Italy bore heavy carriages, and so much snow had not fallen at Rome for several centuries. It was in 1658 that Charles X. of Sweden crossed the Little Belt, over the ice, from Holstein to Denmark, with his whole army, foot and horse, followed by the train of baggage and artillery. During these years, the price of grain was nearly doubled in England; a circumstance which contributed, among other causes, to the restoration.

In 1670 the frost was most intense in England and in Denmark, both the Little and Great Belt being frozen.

In 1684 the winter was excessively cold. Many forest trees, and even the oaks in England, were split by the frost. Most of the hollies

A. D.

were killed. The Thames was covered win ice eleven inches thick. Almost all the birds

perished.

In 1691 the cold was so excessive, that the famished wolves entered Vienna, and attacked the cattle, and even men.

The winter of 1695 was extremely severe and protracted. The frost in Germany began a October, and continued till April; and many people were frozen to death.

The years 1697 and 1699 were nearly as bad In England the price of wheat which, in ceding years, had seldom reached to 30% a quarter, now mounted to 71s.

In 1709 occurred that famous winter, called, b distinction, the cold winter.' All the riven and lakes were frozen, and even the seas, a the distance of several miles from the shore The frost is said to have penetrated three yards into the ground. Birds and wild beasts wen strewed dead in the fields, and men perished by thousands in their houses. The more tetder shrubs and vegetables in England were killed; and wheat rose in its price from £ to £4 a quarter. In the south of France the olive plantations were almost entirely destroyed; nor have they yet recovered that fatal disaster. The Adriatic Sea was quite frozen over, and even the coast of the Mediterranean about Genoa; and the citron and orange groves suffered extremely in the finest parts of Italy.

In 1716 the winter was very cold. On the Thames, booths were erected and fairs beid. In 1726 the winter was so intense, that people travelled in sledges across the Strait, from Copenhagen to the province of Scania in Sweden.

In 1729 much injury was done by the frost, which lasted from October till May. In Scotland multitudes of cattle and sheep were buried in the snow; and many of the forest trees in other parts of Europe were killed.

The successive winters of 1731 and 1732 were likewise extremely cold.

The cold of 1740 was scarcely inferior to that of 1709. The snow lay eight or ten feet deep in Spain and Portugal. The Zuyder Zee was frozen over, and many thousand persons walked or skaited on it. At Leyden the thermometer fell 10° below the zero of Fahrenheit's scale. All the lakes in England froze, and a whole ox was roasted on the Thames. Many trees were killed by the frost, and postilions were benumbed on their saddles.-In both the years 1709 and 1740 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland ordained a national fast to be held on account of the dearth which then prevailed.

In 1744 the winter was again very cold. The Mayne was covered seven weeks with ice; and at Evora, in Portugal, people could hardly creep out of their houses for heaps of snow. The winters during the five successive years 1745, 1746, 1747, 1748, and 1749, were all of them very cold.

In 1754, and again in 1755, the winter was particularly cold. At Paris Fahrenheit's ther

A. D. mometer sank to the beginning of the scale; and, in England, the strongest ale exposed to the air in a glass, was covered, in less than a quarter of an hour, with ice an eighth of an inch thick.

The winters of 1766, 1767, and 1768, were very cold all over Europe. In France the thermometer fell six degrees below the zero of Fahrenheit's scale. The large rivers and the most copious springs in many parts were frozen. The thermometer, laid on the surface of the snow at Glasgow, fell two degrees below zero.

In 1771 the snow lay very deep, and the Elbe was frozen to the bottom.

In 1776 much snow fell, and the cold was intense. The Danube bore ice five feet thick below Vienna. Wine froze in the cellars both in France and in Holland. Many people were frost-bitten; and vast multitudes, both of the feathered and of the finny tribes, perished. Yet the quantity of snow which lay on the ground had checked the penetration of the frost. Van Swinden found, in Holland, that the earth was congealed to the depth of twenty-one inches, on a spot of a garden which had been kept cleared, but only nine inches at another place near it, which was covered with four inches of snow.

The successive winters of 1784 and 1785 were uncommonly severe, insomuch, that the Little Belt was frozen over.

In 1789 the cold was excessive; and again in 1795, when the republican armies of France overran Holland.

The successive winters of 1799 and 1800 were both very cold.

In 1809, and again in 1812, the winters were remarkably cold.

His hideous tail then hurled he about And therewith all enwrapt the nimble thighs Of his froth foamy steed. Faerie Queene.

Their bodies are so solid and hard as you need not fear that bathing should make them frothy. Bacon. When wind expireth from under the sea, as it causeth some resounding of the water, so it causeth some light motions of bubbles, and white circles of froth. Id. Nat. History. The sap of trees is of differing natures; some watery and clear, as vines, beeches, pears; some thick, as apples; some gummy, as cherries; and some frothy, as elms. Bacon.

Surging waves against a solid rock, Though all to shivers dashed the assault renew; Vain battery, and in froth or bubbles end.

Milton. The useless froth swims on the surface, but the pearl lies covered with a mass of waters.

Glanville.

They were the froth my raging folly moved When it boiled up, I knew not then I loved, Yet then loved most. Id. Aurengzebe.

He frets within, froths treason at his mouth, And churns it through his teeth. Dryden. What's a voluptuous dinner, and the frothy vanity of discourse that commonly attends these pompous entertaininents? What is it but a mortification to a man of sense and virtue? L'Estrange.

Excess muddies the best wit, and only makes it

Grew's Cosmologia.

FRO'STWORK, n. s. Frost and work. Work in which the substance is laid on with inequalities, like the dew congealed upon shrubs.

By nature shaped to various figures, those The fruitful rain, and these the hail compose; The snowy fleece and curious frostwork these, Produce the dew, and those the gentle breeze. Blackmore. FROTH, n. s. & v. n. Dan. and Scottish FROTH'ILY, adv. froe; Swed. fra, perFROTH'Y, adj. haps of Greek appog, foam. Spume; foam; the bubbles caused in liquors by agitation. Any empty or senseless show of wit or eloquence; any thing not hard, solid, or substantial: to foam; to throw out spume; to generate spume. Soft; not solid; wasting; vain; empty; trifling.

Grew,

If now the colours of natural bodies are to be mingled, let water, a little thickened with soap, be agitated to raise a froth; and after that froth has stood a little, there will appear, to one that shall view it

intently, various colours every where in the surfaces

of the bubbles; but to one that shall go so far off that he cannot distinguish the colours from one another, the whole froth will grow white, with a perfect whiteNewton.

ness.

Swift.

A painter having finished the picture of a horse, excepting the loose froth about his mouth and his bridle; and, after many unsuccessful essays, despairing to do that to his satisfaction, in a great rage threw a sponge at it, all besmeared with the colours, which fortunately hitting upon the right place, by one bold stroke of chance most exactly supplied the want of skill in the artist. Bentley's Sermons. Behold a frothy substance rise; Be cautious, or your bottle flies. FROTH-SPIT, Or Cuckow-Spit, a name given to a white froth, or spume, very common in spring and the first months of summer, on the leaves of certain plants, particularly on those of the common white field lychnis, or catchfly, thence called by some spatling poppy. All writers on vegetables have taken notice of this froth, though few have understood the cause or origin of it till of late. It is formed by a little

leaping animal, called by some the flea grasshopper, by applying its anus close to the leaf, and discharging thereon a small drop of a white viscous fluid, which, containing some air in it, is soon elevated into a small bubble: before this is well formed, it deposits such another drop; and so on, till it is every way overwhelmed with a quantity of these bubbles, which form the white froth which we see. Within this spume it is seen to acquire four tubercles on its back, wherein the wings are enclosed: these bursting, from a reptile it becomes a winged animal; and thus, rendered perfect, it flies to meet its mate, and propagate its kind. It has an oblong, obtuse body; a large head with small eyes; four external wings, of a dusky brown color, marked with two white spots; the head is black. It is a species of CICADA, which see.

A

FROUNCE, n. s. & v. a.. As a disease, from Arm. froeni, snivel; Welsh ffroen, the nose. word used by falconers for a distemper, in which white spittle gathers about the hawk's bill. Fr. froncer; Teut. fronsen, to frizzle or curl the hair about the face. This word was at ârst probably used in contempt.

Her forhedde frounceles all plain.

Chaucer. Romaunt of the Rose. Some warlike sign must be used; either a slovenly buskin, or an overstaring frounced head. Ascham. Some frounce their curled hair in courtly guise, Some prank their ruffs, and others timely dight Their gay attire. Faerie Queene.

Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, "Till civil suited Morn appear;

Not tricked and frounced as she was wont,
With the attick boy to hunt.

Milton.

When first Diana leaves her bed, Vapours and steams her looks disgrace;

A frouzy dirty-coloured red Sits on her cloudy wrinkled face.

Swift.

Id.

FRO'WARD, adj. Saxon Fɲampeard. FRO'WARDLY, adv. Peevish; ungovernFROWARDNESS, n. s. able; angry; perverse: the contrary to toward. Thus Chaucer speaks of youth being 'froward from sadnesse.' See the instance.

Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths. Prov. ii. 15.

He went on frowardly in the way of his heart.
Is. lvii. 17.

Youth-of naught ellis takith heede.

But only folkis for to lede

Into disport and wildenesse

So froward is it from sadnesse.

Chaucer. Romaunt of the Rose, 4940. She's not froward, but modest as the dove : She is not hot, but temperate as the morn.

Shakspeare.

Time moveth so round, that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as innovation.

Bacon.

The froward pain of mine own heart made me delight to punish him, whom I esteemed the chiefest let in the way. Sidney.

Tis with froward men, and froward factions too, as it is with froward children: they'll be sooner quieted by fear than by any sense of duty. L Estrange.

How now, daughter, what makes that frontlet on! you are too much of late i' the frown.

-Thou wast a pretty fellow, when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning. Id. King Lear.

What, looked he frowningly?

-A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. Shakspeare.

In his half-closed eyes

Stern vengeance yet and hostile terror stand ;
His front yet threatens, and his frowns command.

Prior.

Heroes in animated marble frown. Pope.
The wood,

Whose shady horrors on a rising brow
Waved high, and frowned upon the stream below.
Id.

The courtiers stared, the ladies whispered, and The empress smiled; the reigning favourite frownedI quite forget which of them was in hand

Just then, as they are rather numerous found,
Who took by turns that difficult command

Since her first majesty was singly crowned. Byron.
They sleep not

In their accelerated graves, nor will

Till Foscari fills his. Each night I see them
Stalk frowning round my couch, and, pointing towards
The ducal palace, marshal me to vengeance.
Id. The Two Foscari.
FROWY, adj. Musty; mossy. This word
is now not used; but instead of it frowzy.
But if they with thy gotes should yede,
They soon might be corrupted;

Or like not of the frowy fede,
Or with the weeds be glutted.

Spenser's Pastorals.

Even here, where frozen Chastity retires, Love finds an altar for forbidden fires. Pope. FROZEN OCEAN, or the Icy Sea, is a name sometimes given to that sea of Asia which extends towards the north into the polar regions, and whose boundaries east and west are Nova Zembla and Fonutski Noss. Several ineffectual attempts have been made to navigate this sea; but mariners have always been obstructed. Insurmountable barriers of ice obstruct all navigation far from the shores; and from this circumstance it has its name. The ice never breaks up until the end of July; and fogs, which resemble at a distance islands or vast columns of smoke, are constantly hovering over it. When the cold is at its greatest extreme, the horizon is clear. It has islands inhabited by white bears and arctic foxes. But no tides are felt in this ocean; a series of very irregular currents take their place; seldom setting one way longer than the wind blows, and running at very unequal rates. Whales are rare: the beluga is seen; and herrings, together with a small species of salmon, may be caught, but there are no traces of shell-fish.

The Frozen Ocean receives some of the largest Asiatic rivers, as the Ob, the Lena, and the Kovima. The coast is generally high, formed by projecting promontories and exposed bays: it is covered with drift wood, from the mouth of the Kovima to Bacranof, in 168° 29′ E. long., but no farther east. On the coasts are numerous rein-deer, foxes, bears, wild sheep, and the whistling marmot: the bones of the mammoth, as they are called, are also found here.

F. R. S. Fellow of the Royal Society.
Who virtû profess

Pope.

Shin in the dignity of F. R. S. FRUCTESCENTIA, from fructus, fruit, in botany, literally signifies the growth of the fruit, but is used elliptically for the precise time in which, after the fall of the flowers, the fruits arrive at maturity, and disperse their seeds. In general, plants which flower in spring ripen their fruits in summer, as rye; those which flower in summer have their fruits ripe in autumn, as the vine; the fruit of autumnal flowers ripens in winter, or the following spring, if kept in a stove, or otherwise defended from excessive frosts. These frosts, says M. Adanson, are frequently so pernicious and violent, as to destroy the greatest part of the perennial plants of Virginia and Mississippi, that are cultivated in France, even before they have exhibited their fruit. The plants which flower during our winter, such as those of the Cape of Good Hope, ripen their fruit in spring, in our stoves.

VOL. IX.

sap doth powerfully rise in the Spring, to put the plant in a capacity of fructification, he that hath beheld how many gallons of water may be drawn from a birch tree, hath slender reason to doubt.

FRUCTUOUS, adj.

Id. Vulgar Errours. Fr. fructueux; from fructify. Fruitful; fertile; impregnating with fertility.

Say what you list, and we shul gladly here: And with that word, he said, In this manere : Telleth,' quod he,' your meditatioun ; But hasteth you; the sonne wol adoun: Beth fructuous, and that in little space; And, to do wel, God sende you his grace.

Chaucer. Prologue to the Persones Tale. Apples of price, and plenteous sheaves of cor Oft interlaced occur; and both imbibe Fitting congenial juice; so rich the soil, So much does fructuous moisture o'erabound.

S

Philips. FRUGAL, adj. Fr. frugalité; Lat. fruFRUGALLY, adv. galis, fruges, fruits: its FRUGAL'ITY, n. s.. primary meaning is temperance. Thrifty; sparing; not profuse; not lavish; nor yet strictly parsimonious. Crabb acutely observes, The frugal man spares expense on himself or on his indulgences; he may however be liberal to others, whilst he is frugal towards himself; the parsimonious man saves from himself as well as others; he has no other object than saving.'

As for the general sort of men, frugality may be the cause of drinking water; for that is no small Bacon.

saving, to pay nothing for one's drink.

Reasoning, I oft admire,

How nature wise and frugal could commit
Such disproportions, with superfluous hand
So many nobler bodies to create,
Greater so manifold to this one use. Milton.
Frugality and bounty too,

Those differing virtues meet in you. Waller.
In this frugality of your praises, some things I
cannot omit.
Dryden's Fables, Dedication.
Mean time young Pasimond his marriage pressed,
And frugally resolved, the charge to shun,
join his brother's bridal with his own.
If through mists he shoots his sullen beams,
Frugal of light, in loose and straggling streams,
Suspect a drizling day.
Id. Virgil.

To

Dryden.

The boundaries of virtue are indivisible lines: it

is impossible to march up close to the frontiers of frugality, without entering the territories of modesty.

Arbuthnot's John Bull.

2 U