The Great Frost of 1776 in an English Village | History for Sleep

Winter, 1775-1776. In the Hampshire village of Selborne, under a steep hill of beech woods, the naturalist Gilbert White watches the birds, the animals, the weather and the people of his parish. Tonight you are his guest: rooks going to bed over the down, an old tortoise digging its winter bed, rushlights made from the scummings of the bacon-pot, crickets on the kitchen hearth, and then the great frost of January 1776: snow filling the hollow lanes, coaches stranded on the Bath road, a silent London, the frozen Thames, and a thermometer falling to zero on a winter dawn. 🕯 Play the whole night (all episodes):    • History for Sleep: Play the Whole Night (A...   Subscribe for new sleep stories most evenings:    / @rushlighthours   A calm, slow history story to fall asleep to, with a quiet voice and soft, low music. You, the guest, are imagined. The village, the weather, the birds, the snow and every word Gilbert White writes come from his letters and journal, published as The Natural History of Selborne (1789). Where he is silent, the narration says so. CHAPTERS 0:00 Opening 02:11 The village under the hill 04:07 The Hanger 06:08 The naturalist 08:01 The Wakes 09:53 The Plestor 11:50 The owls in the church 14:10 Well-head 16:19 The pond on the down 18:08 The wettest September 20:01 The dripping oak 21:58 The horse and the hen 24:15 The doe and the cows 25:57 The rooks go to bed 28:06 The swallows leave 30:14 The old tortoise 32:30 Rushes instead of candles 34:43 Peeling the rushes 36:46 The bacon pot 38:36 Light for a farthing 40:55 The cricket on the hearth 43:06 The companions of solitary hours 44:44 The boy who loved bees 47:10 December at the Wakes 49:19 Flocks of winter 51:16 Birds of the yew hedge 53:15 Black as ebony 55:15 Christmas at Selborne 57:30 Old beliefs 59:37 The frost of sixty-eight 1:01:33 It froze under people's beds 1:03:46 A wet new year 1:05:33 The seventh of January 1:07:25 A prodigious mass 1:09:08 Siberian weather 1:11:05 The poultry and the hares 1:12:52 The coaches stop 1:14:36 The ladies at Marlborough 1:16:45 The sun comes out 1:18:44 Tamed by the season 1:20:46 A Laplandian scene 1:22:33 The silent city 1:24:28 The coldest nights 1:26:22 Zero 1:28:18 The frozen Thames 1:30:13 Like bay-salt 1:32:03 The thaw 1:33:51 The little insects 1:35:31 After the snow 1:37:39 What the frost took 1:39:27 The linnets in the sunshine 1:41:21 The first swallow 1:43:10 The tortoise comes to Selborne 1:45:16 The frost of eighty-four 1:47:29 The electric cat 1:49:25 Into the cellar 1:51:34 The cat and the leveret 1:53:34 A bird in the dark 1:55:37 The book 1:57:40 The last years 1:59:28 Selborne now 2:01:28 Closing SOURCES AND FURTHER READING Gilbert White, The Natural History of Selborne (1789), letters to Thomas Pennant and Daines Barrington (Project Gutenberg editions) Gilbert White's House and Gardens, Selborne IMAGES Photographs, Wikimedia Commons / Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0: Alan O'Dowd, Andrew Smith, Bob Harvey, Bob Jones, Chris Heaton, Christine Matthews, Christopher Hilton, Colin Park, Colin Smith, Des Blenkinsopp, Jim Champion, John Lord, Jonathan Thacker, Lorraine Hawkins, M J Richardson, Mark Anderson, Michael Garlick, Mick Garratt, Mike Pennington, Oast House Archive, Paco Gómez, Peter Barr, Peter S, Peter Wood, Philip Halling, Phillip Beadham, Rob Farrow, Ruben Felgenhauer, Val Pollard, WabbitWanderer, hedera.baltica. CC BY-SA 4.0: Charles J. Sharp, Chris Wood, DeFacto, D. J. Bergsma, Ermell, Evas-naturfotografie, F. Losada Rodríguez, Frank Schulenburg, Giles Laurent, KaiKemmann, Kolforn, Magnefl, David J. Stang, Poli Borah24, Sherefong, Stephjeb, W.carter; Dou museum photo. CC BY-SA 3.0: Abudimir85, D. J. Bergsma, Forester2009, Fotoscotty, Ludi Ling, MPF, Si Griffiths. CC BY-SA 2.5: André Karwath. CC BY 4.0: Alexis Lours, Dguendel, Jakub Hałun, cazalegg. CC BY 3.0: Holger Krisp, Jerzystrzelecki. CC BY 2.0: Frank Vassen, Henry Söderlund, Jon Nelson, Kristina Servant, Ron Knight, Tony Hisgett, caroline legg, gianni del bufalo, takomabibelot, yeowatzup. Also: Meggar (CC BY-SA 3.0). CC images are cropped, panned and colour-graded. Licences: CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · CC BY-SA 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Other images: public domain or CC0. Narration: synthetic voice. Music: original, composed for Rushlight Hours. #historyforsleep #sleepstory #naturehistory