As an instance of great rarity in England of the severity of a frost, it is worth notice, that in January, 1808, the rain froze as it fell, and in London the umbrellas were so stiffened that they could not be closed. Birds had their feathers frozen so that they could not fly, and many were picked up as they lay helpless on the ground. ANCIENT SNUFF-BOXES. These ancient snuff-boxes furnish proof of the love of our ancestors for the titillating powder. An admiring writer of the last century, reflecting on the curious and precious caskets in which snuff was then imprisoned, asks-- "What strange and wondrous virtue must there be, And secret charm, O snuff! concealed in thee, That bounteous nature and inventive art, Bedecking thee thus all their powers exert." [Illustration: [++] Ancient Snuff Boxes.] But every age, since snuff was in use, appears to have cherished great regard for the beauty and costliness of its snuff boxes, and even at the present time, the snuff box is the recognised vehicle of the highest honour a corporation can bestow. Those here represented are not so much boxes as bottles. They are richly and elaborately ornamented with sporting subjects, and no doubt once belonged to some famous personage. Judging of their very antique form and figures, we are inclined to think they must have been in use earlier than it is generally supposed that snuff was introduced into this country. SEEING THE FIRST AND THE LAST OF TWO GENERATIONS. Frances Barton, of Horsley, Derbyshire, died 1789, aged 107. She followed the profession of a midwife during the long period of eighty years. Her husband had been sexton of the parish seventy years; so that this aged pair frequently remarked, that _she_ had twice brought into the world, and _he_ had twice buried, the whole parish. Her faculties, her memory in particular, were remarkably good, so that she was enabled well to remember the Revolution in 1688, and being present at a merry making on that glorious occasion. THE EARLIEST HACKNEY-COACH. [Illustration: [++] The Earliest Hackney-Coach.] The above is a correct representation of one of the earliest forms in which coaches for hire were first made. They were called Hackney, not, as is erroneously supposed, from their being first used to carry the citizens of London to their villas in the suburb of Hackney, but from the word "hack," which signifies to offer any article for sale or hire. Hackney coaches were first established in 1634, and the event is thus mentioned in one of _Strafford's Letters_, dated April in that year:--