Before going farther, it is worth while for the reader to ask himself, perhaps also to ask one or two friends, what might be the proportions of “Good” and “Bad” days that he or they would expect to find in the English climate, as the result of such a computation? Would it be three-quarters bad and one-quarter good? Or could it be possibly half bad and half good? Here is the actual result:-- A.D. Bad Days. Good Days. 1886 89 276 1887 59 306 1888 85 280 1889 107 258 1890 85 280 1891 91 274 1892 77 288 1893 71 294 1894 109 242 1895 88 277 1896 86 282 If the second column be added up, the sum-total amounts to three thousand and fifty-seven days. If the first column be also added up, the sum-total amounts to nine hundred and forty-seven days. A very simple calculation, which anybody may work out, will show that the proportion of “Good” days towards “Bad” days is that of about Three to One. Who would have thought it? Not certainly the majority of friends to whom I have appealed for an opinion. Not even an able scientific man, who frankly confessed his astonishment. Over three-quarters of fairly Good Weather, as opposed to under one-quarter of fairly Bad Weather--and this the average of eleven years! Have we not given the rein too freely to our National grumbling tendencies? Would it not be better if we thought more of the sunshine, less of the clouds and rain? It may perhaps be of interest to some to know more exactly the proportions of the four classes during those years. Both in these and in the former columns it will be noted that one year of the eleven is a few days short of the full length--the year 1894. This seems to have been the only lapse in regularity. Here is the fuller statement:-- A.D. Bad. Half-bad. Half-good. Good. 1886 15 74 86 190 1887 16 43 116 190 1888 18 67 110 171 1889 12 95 113 145 1890 19 66 110 170 1891 21 70 107 167 1892 17 60 95 193 1893 17 54 87 207 1894 19 90 106 136 1895 19 69 84 193 1896 22 64 115 165 So if we owe our weather to the Ocean’s influences, it appears that we have more to be thankful for than to complain of. King Charles II., wise in word though not in deed, is reported to have said that in England a man could work more days in the open air than in any other country. Whether this be so or not, it at least shows that the Merry Monarch was not one in the army of weather-complainers. CHAPTER XI. A STORY OF CONFLICT “Thou Sea, who wast to me a prophet deep, Through all thy restless waves and wasting shores, Of silent labour and eternal change.”--KINGSLEY.