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From the INTRODUCTION. Though by familiarity made commonplace, the -weather- is one of the most important topics of conversation, and has constant bearings upon the work and prospects of business-men and men of pleasure. The state of the weather is the password when people meet on the country road: we could not do without the humble talisman. -A fine day- comes spontaneously to the lips, whatever be the state of the atmosphere, unless it is peculiarly and strikingly repulsive; then - A bitter day - would take the place of the expression. Yet I have heard -Terrible guid wither- as often as -Terrible bad day- among country people. Scarcely a friendly letter is penned without a reference to the weather, as to what has been, is, or may be. It is a new stimulus to a lagging conversation at any dinner-table. All are so dependent on the weather, especially those getting up in years or of delicate health. I remember, when at Strathpeffer, the great health-resort in the North of Scotland, in 1885, an anxious invalid at -The Pump- asking a weather-beaten, rheumatic old gamekeeper what sort of a day it was to be, considering that it had been wet for some time. The keeper crippled to the barometer outside the doorway, and returned with the matter-of-fact answer: -She's faurer doon ta tay nur she wass up yestreen.- The barometer had evidently fallen during the night. -And what are we to expect?- sadly inquired the invalid. -It'll pe aither ferry wat, or mohr rain--a poor consolation! Most men who are bent on business or pleasure, and all dwellers in the country who have the instruments, make a first call at the barometer in the lobby, or the aneroid in the breakfast-parlour, to -see what she says.- A good rise of the black needle (that is, to the right) above the yellow needle is a source of rejoicing, as it will likely be clear, dry, and hard weather. A slight fall (that is, to the left) causes anxiety as to coming rain, and a big depression forebodes much rain or a violent storm of wind. In either case of -fall, - the shutters come over the eyes of the observer. Next, even before breakfast, a move is made to the self-registering thermometer (set the night before) on a stone, a couple of feet above the grass. A good reading, above the freezing-point in winter and much above it in summer, indicates the absence of killing rimes, that are generally followed by rain. A very low register accounts for the feeling of cold during the night, though the fires were not out; and predicts precarious weather. Ordinarily careful observers-as I, who have been in one place for more than thirty years-can, with the morning indications of these two instruments, come pretty sure of their prognostics of the day's weather. Of course, the morning newspaper is carefully scanned as to the weather-forecasts from the London Meteorological Office-direction of wind; warm, mild, or cold; rain or fair, and so on-and in general these indications are wonderfully accurate for twenty-four hours; though the -three days'- prognostics seem to stretch a point. We are hardly up to that yet....

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