The Year Without Summer (40 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book originated with a suggestion by our editor, Daniela Rapp, whose patient
guidance and insights shepherded the manuscript to completion. Our agent and my longtime
friend, Daniel Bial, provided essential support and his usual astute advice. I would
also like to thank my research assistants, Anna Kearns, Miliana Budimirovic, and Julia
Benjamin; Meg Grotti and the cheerfully helpful staff of the Morris Library at the
University of Delaware; and Pat Garnett and the equally generous staff at the Albin
O. Kuhn Library of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Any errors in the
manuscript belong to Nick and myself alone.

My deepest gratitude, of course, goes to my family, without whom I could never have
brought this book home.

—W
ILL
K
LINGAMAN

I would like to thank Dr. Bethan Harris of the Department of Meteorology, University
of Reading, who pointed me in the direction of some very useful information on the
eruption of Tambora and its effects on global climate. I should also thank Mrs. Catherine
Turner, the Department of Meteorology librarian, who helped locate resources at the
British Library. The staff at the British Library also provided assistance in locating
the letters from Robert Peel to Lord Liverpool and Lord Sidmouth.

—N
ICK
K
LINGAMAN

NOTES

The page numbers for the notes that appeared in the print version of this title are
not in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search
for the relevant passages documented or discussed.

The first citation of a published source always includes an abbreviated title; subsequent
citations employ only the author’s last name, unless we have used more than one book
by that author.

1. T
HE
V
OLCANO

“a firing of cannon”:
Asiatic Journal
, August 1816, p. 165.

“several very distinct reports…”: Raffles,
Memoirs
, vol. 1, p. 279.

“do as much good”: Egerton,
Raffles
, p. 59.

“We had a most extensive…”: ibid., pp. 127–8.

“the sound appeared…”: Raffles,
History
, p. 30.

“seemed to forebode…”: ibid.

“extremely irritable…”: MacKenzie,
Escape
, p. 64.

“fatigue the senses…”: ibid., p. 65.

“Taking towns at his liking…”: Moore,
Letters,
p. 207.

“I want less…”: Coote,
Napoleon
, p. 158.

“an enemy and disturber…”: MacKenzie, p. 255.

“the sovereigns of Europe would be…”: ibid., p. 254.

“We are really going on…”: ibid., p. 198.

“a man fit only to cook…”:
National Register
, May 18, 1816.

“the Parisians love for…”: Coote, p. 84.

“the maintenance of an…”: Thompson,
Letters
, p. 307.

“the need for rest…”: Coote, p. 68.

“Our objective is to make sure…”: MacKenzie, p. 10.

“a troubled confused…”: Raffles,
Memoirs
, vol. 1, p. 283.

“to find it…”:
Asiatic Journal
, August 1816, p. 161.

“a heavy mortar fired…”:
Asiatic Journal
, August 1816, p. 166.

“Towards morning the reports…”: ibid., p. 165.

“By this time…”: ibid.

“By ten it was…”: ibid.

“The ashes now began…”: ibid., p. 166.

“perfect impalpable powder…”: ibid.

“The darkness was so profound…”: ibid.

“the atmosphere still continued…”: ibid.

“utter darkness”: Raffles,
Memoirs
, vol. I., p. 273.

“covered with ashes…”: ibid., p. 274.

“Our chiefs here…”:
Asiatic Journal,
August 1816, p. 164.

“supernatural artillery”: Raffles,
Memoirs
, vol. I, p. 270.

“neither read nor write…”: ibid.

“the trees also were…”: ibid., p. 271.

“a tremulous motion…”: Oppenheimer, “Consequences,” p. 238.

“showers of ashes…”: Raffles,
History
, p. 25.

“completely beaten down…”:
Asiatic Journal
, August 1816, p. 166.

“The trees and herbage…”: Raffles,
Memoirs
, vol. I., p. 284.

“the cattle and inhabitants…”:
Asiatic Journal,
October 1816, p. 422.

“the whole of his country…”:
Asiatic Journal
, August 1816, p. 167.

“the extreme misery to which…”: Raffles,
History
, p. 27.

2. P
ORTENTS

“the heaviest snow ever…”:
Niles’ Weekly Register
, May 18, 1816.

“a greater quantity of snow…”:
National Register
, May 11, 1816.

“was of a red and…”:
Niles’ Weekly Register
, May 18, 1816.

“something extraordinary has taken place…”:
National Register
, May 11, 1816.

“the snow was not white…”: Post,
Subsistence Crisis
, p. 22.

“It was brick red and…”: Gibb,
Showers
, p. 33.

“the cause of this universal fog…”: Franklin, “Meteorological Imaginations,” pp. 373–77.

“the sky exhibited in places…”: Symonds,
Eruption
, p. 394.

“The evening twilight…”: ibid.

“We are, happily, at peace…”: Cunningham,
Circular Letters
, p. 973.

“Go into the interior…”: Wood,
Empire
, p. 705.

“Among the most auspicious…”: Cunningham, p. 980.

“a spider, having parts…”:
Maryland
Gazette
, May 12, 1816.

“its general appearance…”:
Niles’ Weekly Register,
May 4, 1816.

“chasms in the [sun’s] atmosphere…”:
North American Review
, May 1816, p. 39.

“burning mountains of immense…”:
Farmer’s Cabinet
, May 11, 1816.

“a kind of excavation…”: ibid.

“no less a miracle…”:
Gentleman’s Magazine
, February 1817, p. 110.

“the Sun has cast forth…”: Chambersburg
Democratic Republican
, June 3, 1816.

“a very fine dust…”: Skeen,
America Rising
, p. 10.

“It had nothing of the…”: Bate,
Song
, p. 97.

“calamitous sign…”: Vail, “Bright Sun,” p. 186.

“the sun may, in time…”:
Quarterly Journal of Science and the Arts,
vol. 2, 1817, p. 420.

“the observation … that the light…”:
North American Review
, July 1816, p. 285.

“The winter was open…”: Ludlum,
Vermont Weather
, pp. 88–9.

“most persons allowed their fires…”: Schlegel, “The Year,” p. 1.

“January was mild…”:
Connecticut Courant
, October 19, 1850.

“shivering and shrinking…”: Ford,
Writings, Jefferson to Charles Thomson,
January 9, 1816, p. 6.

“The first of March…”: Ludlum,
Vermont Weather
, p. 89.

“Our own Winters are…”: Laskin,
Braving
, p. 84.

“would be Turned into Ice…”: ibid., p. 84.

“Both heats and colds…”: Jefferson,
Notes
, p. 80.

“it is a common opinion…”: Ludlum,
Early American Winters
, p. 214.

“in the cultivated part…”: Laskin, p. 85.

“It is a popular opinion…”: Webster,
Papers
, p. 119.

“I would enquire…”: Fleming,
Meteorology
, p. 5.

“Few, if any, registers…”: Laskin, p. 87.

“heathen wilderness…”: ibid., p. 66.

“Of all the scenes…”: Crevecoeur,
Sketches
, pp. 39–40.

“crops were destroyed by…”: Ludlum,
Vermont Weather
, p. 87.

“The country has all the appearance…”:
American Beacon
, May 9, 1816.

“the country in many places…”:
National Register
, May 18, 1816.

“a temperature extraordinary…”:
American Beacon
, May 9, 1816.

“We never experienced…”:
Aberdeen Journal
, June 26, 1816.

“stormy in the extreme…”:
Aberdeen Journal
, June 26, 1816.

“Even on the coast…”:
Aberdeen Journal
, June 26, 1816.

“Throughout the whole of this month…”:
Aberdeen Journal
, June 26, 1816.

“a considerable quantity of snow”:
Gentleman’s Magazine
, August 1816, p. 115.

“Never was there…”: Spater,
Cobbett
, p. 346.

“The extreme changeableness…”:
Royal Cornwall Gazette,
July 6, 1816.

“It is the opinion of the…”:
Gentleman’s Magazine,
January 1816.

“The nation was in the condition…”: Reid,
Durham
, p. 97.

“The main root of the…”:
Niles’ Weekly Register
, May 18, 1816.

“Economy is more the order…”: Hinde,
Castlereagh
, p. 235.

“Endless debates upon…”: Reid,
Durham
, p. 92.

“one of the most…”: ibid.

“With Napoléon safely locked away…”: Hinde, p. 237.

“drain the people of England…” Hunt,
Memoirs
, III, p. 321.

3. C
OLD
F
RONTS

“large quantities of snow”:
Charleston City Gazette
, June 5, 1816.

“the unusual long spell…”:
New York Evening Post
, April 25, 1816.

“the ground was covered…”:
Franklin Herald
, June 4, 1816.

“heavy black frost”: Harrington,
Year Without
, p. 125.

“ploughing up and…”:
National Register,
May 18, 1816.

“The season continues…”:
New England Palladium
, June 4, 1816.

“The last spring and…”:
New England Palladium
, June 14, 1816.

“the season has been…”: Thomas,
Travels
, p. 1.

“the morning was rainy…”: ibid., p. 10.

“so damp and chill…”: ibid., p. 16.

“was so cold that we shivered…”: ibid.

“wrapt in the drapery…”: ibid., p. 29.

“This morning was very…”: ibid., p. 32.

“a severe frost”: ibid., p. 35.

“the clouds rolled on…”: ibid., p. 39.

“When the last of May…”: Schlegel, p. 1.

“The whole of the month…”: Hoyt, “Cold Summer,” p. 119.

“Everybody complains…”:
Chambersburg Democratic Republican
, June 3, 1816.

“a crowned Jacobin…”: Lucas-Dubreton,
Restoration
, p. 35.

“There are continual reports…”: Frye,
After Waterloo
, p. 151.

“The uneasiness of the court…”:
National Register
, July 13, 1816.

“There was a strange feeling…”:
National Register
, July 13, 1816.

“The manners of the French…”: Jones,
Letters of Mary Shelley
, p. 9.

“discontent and sullenness”: Jones,
Letters of Percy Shelley
, p. 347.

“The spring, as the inhabitants…”: ibid., p. 18.

“Never was scene more…”: ibid.

“Unfortunately, an almost perpetual…”: ibid., p. 19.

“hot and sultry…”:
Albany Daily Advertiser
, June 19, 1816.

“the warmest day that…”:
Vermont Mirror
, June 12, 1816.

“The mild influence of…”:
National Aegis
, June 12, 1816.

“The night was so warm…”:
Newburyport Herald
, June 14, 1816.

“the most distant apparently…”:
Quebec Gazette
, June 13, 1816.

“and were to be met with…”:
Quebec Gazette
, June 13, 1816.

“the roofs of the houses…”:
Quebec Gazette
, June 13, 1816.

“the whole of the surrounding country…”:
Quebec Gazette
, June 13, 1816.

“driving before it an immense…”:
Quebec Gazette
, June 13, 1816.

“the frost was sharp…”:
Albany Daily Advertiser
, June 19, 1816.

“Early this morning…”:
Montreal Herald
, June 8, 1816.

“Probably no one living…”: Danville
North Star
, June 15, 1816.

“a novel spectacle…”:
Rutland Herald
, June 12, 1816.

“you could pick up…”: Mussey, “Yankee Chills,” p. 436.

“it had rained much…”: Ludlum,
Early American Winters
, p. 190.

“in beautiful large flakes…”:
Newburyport Herald
, June 14, 1816.

“a violent and heavy storm…”:
Connecticut Courant
, June 25, 1816.

“The wind blew a gale…”: Emery,
Reminiscences,
p. 289.

“our teeth fairly chattered…”: ibid., p. 289.

“we shivered round…”: ibid.

“as severe from half an hour…”:
Albany Argus
, June 11, 1816.

“a considerable quantity of snow…”: Ludlum,
Early American Winters
, p. 191.

“on the mountain to the west…”:
North American Review
, May 1817, p. 154.

“The situation here…”:
Albany Daily Advertiser
, June 7, 1816.

“The surface of the ground…”: Ludlum,
Early American Winters
, p. 190.

“I well remember the…”: Stommel, “The Year,” p. 176.

“In the evening, the atmosphere…”:
Connecticut Courant
, June 25, 1816.

“Moist earth was frozen…”:
North American Review
, May 1817, p. 154.

“This morning, the 7th of June…”:
Columbian
, June 7, 1816.

“The awful scene continued…”: Ludlum,
Early American
, p. 190.

“Still uncomfortably cold…”:
Danville North Star
, June 15, 1816.