13 DECEMBER 1902, Page 16

FOG.

[To TUE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,-1 have just been reading the article on "Fog" in the Spectator of December 6th with much interest, for on Sunday, November 30th, there was just such a scene in the Vale of White Horse as your contributor describes. At 6.45 there was little sign of the dawn, but u late moon was shining down on a white sea. By 7.30 the light was strong enough to show the opposite shore—viz., the line of the North Downs—and the whole Vale between them and my house (which lies on a sand-ridge 400-500 ft. above sea level) was filled some 60 ft. deep with a level surface, exactly like that of a great lake some four times bigger than Derwentwater. The tops of the very tallest trees standing out above the surface had exactly the look of islands, and to complete the picture, in the places where transverse ridges run down into the Vale one saw long promontories apparently covered with shrubs or low bushes, just as one sees them on Windermere or Grasmere, looking down from Wansfell or Loughrigg. This vision of an island sea lasted till nearly 9 o'clock, about which time the mist began to break up. It is perhaps worthy of note that for more than a week before there had been cold easterly winds, and that for more than a week after we had wind and rain from every point of the compass in turn. But that Sunday was a glorious day of mellow sunshine and light westerly breeze.—