- a snowflake. Poor wee sheep! Sair pinch’d for food, they lick the flaughts o’ snaw, An’ loudly bleat till a’ the storm’s awa’. (Weekly Magazine Or Edinburgh Amusement (1 Jan 1778).
It is not only Robert Bridges who observed the onset of snow in the city: Some fell [very] big flauchins o’ snaw began to gently settle doon on the dry pavement (Alick Blair Rantin Robin and Marget 1896).