ow?” 
224 NATURAL HISTORY 
are comparatively tame. Thus the ring-dove con. 
structs her nest in my fields, though they are con- 
tinually frequented ; and the missel-thrush, though 
most shy and wild in the autumn and winter, builds 
in my garden close to a walk where people are 
passing all day long. 
Wall-fruit abounds with me this year; but my 
grapes, that used to be forward and good, are at 
present backward beyond all precedent: and this 
is not the worst of the story ; for the same ungenial 
weather, the same black, cold solstice, has injured 
the more necessary fruits of the earth, and dis- 
coloured and blighted our wheat. The crop of 
hops promises to be very large. 
Frequent returns of deafness incommode me 
sadly, and half disqualify me for a naturalist ; for, 
when those fits are upon me, I lose all the pleasing 
notice and little intimations arising from rural 
sounds, and May is to me as silent and mute, with 
respect to the notes of birds, &c., as August. My 
eyesight is, thank God, quick and good, but with 
respect to the other sense I am at times disabled, 
‘¢ And Wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.” 
LETTER XXIII. 
Selborne, June 8, 1775. 
Dear Si1r,—On September the, 21st, 1741, be- 
ing then on a visit, and intent on field diversions, I 
rose before daybreak: when I came into the en- 
closures, | found the stubbles and clover grounds 
matted all over with a thick coat of cobweb, in the 
