226 NATURAL HISTORY 
At the second of those places there was a gen- 
tleman (for whose veracity and intelligent turn we 
have the greatest veneration) who observed it the 
moment he got abroad; but concluded that, as 
soon as he came upon the hill above his house, 
where he took his morning rides, he should be 
higher than this meteor, which he imagined might 
have been blown, like thistle-down, from the com- 
mon above; but, to his great astonishment, when 
he rode to the most elevated part of the Down, 
three hundred feet above his fields, he found the 
webs in appearance still as much above him as 
before ; still descending into sight in a constant 
succession, and twinkling in the sun so as to draw 
the attention of the most incurious. 
Neither before nor after was any such fall ob- 
served; but on this day the flakes hung in trees 
and hedges so thick, that a diligent person sent out 
might have gathered baskets full. 
The remark that I shall make on these cobweb. 
like appearances, called gossamer, is, that, strange 
and superstitious as the notions about them were 
formerly, nobody in these days doubts but that they 
are the real production of small spiders, which 
swarm in the fields in fine weather in autumn, and 
have a power of shooting out webs from their tails, 
so as to render themselves buoyant and lighter 
than air. But why these apterous insects should 
that day take such a wonderful aerial excursion, 
and why their webs should at once become so 
gross and material as to be considerably more 
weighty than air, and to descend with precipitation, 
is a matter beyond my skill. If I might be allowed 
to hazard a supposition, I should imagine that those 
