204 GOSSAMER. 



How far this wonderful sliower extended, would be difficult 

 to say ; but we know that it reached Bradley, Selborne, and 

 Alresford, three places which lie in a sort of triangle, the 

 shortest of whose sides is about eight miles in extent. 



At the second of those places, there was a gentleman (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 hia 

 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 common above ; but, to his great 

 astonishment, when he rode to the most elevated part of the 

 down, 300 feet above his fields, he found the webs, in 

 appearance, still as much above him as before ; still descend- 

 ing 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 observed; 

 but on this day the flakes hung in the trees and hedges so 

 thick, that a diligent person sent out might have gathered 

 baskets fuU. 



The remark that I shall make on these cobweb-like appear- 

 ances, 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 



* Dr. Lister, in his letters to Mr. Ray, says that on a (Lay when the air was 

 very full of Gossamer, he mounted to the top of the highest part of York 

 minster, and found that the webs were still exceeding high above him. — See 

 Ray's Letters, p. 87. 



Chaucer, speaking of gossamer as a strange phenomenon, says :— 



" As sore some wonder at the cause of thunder, 

 On ebb and flode, on gosomer, and mist ; 

 And on all thing, 'till that the cause is wist." 



Dryden calls it, " The filmy gossamer." — Ed. 



