NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 195 



continually 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 pre- 

 cedent : 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 discoloured and blighted 

 our wheat. The crop of hops promises to be very large. 



Frequent returns of deafness incommode me sadly, and half dis- 

 qualify me for a naturalist ; for, when those fits are upon me, I 

 lose all the pleasing notices and little intimations arising from 

 rural sounds ; and May is to me as silent and mute with respect 

 to the notes of birds, etc., 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. 



SELLORNE, June 8t/i, 1775. 



DEAR SIR, On September 2ist, 1741, being then on a visit, 

 and intent on field-diversions, I rose before daybreak : when I 

 came into the enclosures, I found the stubbles and clover-grounds 

 matted all over with a thick coat of cobweb, in the meshes of 

 which a copious and heavy dew hung so plentifully that the whole 

 face of the country seemed, as it were, covered with two or three 

 setting-nets drawn one over another. When the dogs attempted 

 to hunt, their eyes were so blinded and hoodwinked that they 

 could not proceed, but were obliged to lie down and scrape the 

 incumbrances from their faces with their fore-feet, so that, finding 

 my sport interrupted, I returned home musing in my mind on the 

 oddness of the occurrence. 



As the morning advanced the sun became bright and warm, 



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