162 THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



clumsy) of the martin well represent the sudden and artful 

 evolutions and quick turns which Juturna gave to her brother's 

 chariot, so as to elude the eager pursuit of the enraged ./Eneas. 

 The verb sonat also seems to imply a bird that is somewhat 

 loquacious. 1 



" Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis redes 

 Pervolat, et pennis alta atria lustrat kirundo, 

 Pabula parva legens, nidisque loquacibus escas : 

 Et nunc porticibus vacuis, nunc huniida uircuni 

 Stagna souat." (VlRG. &n. xii. 473477.) 



We have had a very wet autumn and winter, so as to raise 

 the springs to a pitch beyond anything since 1764; which was 

 a remarkable year for floods and high waters. The land-springs, 

 which we call levants, break out much on the downs of Sussex, 

 Hampshire, and Wiltshire. The country people say when the 

 levants rise corn will always be dear ; meaning that when the 

 earth is so glutted with water as to send forth springs on the 

 downs and uplands, the corn-vales must be drowned ; and so 

 it has proved for these ten or eleven years past. For land- 

 springs have never obtained more in the memory of man than 

 during that period ; nor has there been known a greater scarcity 

 of all sorts of grain, considering the great improvements of 

 modern husbandry. Such a run of wet seasons a century or 

 two ago would, I am persuaded, have occasioned a famine. 

 Therefore pamphlets and newspaper letters, that talk of com- 

 binations, tend to inflame and mislead ; since we must not ex- 

 pect plenty till Providence sends us more favourable seasons. 



The wheat of last year, all round this district, and in the 

 county of Eutland and elsewhere, yields remarkably bad : and 

 our wheat on the ground, by the continual late sudden vicissi- 

 tudes from fierce frost to pouring rains, looks poorly ; and the 

 turnips rot veiy fast. 



SELBORNE, Feb. 14, 1774. 



1 " As when the black swallow flies through the great palace of some 

 wealthy lord, sweeping with its wings through the lofty halls, picking up 

 tiny scraps of food for its chirping nestlings, at one time twittering in the 

 empty porches, and at another round the watery ponds." 



