196 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



the Duke of Kingston (his ship) having called at the Cape 

 Verds in April, all well. 



We have experienced a long summer, with intense heats, 

 little rain, and no storms. But what has been very extra- 

 ordinary, was the long-continued haze, extending thro' this 

 island, and, I think, thro' Europe, attended with vast honey- 

 dews, which destroyed all our hops, and lasted more than a 

 month. Thro' this rusty coloured air, the sun, " shorn of his 

 beams," appeared like the moon, even at noonday. The 

 country people looked with a kind of superstitious awe on the 

 red lowering aspect of the great luminary, " Cum caput 

 obscurd nitidum ferrugine texit." And I have no doubt, but 

 that the unusual look of the sky at Caesar's death, mentioned 

 both by historians, and poets, was somewhat of the same 

 kind. As I love to trace natural appearances, I desire to 

 know if you saw a very large luminous meteor traversing the 

 sky from N.W. to S.W. on Monday even Aug. 18 about 

 9 o'clock. Pray hunt for star-sluch, because several intelli- 

 gent people, one at present in this house, stare and wonder 

 when I advance that the matter is vegetable; and Dr. Chandler 

 in particular shakes his head, and asserts that the mass is 

 frogs thrown up indigested. But I beg to know why crows 

 are not sometimes crop-sick, and have not weak digestions 

 in Hants (yet we have no such appearance) as well as 

 in Cheshire. Apply a magnifying glass to the substance, and 

 try to discover the seeds. 



I return you thanks for Hampton's pamphlet, and am 

 indebted to you whatever it cost. The notices concerning 

 Wolmer-forest in Gent. Mag. came, I conclude, from Dr. 

 Chandler, whose extracts from the Worldham Register are 

 genuine. We have this year a most lovely harvest, much 

 corn but no hops. Our fruit is well ripened, and grapes 

 very forward. 



You pay an high compliment to my crocuses, but were not 

 aware that it will bring more lines on your back. Read 

 them, as little exercises, made last autumn for the use of my 

 nephews (for such they really were), and then you will give 

 them all reasonable allowances. Some weeks ago Dr. Chandler 



