180 NATURAL HISTORY 



same ungenial weather, the same black cold solstice, has in- 

 jured 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 

 disqualify 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, &c. 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." 



LETTEE XXIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, June 8, 1775. 

 DEAR SIR, 



ON September the 21st, 1741, being then on a visit, and in- 

 tent 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 hood- 

 winked 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, 

 and the day turned out one of those most lovely ones which 

 no season but the autumn produces ; cloudless, calm, serene, 

 and worthy of the South of France itself. 



About nine an appearance very unusual began to demand 



