262 T'he Natural History of Se I borne 



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 

 our attention, a shower of cobwebs falling from very elevated 

 regions, and continuing, without any interruption, till the 

 close of the day. These webs were not single filmy threads, 

 floating in the air in all directions, but perfect flakes or rags ; 

 some near an inch broad, and five or six long, which fell with 

 a degree of velocity that showed they were considerably heavier 

 than the atmosphere. 



On every side as the observer turned his eyes he might 

 behold a continual succession of fresh flakes falling into 

 his sight, and twinkling like stars as they turned their sides 

 towards the sun. 



How far this wonderful shower extended would be difficult 

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

 Alresford, three places which lie in a sort of a 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 his 

 house, where he took his morning rides, he should be higher 

 than this meteor, which he imagined might have been blown, 

 like thistledown from the common above ; but, to his great 

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

 down, three hundred feet above his fields, he found the webs 

 in appearance still as much above him as before; still de- 

 scending 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 full. 



