3 1 8 "The Natural History of Selborne 



with very little expense ; for two pieces of timber frame- work, about 

 ten or twelve feet high, and four feet broad at the base, and close 

 lined with plank, would answer the purpose. 



The erection for the former should, if possible, be placed within 

 sight of some window in the common sitting-parlour ; because men, 

 at that dead season of the year, are usually within doors at the close 

 of the day ; while that for the latter might be fixed for any given 

 spot in the garden or outlet : whence the owner might contemplate, 

 in a fine summer's evening, the utmost extent that the sun makes to 

 the northward at the season of the longest days. Now nothing 

 would be necessary but to place these two objects with so much 

 exactness, that the westerly limb of the sun, at setting, might but 

 just clear the winter heliotrope to the west of it on the shortest 

 day, and that the whole disc of the sun, at the longest day, might 

 exactly at setting also clear the summer heliotrope to the north 

 of it. 



By this simple expedient it would soon appear that there is no 

 such thing, strictly speaking, as a solstice ; for, from the shortest day, 

 the owner would, every clear evening, see the disc advancing, at its 

 setting, to the westward of the object ; and, from the longest day 

 observe the sun retiring backwards every evening at its setting, 

 towards the object westward, till, in a few nights, it would set quite 

 behind it and so by degrees, to the west of it : for when the sun 

 comes near the summer solstice, the whole disc of it would at first 

 set behind the object ; after a time the northern limb would first 

 appear, and so every night gradually more, till at length the whole 

 diameter would set northward of it for about three nights ; but on 

 the middle night of the three, sensibly more remote than the former 

 or following. When beginning its recess from the summer tropic, 

 it would continue more and more to be hidden every night, till at 

 length it would descend quite behind the object again ; and so 

 nightly more and more to the westward. 



