BIRDS OF PASSAGE. 179 



LETTER XXIII. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. 

 DEAR SIR, Selborne, June 8, 1775. 



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

 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 hoodwinked that they 

 could not proceed, but were obliged to he down and scrape the 

 incumbrances from their faces with their fore-feet, so that, find- 

 ing 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 might he 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 

 N 2 



