NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 233 



LETTER XLIV. 



•• Moiistrent 



Quid tautum Oecaiio pioperent se tiiif:;ere soles 

 Hyberni ; vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet." 



Selbornk. 



Gentlemen who have outlets might contrive to make 

 ornament subservient to utility : a pleasing eye-trap might 

 also contribute to promote science : an obelisk in a garden 

 or park might be both an embellishment and an heliotrope. 



Any person that is curious, and enjoys the advantage of 

 a good horizon, might, with little trouble, make two 

 heliotropes; the one for the winter, the other for the 

 summer solstice : and the two erections might be constructed 

 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 the 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 w-esterly 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 



