OF SELBORNE. 325 



How far this wonderful shower extended 

 would be difficult to say : but we know that 

 it reached Bradley, Selborne, and Aires- 

 ford, 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 intel- 

 ligent 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 Thistle-down, from 

 the common above : but, to his great asto- 

 nishment, when he rode to the most ele- 

 vated part of the down, 300 feet above his 

 fields, he found the webs in appearance 

 still as much above him as before ; still 

 descending into sight in a constant succes- 

 sion, 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 



