136 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



In the season of nidification the wildest birds are comparatively 

 tame. Thus the ring-dove breeds in my fields, though they are con- 

 tinually frequented ; and the missel-thrush, though most shy and wild 

 in the autumn and winter, builds in my garden close to a walk where 

 people are passing all day long. 



Wall-fruit abounds with me this year ; but my grapes, that used to 

 be forward and good, are at present backward beyond all precedent : 

 and this is not the worst of the story ; for the same ungenial weather, 

 the same black cold solstice, has injured the more necessary fruits of 

 the earth, and discoloured and blighted our wheat. The crop of hops 

 promises to be very large. 



Frequent returns of deafness incommode me sadly, and half dis- 

 qualify me for a naturalist ; for, when those fits are upon me, I lose 

 all the pleasing notices and little intimations arising from rural sounds ; 

 and May is to me as silent and mute with respect to the notes of 

 birds, &c., as August. My eyesight is, thank God, quick and good ; 

 but with respect to the other sense, I am, at times, disabled : 



" And Wisdom at one entrance quite shut out." 



LETTEE XXIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, June Sth, 1775. 



DEAR SIR, 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 lie 

 down and scrape the incumbrances from their faces with their 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 atten- 

 tion, 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 



