OF SELBORNE. 211 



came determined to storm the nest of a miss el- thrush : the 

 dams defended their mansion with great vigour, and fought 

 resolutely pro aris et focis ; but numbers at last prevailed, 

 they tore the nest to pieces, and swallowed the young alive. 



In the season of nidification the wildest birds are compa- 

 ratively tame. Thus the ring-dove breeds in my fields, 

 though they are continually 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 pass- 

 ing 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 disqualify me for a naturalist ; for when those fits are 

 upon me I lose all the pleasing notices and little intima- 

 tions 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." 



LETTER XXIII. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BAIIRINGTON. 



SELCORNE, June 8, 1775. 



September the 21st, 1741, being then on a 

 visit, and intent on field diversions, I rose 

 before daybreak : when I came into the en- 

 closures, I found the stubbles and clover- 

 grounds matted all over with a thick coat of 

 jobweb, in the meshes of which a copious and heavy dew 



