212 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 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 con- 

 siderably 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 diffi- 

 cult 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 he imagined might have been 

 blown like thistle-down from the common above ; but, to 

 his great astonishment, when he rode to the most elevated 

 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 succession, and twink- 



