260 NATURAL HISTORY 



By this simple expedient it would soon appear that there 

 is no such thing, strictly speaking, as a solstice : for, from 

 the shortest day, the owner would, every clear evening, see 

 the disc advancing, at its setting, to the westward of the 

 object; and, from the longest day, observe the sun retiring 

 backwards every evening at its setting towards the object 

 westward, till, in a few nights, it would set quite behind it, 

 and so by degrees to the west of it : for when the sun 

 comes near the summer solstice, the whole disc of it would 

 at first set behind the object. After a time, the northern 

 limb would first appear, and so every night gradually more, 

 till at length the whole diameter would set northward of it 

 for about three nights; but on the middle night of the 

 three, sensibly more remote than the former or following. 

 When beginning its recess from the summer tropic, it would 

 continue more and more to be hidden every night, till at 

 length it would descend quite behind the object again; and 

 so nightly more and more to the westward. 



LETTER XLY. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAIKES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE. 



" Mug-ire videbis 



Sub pedibus terrain, et descendere montibus ornos." 



HEN I was a boy, I used to read, with 

 astonishment and implicit assent, accounts 

 in Baker's Chronicle of walking hills and 

 travelling mountains. John Philips, in his 

 " Cider/ ; alludes to the credit that was given 

 to such stories with a delicate but quaint vein of humour 

 peculiar to the author of the " Splendid Shilling." 



'* I nor advise, nor reprehend, the choice 

 Of Marcley Hill ; the apple nowhere finds 

 A kinder mould : yet 'tis nnsafe to trust 

 Deceitful ground : who knows but that, once more, 



