OF SELBORNE 14& 



lady dressed in all her best attire, shuffling away on the 

 first sprinklings, and running its head up in a corner. If 

 attended to, it becomes an excellent weather-glass ; for as 

 sure as it walks elate, and as it were on tiptoe, feeding 

 -with great earnestness in a morning, so sure will it rain 

 before night. It is totally a diurnal animal, and never 

 pretends to stir after it becomes dark. The tortoise, like 

 ■other reptiles, has an arbitrary stomach as well as lungs ; 

 and can refrain from eating as well as breathing for a 

 great part of the year. When first awakened it eats 

 nothing ; nor again in the autumn before it retires : 

 through the height of the summer it feeds voraciously, 

 devouring all the food that comes in its way. I was much 

 taken with its sagacity in discerning those that do it kind 

 offices ; for; as soon as the good old lady comes in sight 

 who has waited on it for more than thirty years, it hobbles 

 towards its benefactress with awkward alacrity ; but 

 remains inattentive to strangers. Thus not only " the ox 

 knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib," * but the 

 most abject reptile and torpid of beings distinguishes the 

 hand that feeds it, and is touched with the feelings of 

 gratitude I 



I am, etc. etc. 



P.S. In about three days after I left Sussex the tortoise 

 retired into the ground under the hepatica. 



• Isaiah i. 3. 



