260 
NATURAL HISTORY 
By tMs simple expedient it would soon appear tliat there 
is no sucli tilings 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 HONOUKABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
Selborne 
".».... Mugu'e videbis 
Sub pedibiis 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, tbe choice 
Of Marcley HiU ; the apple nowhere finds 
A kinder mould : yet 'tis unsafe +o trust 
Deceitful ground : who knows but that, once more, 
