BIRDS OF PASSAGE. 
179 
LETTER XXIII. To the Hon. DAINES BARRINGTON. 
DEAR SIR, Selhorne, June S, 1775. 
On September the 2lst, 1741, being then on a visit, and intent 
on field-diversions, I rose before daybreak : when I came into 
the enclosures, I found the stubbles and clover-grounds matted 
all over with a thick coat of cobweb, in the meshes of which a 
copious and heavy dew 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, find- 
ing 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 considerably 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 difificult 
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 
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