OF SELBORNE ,45 
and though I continued there till the thirteenth of November, yet 
the work remained unfinifhed. Harflier weather, and frofty 
mornings, would have quickened it's operations. No part of it's 
behaviour ever ftruck me more than the extreme timidity it always 
exprelTes with regard to rain ; for though it has a fliell that would 
fecure it againft the wheel of a loaded cart, yet does it difcover 
as much folicitude about rain as a lady dreffed in all her beft attire, 
fhuffling away on the firft fprinkhngs, and running it's head up in 
a corner. If attended to, it becomes an excellent weather-glafs ; 
for as fure as it walks elate, and as it were on tiptoe, feeding with 
great earneftnefs in a morning, fo fure will it rain before night. 
It is totally a diurnal animal, and never pretends to flir after it be- 
comes dark. The tortoife, like other reptiles, has an arbitrary 
ftomach as well as lungs ; and can refrain from eating as well as 
breathing for a great part of the year. When firft awakened it eats 
nothing ; nor again in the autumn before it retires : through the 
height of the fummer it feeds voracioufly, devouring all the food 
that comes in it's way. I was much taken with it's fagacity in dif~ 
cerning thofe that do it kind offices : for, as foon as the good old 
lady comes in fight who has waited on it for more than thirty years, 
it hobbles towards it's benefaftrefs with auk ward alacrity; but re- 
mains inattentive to llrangers. Thus not only " the ox knoweth 
his owner, and the afs his majler's crib but the moft abjed reptile 
and torpid of beings diftinguifhes the hand that feeds it, and is 
touched with the feelings of gratitude ! 
I am, he. Sec. 
P. S. In about three days after I left SuJJex the tortoife retired 
into the ground under the hepatica. 
* Ifaiah i. 3. 
LETTER 
