166 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
respect to the notes of birds, etc., as August. My eyesight is, 
thank God, quick and good; but with respect to the other 
sense, I am, at times, disabled : 
* And Wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.” 
LETTER XXIII. 
SELBORNE, June 8th, 1775. 
On September 21st, 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, finding 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. 
