Thus the ring-dove breeds in my fields, though they are
continually frequented; and the missel-thrush, though most shy and
wild in the autumn and winter, builds in my garden close to a walk
where people are passing all day long.
Wall-fruit abounds with me this year: but my grapes, that used to
be forward and good, are at present backward beyond all
precedent: and this is not the worst of the story; for the same
ungenial weather, the same black cold solstice, has injured the
more necessary fruits of the earth, and discoloured and blighted our
wheat. The crop of hops promises to be very large.
Frequent returns of deafness incommode me sadly, and half
disqualify me for a naturalist; for, when those fits are upon me, I
lose all the pleasing notices and little intimations arising from rural
sounds: and May is to me as silent and mute with 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.
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