DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 6°) favoured, though equally familiar objects of the animal creation. I will not go so far as to plead for the worm, the most despised and repulsive of British reptiles. I must own that I loathe the sight of a worm, though I might ask you to pause before driving your spade through its wriggling body. Remember that it has some claim on your forbearance, as its incessant boring and working in the earth loosens the soil, rendering it amenable to cultivation. But there is one small insect than which none more frequently obtrades itself on our notice or promotes more desul- tory remarks. From its ubiquitous presence on the leaves of the shrub, on the coping of a wall, on the beams of a loft, on the turf of a meadow, in the aisles of a church, on the hearth of a cottage, in the halls of a palace, it challenges our unwilling attention, and it is equally obnoxious to the gardener, the builder, the farmer, the beadle, the labourer, the magnate, and last, though not least, to the housemaid. This omnipresent insect is the Spider. Your natural in- clination probably is, as it has often been mine, to destroy the unwelcome intruder together with its cobweb. I must frankly confess that I cannot yet bring myself to fall in love with a spider, but, having often admired the graceful network it spins, I was induced to pry a little more closely into the habits of the spinner.