COUNTRY LIFE
Gossamer Indeed
A quaint and, as usual, mistaken rumour was tentatively endorsed by authority, that must surely have been urban, during last week. People were warned that a cobweblike substance had been dropped from the air ; and a warning was issued that it should not be handled: it might produce blisters. Among those who wondered at this airborne substance was an airman who found his machine draped with it. The day before this warning reached me I had been writing (for The Spectator) some account of the marvels of a gossamer day. I had never experienced one of quite such intensity. The threads spun as a magic carpet by the myriads of young spiders for their first journey had in many cases coalesced and formed considerable cobwebs. That was all. Threads were not what the prophetic Tennyson called a ghastly rain from airy navies.
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