Dean Swift visited Cloyne, and entered the palace while Berkeley was in the garden, either tending his plants, or making experiments on the virtues of tar water. A heavy shower of rain caused him to seek the shelter of the house, the door of which he found closed against him. He knocked, but got no admittance. Looking up to the windows, he saw the witty dean grinning down on him, and said, “Come down and let me in; don’t you see the rain?” — “There’s no such thing as rain,” replied Swift, “it is merely a perception.”

— Charles Gibson, History of County and City of Cork (London, 1861), p. 445.

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