LETTER IX. TO ROBERT MARSHAM, ESQUIRE. M SELBORNE, Jan. 2, 1793. RAIN IN 1792. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. In. Hun. 6-7 1-68 6-70 4-8 3-0 May . 5-16 July Y best thanks are due for your kind letter of December 21, to which I shall pay proper attention presently. But I shall speak first of the margin of this, which contains the rain of last year, which was so remarkably wet, that you may be, perhaps, glad to see what proportion the fall of water bears to that of other uncomfortable, unkindly years. The rain in 1782, as you see in my book, was 52 inches; in 1789, 42 inches; and in 1791, 44 inches: yet these wet seasons had not the bad influence of last year, which much injured our harvest, damaged our fallows, prevented the poor from getting in their peat and turf, which lies rotting in the Forest, washed and soaked my cleft beechen wood, so that it will not burn; it prevented our fruits from ripening. The truth is, we have had as wet years, but more intervals of warmth and sunshine. Nov. I am now persuaded that your bird is a great curiosity, the very Certhia muralis, or Wall-creeper, which neither Willughby nor Ray ever saw; nor have I, in fifty years' attention to the winged creation, ever met with it either wild. or among the vast collections that I have examined in London. It seems to be a South Europe bird, frequenting towns, and towers, and castles, but has been found but very seldom indeed in England.' So that you will have the satis 'This statement, no doubt, is founded on Willughby's observation before quoted. See antea, p. 553, note 1.—ED. 1 faction of introducing & new bird of which future ornithologists will say, "found at Stratton in Norfolk by that painful and accurate Naturalist, Robert Marsham, Esq." You observe that Scopoli does not take notice that the hind claw is about double the length of the fore claws, but Linnæus corroborates your remark by saying, "Ungues validi, præsertim posticus." You seem a little to misunderstand Scopoli respecting the spots on the inner side of the quill feathers: by the inner side he does not mean the under side of the wing next the body, but only the inner or broader web of the quills, on which those remarkable spots are found, as appear by the drawing. I am much delighted with the exact copies sent me in the frank, and so charmingly executed by the fair unknown, whose soft hand has directed her pencil in a most elegant manner, and given the specimens a truly delicate and feathery appearance. Had she condescended to have drawn the whole bird I should have been doubly gratified! It is natural to young ladies to wish to captivate men, but she will smile to find that her present conquest is a very old man. My best thanks are due for all your good offices respecting my work, and in particular for your late recommendation to the Duke of Portland. You did not in your last take any notice of my inquiries concerning woodpeckers, whether they ever pierce a sound tree, or only those that are tending to decay. I have observed that with us they love to bore the edible chestnuts; perhaps because the wood is softer than that of oak. They breed in my outlet, I think in old willows. You have not told me anything about Arthur Young. You cannot abhor the dangerous doctrines of levellers and republicans more than I do! I was born and bred a gentleman, and hope I 1 A prophecy singularly verified after an interval of more than eighty years.-ED. 2 The ability of the Green Woodpecker to pierce sound timber has been placed beyond doubt by the testimony of more recent observers. -ED. shall be allowed to die such, The reason you having so many bad neighbours is your nearness to a great, factious manufacturing town. Our common people are more simpleminded and know nothing of Jacobin clubs. I admire your fortitude and resolution, and wonder that you have the spirit to engage in new woods and plantations. Our winter, as yet, has been mild and open, and favourable to your pursuits. Pray present my respects to your lady, and desire her to accept of my best wishes, and all the compliments of the season, jointly with yourself. I have now squirrels in my outlet; but if the wicked boys should hear of them, they will worry them to death. There is too strong a propensity in human nature towards persecuting and destroying! I remain, with much esteem, yours, &c., GIL. WHITE. LETTER X. TO ROBERT MARSHAM, ESQUIRE. SELBORNE, June 15, 1793. ROM my long silence you will conclude that procrastination has been at work, and perhaps not without reason. But that is not all the cause, for I have been annoyed this spring with a bad nervous cough, and a wandering gout, that have pulled me down very much, and rendered me very languid and indolent. As you love trees and to hear about trees, you will not be displeased when you are told that your old friend the great oak in the Holt forest is at this very instant under particular circumstances. For a brother of mine, a man of virtù, who rents Lord Stawell's beautiful seat near the Holt, called Moreland, is at this very juncture employing a draughtsman, a French refugee, to take two or three views of this extraordinary tree on folio paper, with an intent to have them engraved. Of this artist I have seen some performances, and think him capable of doing justice to the subject. These views my brother proposes to have engraved, and will probably send a set to you, who deserve so well of all lovers of trees, as you have made them so much your study, and have taught men so much how to cultivate and improve them I have told you, I believe, before, that the great Holt Oak has long been known in these parts by the name of the Grindstone Oak, because an implement of that sort was in old days set up near it, while a great fall of timber was felled in its neighbourhood. After a mild, wet winter we have experienced a very harsh backward spring with nothing but N., and N.E. winds. All the Hirundines except the sand-martins were very tardy, and do not seem even yet to make any advances towards breeding. As to the sand-martins they were seen playing in and out of their holes in a sand-cliff as early as April 9th. Hence I am confirmed in what I have long suspected, that they are the most early species. I did not write the letter in the "Gent. Mag." against the torpidity of swallows, nor would it be consistent with what I have sometimes asserted so to do.1 As to your recent 1 The letter here referred to is no doubt a letter which had then lately appeared in the "Gentleman's Magazine," dated Feb. 7th 1793, and probably the reason why Marsham attributed this to Gilbert White was that the writer had signed himself "A Parish Priest," and had stated that his house was "about thirty miles from the sea-coast of Hampshire." On the other hand it is evident that White disclaimed the authorship because the observations of the writer in regard to the supposed torpidity of Swallows were inconsistent with the views which he himself had expressed in his book. See Letters X. and XXXVIII., to Pennant (pp. 33, 115); and Letters IX. XII. and XVIII. to Daines Barrington (pp. 161, 171, 191). Who then was the writer of this letter? Not Dr. Stephen Hales, for although at one time he resided about the same distance as White did from the sea-coast of Hampshire, he died in 1761, or more than thirty years before the letter in question was dated. Apropos of letters in the "Gentleman's Magazine" attributed to proof of their torpidity in Yorkshire, I long to see it. But as much writing is sometimes irksome, cannot you call in occasionally some young person to be your amanuensis? There has been no such summer as this, so cold and so dry, I can roundly assert, since the year 1765. We have had no rain since the last week in April, and the two first days in May. Hence our grass is short, and our spring-corn languishes. Our wheat, which is not easily injured in strong ground by drought, looks well. The hop-planters begin to be solicitous about their plantations. Here I shall presume to correct (with all due deference) an expression of the great philosopher Dr. Derham. He says in his Physicotheology, "that all cold summers are wet:" whereas he should have said most. Have you seen Arthur Young's "Example of France a Warning to England?" it is a spirited performance. The season with us is unhealthy. With true esteem I remain, Your obliged servant, GIL. WHITE. [At the head of this letter is the following note in the handwriting of Mr. Marsham:-" This worthy man died this month." His death took place on the 26th of June, 1793, eleven days after the date of this letter.] Gilbert White, it is perhaps not generally known that in the volume of that periodical for 1781 appeared a letter under the signature “V” (since proved to have been penned by White), in which an interesting account is given of the writer's college acquaintance at Oxford with the poet Collins. In the Memoir prefixed to the Aldine edition of that poet's works (p. xxxi.), the editor has reprinted this letter entire, prefacing it with the following remark : "It is here printed from the original manuscript, addressed For Mr. Urban. To the care of Mr. Newbery, at the corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, London.' The letter bears the 'Alton' postmark, and is from the pen of Collins's college acquaintance Gilbert White, the celebrated author of the 'Natural History of Selborne.””—ED. |