THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 MOIOST LIB*. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Mrs. Marion Randall Parsons 
 
White's Natural History 
 of Selborne 
 
 The World's Great Books 
 
 Committee of Selection 
 Thomas B. Reed William R. Harper 
 
 Speaker of the House President of the 
 
 of Representatives University of Chicago 
 
 Edward Everett Hale Ainsworth R. Spofford 
 
 Author of The Man Of the Congressional 
 
 Without a Country Library 
 
 Rossiter Johnson 
 
 Editor of Little Classics and Editor-in-Chief of this Series 
 
 Aldine Edition 
 
of 
 
 By 
 Gilbert W 
 
 With a Critical 
 
 by Gee 
 
 , v York 
 
GILBERT WHITE'S HOUSE AT SELBORNE. 
 
 Photogravure from a drawing made for this work. 
 

 The Natural History 
 of Selborne 
 
 By 
 
 Gilbert White 
 
 With a Critical and Biographical Introduction 
 by George H. Ellwanger 
 
 Illustrated 
 
 New York 
 
 D. Appleton and Company 
 1899 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1898, 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
 Add'I 
 
 j.JF. 
 
 GIFT 
 
/w 
 
 B10LCX3Y 
 LIBRARY 
 
 WHITE'S "NATURAL HISTORY OF 
 SELBORNE" 
 
 " To view the leaves, thin dancers upon air, 
 Go eddying round, and small birds how they fare ; 
 To mark the structure of a plant or tree, 
 And all fair things of earth, how fair they be." 
 
 JOHN WOODVIL. 
 
 THE stately yew that casts its shade in the old church- 
 yard at Selborne has shed its leaves full many a year, 
 and the swifts have returned to the lichened parish 
 church for upwards of a century, since Gilbert White gave to 
 the world his volume of Natural History. And like the yew 
 that remains forever green, and the swallows that return to 
 dip and turn upon themselves again, his fresh, instructive 
 chronicle continues to delight and its pages to unfold an 
 added charm. 
 
 It has long been enshrined as a classic on the library 
 shelves ; and, while its subtle attraction has been found diffi- 
 cult to analyze, it has nevertheless come to be recognized as 
 one of the immortal books, having nature as its theme, one 
 of those volumes with which the discerning reader can ill 
 afford to be entirely unfamiliar. Indeed, in many minds 
 nature is more or less synonymous with the name of its 
 author, who is regarded as a sort of corollary and supplement 
 to that natural world with which he stood upon such intimate 
 terms of relationship. 
 
 A book on nature, it has been said, is certain to attract 
 readers much as a sportsman attracts attention who enters 
 a public place with a gun upon his shoulder or a string of fish 
 in his hand. Yet books on nature, after all, are no exception 
 in their lasting qualities to those on numerous other subjects, 
 
 M81837O 
 
iv WHITE'S SELBORNE 
 
 their permanence depending upon the man rather than upon 
 the topic. Or, as Martial has recorded, " the immortality of 
 a book depends upon its having a genius of its own." 
 
 The name of Gilbert White at once brings up a vision of 
 pastoral sights and sounds, the dancing shade of cool beechen 
 groves, the crink of field-crickets and music of echoes, the 
 minstrelsy of birds, and the airy rush of hirundines over 
 glassy meres. And still it is a question whether White is 
 read as widely as is usually supposed, despite the multiplicity 
 of editions that have succeeded the editio princeps. By the 
 " general reader " he is undoubtedly far better known through 
 those who have written concerning him than from a perusal 
 of his own writings. For, though his letters are packed with 
 information, the greater part of which holds as true to-day as 
 it did a century since, and though they have lost none of 
 their scholastic flavor with the lapse of years, it is to be 
 feared that the average person who is not interested in ornith- 
 ology, entomology, and botany is to a large extent unac- 
 quainted with him save by reputation, or at most by a hasty 
 dip into his register. And yet he is to be enjoyed by the 
 layman almost equally as well as by the naturalist; for so 
 simple, yet engaging, is his style that he who runs may read 
 with eminent profit and pleasure. 
 
 Not unmindful of the "Idyllia" of Theocritus and the 
 "Georgics" of Virgil, together with the works of other nat- 
 ure writers who have preceded him, we may term him the 
 founder of the nature school, or school of close observance 
 and minute analysis. No one who has succeeded him has 
 been more precise and fluent in recording the movements 
 of the feathered tribes, or in placing his observations more 
 vividly before the reader. He was sufficient of a scientist to 
 receive through science a valuable aid in his investigations, 
 though his natural receptivity and perceptivity, as distin- 
 guished from mere scientific accomplishments, count for the 
 major share in the work which has immortalized his name. 
 
 Nor are his terse and graceful diction, his quiet humor, and 
 apt citation a less conspicuous factor in the charm of his 
 chronicle, through whose leaves filters the sunlight of 
 Hampshire fields and flicker the shadows of Hampshire 
 
WHITE'S SELBORNE v 
 
 groves. One wonders at first sight how, with one eye upon 
 his parochial flock, he could use the other to so great an 
 extent in connection with his varied charges of the natural 
 world ; or how, watching the migrants as closely as he did, 
 he could find time to stroke his parlor cat and attend his 
 weekly concert " of a first and second fiddle." It must be 
 borne in mind, however, that the series of epistles addressed 
 to Thomas Pennant and the Hon. Daines Barrington, in 
 which his observations are recorded, extend over a period of 
 more than twenty years ; while in his ninety-first letter, under 
 date of May 7th, 1779, he says that it was then more than 
 forty years that he had paid some attention to the ornithol- 
 ogy of the district without being able to exhaust the subject, 
 new occurrences still arising as long as any inquiries were 
 kept alive. That he did not originally contemplate a book, 
 but that his letters gradually grew into a volume, might be 
 presumed from the fact that no dates are attached to his first 
 nine epistles. On the other hand, eleven of his latest letters 
 are also without chronological record, the concluding one, 
 however, being dated June 2 5th, 1787, the first dated epistle 
 being that of August 4th, 1767. 
 
 The traveler who is hurried by on the southwestern ex- 
 press, in journeying from Southampton to London, obtains 
 a glimpse of the beauties of Hampshire, within whose confines 
 Selborne lies secluded, its red-tiled cottages and smiling 
 flower gardens, its ancestral trees and halls, its graceful church 
 spires, and well-tilled fields and verdant meadows, which greet 
 him on every side. But in order to become acquainted with 
 the true character of a country, especially a country like 
 England, so rich in historical monuments and associations, 
 one must often leave the beaten highway and seek the less 
 trodden paths. And to understand the " Natural History of 
 Selborne," it is necessary to be familiar with the place which 
 was its genesis and inspiration, as well as to acquaint oneself, 
 so far as may be, with the character and life of its author. 
 
 Gilbert White was born July i8th, 1720, at Selborne, 
 and died, aged seventy-two years and eleven months, on 
 June 26th, 1793. He received his early education at Ba- 
 singstoke, and afterwards went to Oxford to become Fellow 
 
vi WHITE'S SELBORNE 
 
 of Oriel and one of the senior Proctors of the University. 
 But the beauties of the country proved for him a stronger 
 magnet than the more intellectual atmosphere of the town, 
 and he soon returned to the place of his birth and his beloved 
 Hampshire hills. Here he became curate, also officiating as 
 curate of Faringdon eighteen years, his leisure time being 
 devoted to his favorite pursuit. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that, apart from what is revealed 
 through his writings, so little is known of the man himself, 
 few anecdotes or reminiscences of his private life having sur- 
 vived him. It is known, nevertheless, that he was a person 
 of retiring manners, beloved by his parishioners and children, 
 and, despite the engrossing nature of his occupations, not 
 averse to a good table and creature comforts. That he was 
 fond of field sports during his earlier years is apparent from 
 the references to sport in several of his letters, from the dates 
 of which it is clear that he gave up this pastime when com- 
 paratively young, doubtless on account of its interference with 
 his chosen studies. 1 He has been referred to as " the Addi- 
 son of Natural History," and "a clergyman without having 
 any duties to perform." His chronicle, in truth, would seem 
 to be a case of " retired leisure," a product or outcome of 
 the most leisurely mental activity. Like the country parson 
 of " The Deserted Village " 
 
 " A man he was to all the country dear, 
 And passing rich with forty pounds a year ; 
 Remote from towns he ran his godly race, 
 Nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change, his place." 
 
 One pictures him, in imagination, with his pale Malacca 
 walking-stick and knee-breeches, sauntering through the 
 winding path to Long Lythe, studying the cause of the 
 smoky atmosphere ; or treading the sheep-walks in quest 
 of some new butterfly, pausing perhaps to hold communion 
 with a favorite echo which returns Him his quotations from 
 Ovid, Virgil, and Lucretius. Or, mayhap, aglow with ex- 
 citement, he is contemplating the stately march of that 
 rara avis, the hoopoe, feeding near his garden ; or, with ear 
 
 i Letters XVI., XLIL, XLVI. 
 
WHITE'S SELBORNE vii 
 
 alert, is listening to the mysterious humming as of bees in 
 the air, which follows him from the Money Dells to his 
 avenue gate, though not one insect is to be seen. Perchance 
 from his eyry, beneath the beeches of the Hanger, he is 
 watching a file of rooks wending their way to the Tisted 
 Woods ; or, threading a rocky lane, he stoops to admire the 
 lovely fronds of the hart's-tongue fern. Or, amid the gloam- 
 ing of a bland midsummer's evening, one fancies him strolling 
 to the Plestor, where he may trace the graceful wheels of the 
 churn-owl, hawking round the giant oak in pursuit of fern- 
 chafers, yet ever most intent in observing the migrants, and 
 in following swift and swallow as they 
 
 " in rapid, giddy ring, 
 Dash round the steeple, unsubdued of wing." 
 
 The grasshopper-lark sounds his sibilous whisper, and the 
 smallest willow-wren his shivering noise in the tops of tall 
 woods, and he is there to hear ; the lesser whitethroat comes 
 to probe the nectaries of his crown-imperials, and he is pres- 
 ent to perceive. He turns over on his pillow at night to 
 mark the stone-curlews uttering their short, quick note while 
 passing overhead, a watchword that they may not stray and 
 lose their companions. He knew the habits, haunts, and 
 food of every feathered inhabitant of his parish, from the 
 bustard, the largest British land fowl, to the golden-crested 
 wren, the smallest of the British avifauna. The sight or call 
 of some strange visitant, like the stilted plover, was to him as 
 the draught of some marvelous vintage, or the ecstasy of the 
 collector who discovers a hidden Raphael or Rembrandt. He 
 had, moreover, a retinue of boys of whom there were a 
 goodly number in the village at his constant beck and call, 
 to climb trees for him in search of the birds' nests and eggs 
 he coveted, as well as to destroy the wasps' nests, the denizens 
 of which devoured the produce of his garden. 
 
 " The parish I live in," he says, " is a very abrupt, uneven 
 country, full of hills and woods, and therefore full of birds." 
 In close proximity are the Sussex Downs, the climate is tem- 
 pered by the near vicinity of the sea, while numerous streams 
 
 contribute to 
 
 " the chalky Wey that rolls a milky wave." 
 
viii WHITE'S SELBORNE 
 
 He further describes it as an anathoth, a place of responses 
 or echoes. 1 
 
 Its climate a century ago, notwithstanding, must have been 
 very variable, inasmuch as he places the flowering of the 
 hawthorn as occurring in different years, from 1768 to 1793, 
 upon dates as widely apart as April twentieth and June 
 eleventh ; the first appearance of the orange-tip butterfly 
 from March thirteenth to May nineteenth, and the gleam of 
 the first glowworm's evening lamp from May first to the 
 second week of June. A perfect type of English woodland 
 scenery, the outline of the parish where nearly all his obser- 
 vations were made, comprised not less than thirty miles. Sel- 
 borne is still shut off from the railway and the fret of the much- 
 traveled highway, being nearly five miles distant from the 
 nearest railway connection, Liss, on the one hand, and from 
 Alton on the other. The village is sheltered and protected 
 from the westerly winds by the Hanger ("hanger" being the 
 old Saxon term for "wood"), a very steep acclivity three 
 quarters of a mile in length, the elbow of a chain of long hills, 
 forming the northern slope of Selborne Hill, three hundred 
 feet higher than the village. Besides the original ascent 
 termed the Zigzag, White had a road constructed called the 
 Bostal, his favorite walk, leading to the heights, where 
 he and his friends were wont to repair to drink tea of a 
 pleasant summer's evening. The summit commands a fine 
 view of the South Downs, and is the "beech-grown hill" 
 and " romantic spot " so poetically alluded to in " The Invi- 
 tation " - 
 
 ..." whence in prospect lies 
 
 Whatever of landscape charms our feasting eyes ; 
 The pointed spire, the hall, the pasture-plain, 
 The russet fallow and the golden grain ; 
 The breezy lake that sheds a gleaming light, 
 'Til all the fading picture fails the sight." 
 
 The old rocky hollow lanes that are frequently referred to, 
 the one communicating with Alton and the other with the 
 
 1 In a district so diversified as this, so full of hollow vales and hanging woods, 
 it is no wonder that echoes should abound. Many we have discovered that return 
 the cry of a pack of dogs, the notes of a hunting-horn, a tunable ring of bells, or 
 the melody of birds, very agreeably. Letter LXXX. 
 
WHITE'S SELBORNE ix 
 
 Forest, which even then were dangerous in winter, are now 
 entirely closed to traffic, and impassable, as also are those on 
 the other side of the village leading to Liss and Petersfield. 
 These, the aboriginal paths, gradually sank into the soil, the 
 rains and freshets seeking them for their channels, and the 
 frosts undermining them year by year. The bindweed and 
 other trailing plants set foot upon their banks ; gradually 
 they became enclosed by vegetation, and in their cloistered 
 gloom rare plants and innumerable forms of wild life sought 
 seclusion. 
 
 A short distance from Selborne is Wolmer Forest, a fre- 
 quent haunt of the naturalist, a wild region, seven miles in 
 length by two and a half in width, abounding with bogs, 
 fern, and heath, and containing three considerable meres or 
 ponds, the home of many curious plants and insects, and 
 a chosen harbor of wild fowl. The retreat of duck and teal, 
 dabchicks and water-hens, snipe, pheasants, and foxes, it 
 afforded the Selborne curate "much entertainment as a 
 sportsman and naturalist." During White's time this area 
 the name of which is misleading, for the " forest " was more 
 like a fen consisted entirely of sand, without a standing 
 tree in its whole extent, but studded with extensive marshes 
 and meres. This anciently formed part of the Anderida Silva 
 of the Romans, extending from Kent, across Sussex, into the 
 borders of Hampshire. It has been Crown property from a 
 date before the Conquest, and was one of the favorite hunt- 
 ing-grounds of the Plantagenet kings. Recently, the Guild- 
 ford Natural History Society has advanced a proposal to 
 the Department of Woods and Forests that Wolmer be 
 reserved as a sanctuary for wild birds, in which they, their 
 nests, and eggs may remain unmolested throughout the year. 
 Latterly the waters of Wolmer have shrunk, and much of its 
 former wastes are now covered with plantations of pine and 
 oak. 
 
 This region, with the immediate environment of Selborne 
 village, together with an occasional excursion to points some- 
 what more remote, was his principal field of observation. 
 The Sussex Chalk Downs he also visited annually for upwards 
 of thirty years, viewing their shapely figured aspect with fresh 
 
X WHITE'S SELBORNE 
 
 admiration year by year. 1 How well he improved his oppor- 
 tunities, a perusal of any one of his letters will amply attest. 
 But the opportune occasion and his inherent qualities as a 
 naturalist would have figured but little in the wonderfully 
 interesting record he has left, were it not for his swift infer- 
 ence, his unflagging patience, and the graphic, pleasing style 
 in which his facts are chronicled. To those who dwell amid 
 rural surroundings all their lives without making an observa- 
 tion about nature, his volume is a school, from which the 
 veriest tyro may learn to regard and record, nearly every one 
 having about him a fertile mine to be explored if he but set 
 about it in the right way. 
 
 Analogous reasoning served White but rarely; his facts 
 are taken at first hand, or, as he himself says, from the sub- 
 ject itself, and not from the writings of others. His eye 
 was as keen as Thoreau's and Jefferies's, although he lacked 
 the vivid imaginative sense of the Walden recluse, and the 
 intensely artistic feeling of the great essayist of the Wiltshire 
 Downs. His modesty withal was on a par with his wondrous 
 patience, as was equally his spirit of contentment with his lot 
 in life. His studies of echoes and honey-dews, of wasps and 
 bees, of fogs and mists, of crickets and field-mice, of frosts 
 and meteors, of cobwebs and aphides all have a peculiar 
 charm as presented on his classic page ; while his " Natural- 
 ist's Calendar," compiled jointly with William Markwick, 
 which records the earliest and the latest times in which the 
 circumstances noted were observed, is almost a natural his- 
 tory in itself. 
 
 But the birds were his favorite topic, whose habits he 
 never tired of investigating. It was his opinion that a good 
 ornithologist should be able to distinguish these by their air 
 
 1 Perhaps I may be singular in my opinion, and not so happy as to convey to 
 you the same idea, but I never contemplate these mountains without thinking I 
 perceive somewhat analogous to growth in their gentle swellings and smooth 
 fungus-like protuberances, their fluted sides, and regular hollows and slopes that 
 carry at once the air of vegetative dilatation and expansion. Or was there ever 
 a time when these immense masses of calcareous matter were thrown into fer- 
 mentation by some adventitious moisture; were raised and leavened into such 
 shapes by some plastic power; and so made to swell and heave their broad backs 
 into the sky so much above the less animated clay of the wild below? Letter L VI. 
 
WHITE'S SELBORNE xi 
 
 as well as by their colors and shape, on the ground as well as 
 on the wing, and in the bush as well as in the hand. 1 Many 
 of the numerous species of the songsters which he de- 
 scribes are already more or less familiar to the reader through 
 the poets ; as the nightingale, redbreast, blackcap, linnet, 
 ouzel, wren, and starling ; the blackbird, or merle ; the thrush, 
 or mavis ; the ring-dove, or cushat ; the skylark, " messenger 
 of morn ; " the cuckoo, " darling of the spring ; " the missel- 
 thrush, or stormcock, which loves to sing in wind and rain ; 
 and the chaffinch and yellowhammer, beloved by Jefferies. 2 
 
 Numerous other birds which he describes, on the contrary, 
 are strangers to one not versed in British ornithology; as, 
 for instance, the chiff-chaff, hedge-sparrow, fieldfare, titlark, 
 sedge-warbler, willow-lark, stone-chat, whin-chat, redstart, and 
 wryneck, as well as the marsh-titmouse, with his two quaint 
 notes " like the whetting of a saw " ; and that " delicate poly- 
 glot," the sedge-bird, with his medley of notes resembling the 
 songs of other birds. Among strange birds may also be enu- 
 merated the nut-hatch, which he could hear a furlong or more 
 off; the stone-curlew, whose clamor was audible to him at the 
 distance of a mile ; the smallest uncrested willow-wren, which 
 utters two sharp, piercing notes so loud in hollow woods as to 
 occasion an echo ; and the grasshopper-lark, chirping all 
 night. 
 
 He early discovered that all species whose habit it is to 
 continue in full song until after midsummer, which Thoreau 
 characterizes as "the poets and true singers," breed more 
 
 1 Letter LXXXIV. 
 
 2 The yellowhammer is almost the longest of all the singers. In the spring he 
 sings, in the summer he sings, and he continues when the last sheaves are being 
 carried from the wheat-field. . . . The yellowhammer is the most persistent indi- 
 vidually, but I think the blackbirds when listened to are the masters of the fields. 
 Before one can finish another begins, like the summer ripples succeeding behind 
 each other, so that the melodious sound merely changes its position. Now here, 
 now in the corner, then across the field, again in the distant copse, where it seems 
 about to sink, when it rises again almost at hand. Like a great human artist, the 
 blackbird makes no effort, being fully conscious that his liquid tone cannot be 
 matched. He utters a few delicious notes, and carelessly quits the green stage of 
 the oak till it pleases him to sing again. Without the blackbird, in whose throat 
 the sweetness of the green fields dwells, the days would be only partly summer. 
 RICHARD JEFFERIES, The Pageant of Summer. 
 
Xft WHITE'S SELBORNE 
 
 than once, laying it down as an ornithological maxim that 
 as long as incubation is going on, there is music. Of 
 such songsters he specifies the yellowhammer as the most 
 persistent, the late estival chorus being additionally strength- 
 ened by the woodlark, wren, redbreast, whitethroat, goldfinch, 
 linnet, and swallow, whose caressing warble he justly includes 
 in the strain of the minstrels. His favorite chorister, besides 
 the nightingale, was the blackcap, " with his full, deep, sweet, 
 loud, and wild pipe " and soft and varied modulations, the 
 wild sweetness of which always brought to his mind the lines 
 of the song in "As You Like It," 
 
 " And turn his merry note 
 Unto the sweet bird's throat." 
 
 Among English songsters, the nightingale has been so 
 extolled as to have left comparatively little room for his 
 rivals, the blackbird, blackcap, and thrush. These, never- 
 theless, especially the two former, are held by not a few to 
 be on a par with the favorite bird of the poets. 1 No one who 
 has heard them will forget the clear, ringing, liquid notes of 
 the blackbird and thrush, and the soft, flute-like tones of the 
 blackcap's "breezy strain." The nightingale of the Surrey 
 lanes and Middlesex copses, however, is said to be quite dis- 
 tinct, so far as his voice is concerned, from his brother in the 
 west, wruere he is regarded as but a feeble performer in com- 
 parison. To " listen to the nightingale," one must be upon 
 the scene early in the season, preferably near London, and 
 then await the pleasure of the minstrel, who is fickle and capri- 
 cious in his singing, and whose season of song at the longest 
 is extremely brief. 
 
 It is less as an analyst of avian melody, or a poetical inter- 
 preter of the beauties of outward nature, than as a chronicler 
 
 1 Amongst our charming song-birds, I must not omit the blackcap, which is, 
 I think, quite on an equality with the nightingale. Mr. Symes thought that its 
 mellow notes are equal, if not superior in richness of tone, to any in the nightin- 
 gale's song, and in this opinion I perfectly agree with him. EDWARD JESSE, 
 Scenes and Occupations of a Country Life. 
 
 There is no note so sweet and deep and melodious as that of the blackbird 
 to be heard in our fields ; it is even richer than the nightingale's, though not so 
 varied. RICHARD JEFFERIES, Wild Life in a Southern County. 
 
WHITE'S SELBORNE xiii 
 
 of the ways and habits of the feathered hosts, and a historian 
 or custodian of facts and causes relating to the natural world, 
 that White claims attention. To know the poetry and soul 
 of the bird, to comprehend the utterance of the breeze and 
 voice of the wild flower, to catch the whisper of the unfold- 
 ing leaf, and penetrate the message of the blue sky bending 
 over, one must turn to the golden pages of the prose poet of 
 Coate, for no one has succeeded in interpreting them so 
 beautifully, so lovingly, so tenderly, as he. 
 
 Except for his deafness, which incommoded him greatly 
 at times during his later years, the senses of White were 
 marvelously acute, enabling him to detect many things that 
 were imperceptible to the ordinary observer. Thus he could 
 hear the swallow, while engaged in foraging for insects, snap 
 her bill when a fly was taken, a sound resembling the noise 
 at the shutting of a watch-case ; but the motion of the mandi- 
 bles was too quick to be perceived. On the other hand, he 
 could discern the eve-jarr in the twilight, while circling swiftly 
 round an oak that swarmed with fern-chafers, thrust out its 
 short leg occasionally, and, by a bend of the head, convey its 
 prey into its mouth. 1 
 
 He discovered that the swallows, like very many insects, 
 propagate on the wing, as well as eat, drink, bathe, collect 
 materials for their nests, and feed their young while in flight, 
 rising very early and retiring to roost very late, being in rapid 
 action during the height of summer at least sixteen hours. 
 Swallows and martins, he says, that have numerous fami- 
 lies, are continually feeding them every two or three minutes ; 
 whereas the swifts, that have but two young to maintain, are 
 much at their leisure, and do not attend on their nests for 
 hours together. The swifts seldom being seen hawking, like 
 the swallow, near the ground or water, but seeking their food 
 in a more elevated plane than the other species, he concludes 
 that they, together with the larger bats, derive their suste- 
 nance from some sort of high-flying gnats or insects which 
 are short of continuance ; and that the brief sojourn of the 
 swifts, accordingly, is governed by the defect of their food 
 supply. It was noticed by him that birds are largely influ- 
 
 1 Letters LVIL, XLVII. 
 
xiv WHITE'S SELBORNE 
 
 enced in their choice of food by color, red being especially 
 favored by many species, much as bees and numerous insects 
 are partial to flowers of certain hues. 
 
 It would have been interesting could White have watched 
 the mysterious movements of one of our game birds, the 
 woodcock, some of whose habits especially its strange 
 disappearance during the moulting season would have puz- 
 zled him perchance as greatly as the vanishing swallow kind, 
 which he would fain believe hybernated in the Island, instead 
 of migrating to a warmer clime. The drumming of the ruffed 
 grouse, in like manner, which so long baffled the naturalists, 
 would have afforded him an equal opportunity for close 
 investigation. Although he declares there is no bird 
 whose habits he has studied so closely as those of the fern- 
 owl or goat-sucker, a favorite also with Thoreau, the 
 reader will place the swallow tribe on an equal plane. To 
 these he recurs continually, much as does the Walden phi- 
 losopher to his mysterious "night-warbler," and his owl, "the 
 alpha and omega of sound." 
 
 Throughout the pages of the "Natural History of Selborne," 
 the migrants are ever his deepest concern, the subject of 
 migration even yet affording mysteries that have scarcely 
 been penetrated. The olden belief that the swallow kind 
 hybernated under water or in the ground or caves, was 
 shared by him, though sometimes, it would seem, in a waver- 
 ing way, he reverting continually to the subject in numerous 
 letters. Nor could he bring himself to believe that certain 
 other birds of passage which were feeble fliers, and which 
 throughout the summer flitted but from hedge to hedge could 
 be able to traverse the seas in flight to remote continents. 
 
 It was likewise a mystery to him whence the ring-ouzels 
 migrate so mysteriously every September, to make their 
 appearance again, as if on their return, every April; as, in 
 his earlier letters, he was also perplexed that the swift should 
 leave before the middle of August invariably, while the house- 
 martin remained till the middle of October. 
 
 It was his custom to visit the seacoast annually to keep a 
 lookout for departing passeres, although he was never able 
 to discover the summer short-winged birds of passage assem- 
 
WHITE'S SELBORNE xv 
 
 bling for distant flight. The fact that he had frequently 
 noticed that swallows were seen later at Oxford than else- 
 where, led him to believe that this might be owing to the 
 vast mossy buildings of that place, or possibly to the many 
 waters surrounding it. He had observed these birds to cling 
 by their claws against the surface of the church walls before 
 hybernating, and he was incessantly studying their move- 
 ments in autumn in the neighboring waters for proof of his 
 more than half-suspected theory that they concealed them- 
 selves in the banks of pools and rivers during the winter. 
 
 Yet while ornithology was his favorite study, he was almost 
 equally at home in other branches of natural history, the 
 plant, arboreal, insect and animal life that surrounded him, 
 as well as the complexion of the soils and etiology of the 
 weather, regarding all of which his observations are most 
 exact and comprehensive. It is only in ichthyology that we 
 find him less at home and unfamiliar with Dame Julyans and 
 "The Compleat Angler." 
 
 Many singular facts and anecdotes are related by him con- 
 cerning the customs, superstitions, history, phenomena, and 
 antiquities of the country. Among the quaint customs of 
 the time was that of renewing the arbors of Waldon, and 
 Brimstone Lodge in Wolmer Forest, which were constructed 
 of the boughs of oaks, these being renewed annually by the 
 keepers on the feast of St. Barnabas ; the farm called Black- 
 more being obliged to supply the material for the former, 
 while the farms of Greatham, in rotation, furnished for the 
 latter. 1 He tells also of a minute insect, termed harvest-bug, 
 common in chalky districts, which was very troublesome during 
 late summer, getting into people's skins and raising humors 
 that itched intolerably, men often being so bitten by it as to 
 be thrown into fevers. 2 
 
 No less strange are his accounts of the boy bee-eater, the 
 prevailing superstitions concerning the ash-tree, the sinking 
 of the Hanger at Hawkley, and the small hill ponds which 
 maintained a supply of water during the severest droughts, 
 when even large valley ponds ran dry. Indeed, whether he 
 is discoursing of the growth of an elephant's tusk, or the walk 
 
 i Letter VII. 2 Letter XLIII. 
 
 i 
 
xvi WHITE'S SELBORNE 
 
 of the gal lines ; of hills attracting clouds, or the association 
 of sounds ; of Mahommedans dusting themselves, or of long- 
 billed birds fattening during moderate frosts, his text is always 
 instructive and entertaining. 
 
 It was rightly judged by the discerning Selborne curate 
 that it is the repeated melting and freezing of the snow, 
 rather than the severity of the cold, that is fatal to vegeta- 
 tion, especially in the case of tender evergreens. On this 
 subject his remarks may be read with advantage to-day by 
 all who are interested in the planting of trees and shrubs. 1 
 It may be added, however, that many species which are gener- 
 ally considered tender, or not hardy, may be acclimated by 
 proper protection during winter for a few seasons, until they 
 have become firmly established, and gradually inured to a 
 change of climate. 
 
 The shifting vane of the weather was ever attentively 
 regarded by White, the last letters of his picturesque mono- 
 graph, which are devoted to the meteorology and climatic 
 phenomena of the district, revealing him as an accomplished 
 Blasius in deciphering the handwriting of the sky and the 
 wayward moods of clouds and air-currents. It is to be re- 
 gretted that he did not carry out his intention of adding an 
 Annus Historico-naturalis, or "The Natural History of the 
 Twelve Months of the Year," which was to have comprised 
 many incidents and occurrences not included in his chronicle. 
 
 Thus, ever attentive to the doings of the natural world, and 
 satisfied with his lot and surroundings, Gilbert White fully 
 exemplified Sir Henry Wotton's definition of a happy life. 
 To say that he found Contentment in its entirety and knew 
 naught of vexation, however, were misleading. The sun may 
 not always shine, and by whom shall the asperity of the east 
 wind be stayed ? And who among mankind has ever yet dis- 
 covered the siren that the poets and philosophers since time 
 immemorial have sought to woo ? Even his gold was not 
 entirely without alloy ; and he, too, in a minor way, had his 
 trials and tribulations. The smoke from the heath-fires of 
 Wolmer annoyed him ; aphides, wasps, and honey-dews marred 
 the attractions of his garden ; and frosts at times cut down his 
 
 1 Letter CV. 
 
WHITE'S SELBORNE xvii 
 
 pet bays and laurestines. In vain did he try to solve the 
 riddle of the great preponderance of females among the chaf- 
 finches in winter ; while he bewailed the fact that he had no 
 companion " to quicken his industry and sharpen his atten- 
 tion." Moreover, the occasional " turbulence " of the weather 
 in the spring interfered with his walks and investigations ; and 
 though the rasping voice of the katydid was absent, the din 
 of the field-crickets was so great in hot weather as " to make 
 the hills echo." Perhaps his greatest tribulation was con- 
 nected with his uncertainty of the hybernation of the swallow 
 kind, and his saddest refrain the regret of the poet, 
 
 " Doiseau qui charme le bocage, 
 Hilas ! ne chante pas toujours" 
 
 existing conditions which even the wishing-stone on the neigh- 
 boring hillside was powerless to exorcise. 
 
 The hand of time has left comparatively little mark upon 
 the external scene at Selborne since White lived and recorded, 
 and the fairies were wont to dance nightly on Wolmer Common. 
 In the churchyard, the giant yew still casts its shade, and at 
 dusk the rooks chant their Aves as they wing their way to 
 the deep beechen woods of Tisted and Ropley. The old male 
 yew, then twenty-three feet in circumference, has increased 
 several feet in girth since White last sat beneath its " pillared 
 shade" and mused upon its symbol of immortality, that 
 while " generation after generation might be gathered to their 
 fathers, it still proclaims to those who remain that all, like its 
 evergreen unchanging hue, were yet living in another world 
 that life which had been the object of their desire." 1 The 
 church, which dates from the reign of Henry VII., has recently 
 been " restored " ; and its irregular pews, " of all dimensions 
 and heights, patched up according to the fancy of the own- 
 ers," as is recorded in " The Antiquities of Selborne," have 
 been removed and replaced by low modern benches. Gilbert 
 
 1 The age of the Selborne yew is unknown. The Ankerwyke yew, near Wind- 
 sor, under which Henry VIII. is said to have met Anna Boleyn, is supposed to be 
 upwards of one thousand years old; while, according to Decandolle, thirty centu- 
 ries must be assigned as the age of the patriarchal tree at Braburne, and from 
 twenty-five to twenty-six centuries to that at Fortingal. 
 
xviii WHITE'S SELBORNE 
 
 White's house in the village, known as " The Wakes," a 
 heritage from his uncle in 1763, his 
 
 " rural, sheltered, unobscured retreat," 
 
 yet remains, the old rooms being still left, though their arrange- 
 ment has been altered, and the whole has been considerably 
 enlarged. In the garden, " whose terrace commands so roman- 
 tic and picturesque a prospect that the first master in landscape 
 might deem it an object well worthy of his pencil," stands his 
 sun-dial, and in the paddock near the garden are the remains 
 of his summer-house. 
 
 Audubon and Wilson, together with Thoreau, Jefferies, and 
 other Idyllists of the Country-side, have rendered ornithology 
 and similar studies easier since the monograph of the illus- 
 trious Hampshire parson; but he must still be regarded as 
 the stepping-stone to careful observation, and the inspiration, 
 more or less, of the flocks of volumes that have succeeded his 
 which are concerned with ornithology and various branches 
 of natural history, more especially the less technical works 
 on out-of-door studies and out-of-door life. Restricted space 
 necessarily precludes a comparison of the " Natural History 
 of Selborne" with numerous works of other authorities on kin- 
 dred themes. And although the author's facts and observations 
 relate to a country whose fauna and characteristics differ 
 largely from our own, they will be found none the less inter- 
 esting; while so far as the manner of presentation is con- 
 cerned, his volume will always serve as a model on which it 
 is difficult to improve. 
 
 The name of Selborne has been immortalized by Gilbert 
 White ; and the visitor who accepts his olden " Invitation " 
 to climb the Hanger and view the beauties of its lovely pas- 
 toral surroundings, or who seeks the scene of his Echo in the 
 romantic path to Nore Hill, will intuitively recall the lines of 
 the " Faerie Queene " : 
 
 " And every wood, and every valley wide, 
 He filled with Hylas' name, the nymphs eke Hylas cride." 
 
 GEORGE H. ELL w ANGER. 
 
FAMOUS AND UNIQUE MANUSCRIPT AND 
 BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 A series of fac-similes, showing the development of manuscript and 
 book illustrating during 4000 years. 
 
 DEPARTURE FOR A PROMENADE. 
 
 After a miniature in a Breviary of the XVth Century, belonging to Cardinal 
 Grimani, in the Library of St Mark's at Venice. 
 
1 51A 
 
 n xooa 
 
 iijJrifD rl jv 
 

 .JuLiu:, Hit-Hit Co.LiLh.N.Y 
 
ADVERTISEMENT TO ORIGINAL EDITION 
 
 THE Author of the following Letters takes the liberty, 
 with all proper deference, of laying before the public 
 his idea of parochial history, which, he thinks, ought 
 to consist of natural productions and occurrences as well 
 as antiquities. He is also of opinion that if stationary men 
 would pay some attention to the districts on which they reside, 
 and would publish their thoughts respecting the objects that 
 surround them, from such materials might be drawn the 
 most complete county-histories, which are still wanting in 
 several parts of this kingdom, and in particular in the county 
 of Southampton. 
 
 And here he seizes the first opportunity, though a late one, 
 of returning his most grateful acknowledgments to the rev- 
 erend the President and the reverend and worthy the Fellows 
 of Magdalen College in the University of Oxford, for their 
 liberal behavior in permitting their archives to be searched by 
 a member of their own society, so far as the evidences therein 
 contained might respect the parish and Priory of Selborne. 
 To that gentleman, also, and his assistant, whose labors and 
 attention could only be equaled by the very kind manner in 
 which they were bestowed, many and great obligations are 
 also due. 
 
 Of the authenticity of the documents above-mentioned there 
 can be no doubt, since they consist of the identical deeds 
 and records that were removed to the College from the 
 Priory at the time of its dissolution; and, being carefully 
 copied on the spot, may be depended on as genuine; and, 
 never having been made public before, may gratify the curi- 
 osity of the antiquary, as well as establish the credit of the 
 history. 
 
 xix 
 
XX ADVERTISEMENT TO ORIGINAL EDITION 
 
 If the writer should at all appear to have induced any of 
 his readers to pay a more ready attention to the wonders of 
 the Creation, too frequently overlooked as common occur- 
 rences ; or if he should by any means, through his researches, 
 have lent a helping hand towards the enlargement of the 
 boundaries of historical and topographical knowledge ; or if 
 he should have thrown some small light upon ancient customs 
 and manners, and especially on those that were monastic ; 
 his purpose will be fully answered. But if he should not 
 have been successful in any of these, his intentions, yet there 
 remains this consolation behind that these, his pursuits, by 
 keeping the body and mind employed, have, under Provi- 
 dence, contributed to much health and cheerfulness of spirits, 
 even to old age ; and, what still adds to his happiness, have 
 led him to the knowledge of a circle of gentlemen whose 
 intelligent communications, as they have afforded him much 
 pleasing information, so, could he flatter himself with a con- 
 tinuation of them, would they ever be deemed a matter of 
 singular satisfaction and improvement. 
 
 SELBORNE, 
 January 1st, 1788. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 3 
 
 THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 241 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON VARIOUS PARTS OF NATURE . . .329 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 GILBERT WHITE'S HOUSE AT SELBORNE . . Frontispiece 
 
 Photogravure from a drawing 
 
 DEPARTURE FOR A PROMENADE xviii 
 
 Illuminated miniature from a manuscript of the fifteenth century 
 
 RED-BACKED BUTCHER BIRD 50 
 
 Reproduction in color of a photograph from nature 
 
 THE MOOSE AT HOME 68 
 
 Photogravure from a painting 
 
 SPARROW-HAWK 86 
 
 Reproduction in color of a photograph from nature 
 
 GOLDFINCH 212 
 
 Reproduction in color of a photograph from nature 
 
 RING-DOVE 340 
 
 Reproduction in color of a photograph from nature 
 
THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 
 
 LETTER I 
 
 THE parish of Selborne lies in the extreme eastern cor- 
 ner of the county of Hampshire, bordering on the county 
 of Sussex, and not far from the county of Surrey; is 
 about fifty miles south-west of London, in latitude fifty-one, and 
 near mid-way between the towns of Alton and Petersfield. Be- 
 ing very large and extensive, it abuts on twelve parishes, two 
 of which are in Sussex, viz., Trotton and Rogate. If you be- 
 gin from the south and proceed westward, the adjacent parishes 
 are Emshot, Newton Valence, Faringdon, Harteley Mauduit, 
 Great Ward le ham, Kingsley, Hadleigh, Bramshot, Trotton, 
 Rogate, Lyffe, and Greatham. The soils of this district are 
 almost as various and diversified as the views and aspects. 
 The high part of the south-west consists of a vast hill of chalk, 
 rising three hundred feet above the village, and is divided into 
 a sheep-down, the high wood and a long hanging wood, called 
 The Hanger. The covert of this eminence is altogether beech, 
 the most lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its 
 smooth rind or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful pendulous 
 boughs. 1 The down, or sheepwalk, is a pleasing park-like 
 spot, of about one mile by half that space, jutting out on the 
 verge of the hill-country, where it begins to break down into 
 the plains, and commanding a very engaging view, being an 
 assemblage of hill, dale, wood-lands, heath, and water. The 
 
 3 
 
4 WHITE 
 
 prospect is bounded to the south-east and east by the vast 
 range of mountains called the Sussex Downs, by Guild-down 
 near Guildford, and by the Downs round Dorking, and Rye- 
 gate in Surrey, to the north-east, which altogether, with the 
 country beyond Alton and Farnham, form a noble and exten- 
 sive outline. 
 
 At the foot of this hill, one stage or step from the uplands, 
 lies the village, which consists of one single straggling street, 
 three-quarters of a mile in length, in a sheltered vale, and run- 
 ning parallel with The Hanger. The houses are divided from 
 the hill by a vein of stiff clay (good wheat-land), yet stand on 
 a rock of white stone, little in appearance removed from chalk ; 
 but seems so far from being calcareous, that it endures extreme 
 heat. Yet that the freestone still preserves somewhat that is 
 analogous to chalk, is plain from the beeches which descend as 
 low as those rocks extend, and no farther, and thrive as well 
 on them, where the ground is steep, as on the chalks. 
 
 The cart-way of the village divides, in a remarkable man- 
 ner, two very incongruous soils. To the south-west is a rank 
 clay, that requires the labor of years to render it mellow ; 
 while the gardens to the north-east, and small enclosures 
 behind, consist of a warm, forward, crumbling mould, called 
 black malm, which seems highly saturated with vegetable 
 and animal manure ; and these may perhaps have been the 
 original site of the town ; while the woods and coverts might 
 extend down to the opposite bank. 2 
 
 At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to 
 north-west, arises a small rivulet : that at the north-west end 
 frequently fails; but the other is a fine perennial spring, 
 little influenced by drought or wet seasons, called Well-head. 3 
 This breaks out of some high grounds joining to Nore Hill, 
 a noble chalk promontory, remarkable for sending forth two 
 streams into two different seas. The one to the south becomes 
 a branch of the Arun, running to Arundel, and so sailing into 
 the British Channel : the other to the north. The Selborne 
 stream makes one branch of the Wey; and, meeting the 
 Black-down stream at Hedleigh, and the Alton and Farnham 
 stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a considerable river, 
 navigable at Godalming ; from whence it passes to Guildford, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 5 
 
 and so into the Thames at Weybridge ; and thus at the Nore 
 into the German Ocean. 
 
 Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, and 
 when sunk to that depth seldom fail ; but produce a fine lim- 
 pid water, soft to the taste, and much commended by those 
 who drink the pure element, but which does not lather well 
 with soap. 
 
 To the north-west, north and east of the village, is a range 
 of fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a white malm, a 
 sort of rotten or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the frost 
 and rain, moulders to pieces, and becomes manure to itself. 4 
 
 Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of 
 white land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture nor 
 for the plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep in the 
 freestone, and have their poles and wood for charcoal growing 
 just at hand. The white soil produces the brightest hops. 
 
 As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer-forest, at 
 the juncture of the clays and sand the soil becomes a wet, 
 sandy loam, remarkable for timber, and infamous for roads. 
 The oaks of Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the esti- 
 mation of purveyors, and have furnished much naval timber ; 
 while the trees on the freestone grow large, but are what 
 workmen call shaky, and so brittle as often to fall to pieces 
 in sawing. Beyond the sandy loam the soil becomes a hungry 
 lean sand, till it mingles with the forest; and will produce 
 little without the assistance of lime and turnips. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 A noticeable feature about the beech is the peculiar absence of under- 
 wood beneath it. Thus the stem is seen in its full beauty. The decaying 
 beech-mast and leaves lying upon the ground are apparently inimical to 
 other vegetable life. 
 
 2 The north-east part of Selborne stands upon the Upper Greensand, 
 while to the south-west is the Chalk Marl, abruptly divided from each other 
 as mentioned by White. G. CHRISTOPHER DAVIES. 
 
 3 This spring produced, September loth, 1871, after a severe hot sum- 
 mer, and a preceding dry spring and winter, nine gallons of water in a 
 minute, which is 540 in an hour, and 12,960, or 216 hogsheads, in twenty- 
 four hours, or one natural day. At this time many of the wells failed, and 
 all the ponds in the vale were dry. GILBERT WHITE. 
 
 4 This soil produces good wheat and clover. G. W. 
 
WHITE 
 
 LETTER II 
 
 IN the court of Norton farmhouse, a manor farm to the north- 
 west of the village, on the white malms, stood within these 
 twenty years a broad-leaved elm, or wych hazel, ultnus folio 
 latissimo scabro of Ray, which, though it had lost a consider- 
 able leading bough in the great storm in the year 1 703, equal 
 to a moderate tree, yet, when felled, contained eight loads of 
 timber ; and being too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at 
 seven feet above the butt, where it measured near eight feet 
 in the diameter. This elm I mention to show to what a bulk 
 planted elms may attain ; as this tree must certainly have been 
 such from its situation. 
 
 In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a square 
 piece of ground surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called 
 " The Plestor." In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, 
 a vast oak, with a short squat body, and huge horizontal arms 
 extending almost to the extremity of the area. This venera- 
 ble tree, surrounded with stone steps, and seats above them, 
 was the delight of old and young, and a place of much resort 
 in summer evenings ; where the former sat in grave debate, 
 while the latter frolicked and danced before them. Long 
 might it have stood, had not the amazing tempest in 1703 
 overturned it at once, to the infinite regret of the inhabitants, 
 and the vicar, who bestowed several pounds in setting it in its 
 place again : but all his care could not avail ; the tree sprouted 
 for a time, then withered and died. This oak I mention to 
 show to what a bulk planted oaks also may arrive : and planted 
 this tree must certainly have been, as will appear from what 
 will be said farther concerning this area, when we enter on the 
 antiquities of Selborne. 
 
 On the Blackmoor estate there is a small wood called Losel's, 
 of a few acres, that was lately furnished with a set of oaks of 
 a peculiar growth and great value ; they were tall and taper 
 like firs, but standing near together had very small heads, only 
 a little brush without any large limbs. About twenty years 
 ago the bridge at the Toy, near Hampton Court, being much 
 decayed, some trees were wanted for the repairs that were fifty 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 7 
 
 feet long without bough, and would measure twelve inches 
 diameter at the little end. Twenty such trees did a purveyor 
 find in this little wood, with this advantage, that many of them 
 answered the description at sixty feet. These trees were sold 
 for twenty pounds apiece. 
 
 In the centre of this grove there stood an oak, which, though 
 shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excres- 
 cence about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens 
 had fixed their residence for such a series of years, that the 
 oak was distinguished by the title of the Raven Tree. Many 
 were the attempts of the neighboring youths to get at this 
 eyry : the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was 
 ambitious of surmounting the arduous task. But, when they 
 arrived at the swelling, it jutted out so in their way, and was 
 so far beyond their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, 
 and acknowledged the undertaking to be too hazardous : so 
 the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the 
 fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be levelled. It 
 was in the month of February, when these birds usually sit. 
 The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted 
 into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blow of 
 the beetle or mall or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall; but 
 still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, the bird was 
 flung from her nest ; and, though her parental affection de- 
 served a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which 
 brought her dead to the ground. 1 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 The landrail, that shyest of birds, often sits upon its eggs on the ground 
 in the hayfield until it is slain by the scythe of the mowers. Instances in- 
 numerable of the tenacity with which birds will sit on their eggs when they 
 are nearly hatched may be cited. I once lifted a hen blackbird off her nest, 
 and she came back again when we had moved a few feet away. All birds 
 and animals are bold in the defence of their young, and it seems strange 
 that this affection should so completely vanish as it does when the young 
 are able to shift for themselves. G. C. D. 
 
WHITE 
 
 LETTER III 
 
 THE fossil-shells of this district, and sorts of stone, such as 
 have fallen within my observation, must not be passed over 
 in silence. And first I must mention, as a great curiosity, a 
 specimen that was ploughed up in the chalky fields, near the 
 side of the Down, and given to me for the singularity of its 
 appearance, which, to an incurious eye, seems like a petrified 
 fish of about four inches long, the cardo passing for a head 
 and mouth. It is in reality a bivalve of the Linnaean Genus 
 of Mytilus, and the species of Crista Galli ; called by Lister, 
 Rastellum; by Rumphius, Ostreum plicatnm minus ; by D'Ar- 
 genville, Auris Porci, s. Crista Galli; and by those who make 
 collections, Cock's Comb. 1 Though I applied to several such 
 in London, I never could meet with an entire specimen ; nor 
 could I ever find in books any engraving from a perfect one. 
 In the superb museum at Leicester House, permission was 
 given me to examine for this article; and, though I was dis- 
 appointed as to the fossil, I was highly gratified with the sight 
 of several of the shells themselves in high preservation. This 
 bivalve is only known to inhabit the Indian Ocean, where it 
 fixes itself to a zoophyte, known by the name Gorgonia. The 
 curious foldings of the suture the one into the other, the alter- 
 nate flutings or grooves, and the curved form of my specimen 
 are much easier expressed by the pencil than by words. 
 
 Cornua Ammonis 2 are very common about this village. As 
 we were cutting an inclining path up the Hanger, the labor- 
 ers found them frequently on that steep, just under the soil, 
 in the chalk, and of a considerable size. In the lane above 
 Wall-head, in the way to Emshot, they abound in the bank in 
 a darkish sort of marl ; and are usually very small and soft : 
 but in Clay's Pond, a little farther on, at the end of the pit, 
 where the soil is dug out for manure, I have occasionally ob- 
 served them of large dimensions, perhaps fourteen or sixteen 
 inches in diameter. But as these did not consist of firm stone, 
 but were formed of a kind of terra lapidosa, or hardened clay, 
 as soon as they were exposed to the rains and frost they mould- 
 ered away. These seemed as if they were a very recent pro- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 9 
 
 duction. In the chalk-pit, at the north-west end of the Hanger, 
 large nautili are sometimes observed. 
 
 In the very thickest strata of our freestone, and at consider- 
 able depths, well-diggers often find large scallops or pectines, 
 having both shells deeply striated, and ridged and furrowed 
 alternately. They are highly impregnated with, if not wholly 
 composed of, the stone of the quarry. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 This fossil is not what White supposes, but is a different species, be- 
 longing to the upper greensand, known as Ostrea carinata. 
 
 2 The Ammonite is a very striking-looking fossil, and a common one. 
 When I was a small boy I used to delight in playing with a very large one 
 belonging to my father's collection, which would take to pieces, each sec- 
 tion of the shell being loose, showing the formation admirably. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER IV 
 
 As in a former letter the freestone of this place has been 
 only mentioned incidentally, I shall here become more par- 
 ticular. 
 
 This stone is in great request for hearth-stones, and the beds 
 of ovens : and in lining of lime-kilns it turns to good account; 
 for the workmen use sandy loam instead of mortar ; the sand 
 of which fluxes, 1 and runs by the intense heat, and so cases 
 over the whole face of the kiln with a strong vitrified coat- 
 like glass, that it is well preserved from injuries of weather, 
 and endures thirty or forty years. When chiselled smooth, it 
 makes elegant fronts for houses, equal in color and grain to 
 Bath stone ; and superior in one respect, that, when seasoned, 
 it does not scale. Decent chimney-pieces are worked from it 
 of much closer and finer grain than Portland ; and rooms are 
 floored with it ; but it proves rather too soft for this purpose. 
 It is a freestone cutting in all directions ; yet has something of 
 a grain parallel with the horizon, and therefore should not be 
 surbedded, but laid in the same position that it grows in the 
 quarry. 2 On the ground abroad this firestone will not succeed 
 
10 WHITE 
 
 for pavements, because, probably some degrees of saltness pre- 
 vailing within it, the rain tears the slabs to pieces. 3 Though 
 this stone is too hard to be acted on by vinegar, yet both the 
 white part, and even the blue rag, ferments strongly in mineral 
 acids. Though the white stone will not bear wet, yet in every 
 quarry at intervals there are thin strata of blue rag, which 
 resist rain and frost ; and are excellent for pitching of stables, 
 paths, and courts, and for building of dry walls against banks, 
 a valuable species of fencing much in use in this village, and 
 for mending of roads. This rag is rugged and stubborn, and 
 will not hew to a smooth face, but is very durable ; yet, as 
 these strata are shallow and lie deep, large quantities cannot 
 be procured but at considerable expense. Among the blue 
 rags turn up some blocks tinged with a stain of yellow or rust 
 color, which seem to be nearly as lasting as the blue; and 
 every now and then balls of a friable substance, like rust of 
 iron, called rust balls. 
 
 In Wolmer Forest I see but one sort of stone, called by 
 the workmen sand, or forest-stone. This is generally of the 
 color of rusty iron, and might probably be worked as iron 
 ore ; is very hard and heavy, and of a firm, compact texture, 
 and composed of a small roundish crystalline grit, cemented 
 together by a brown, terrene, ferruginous matter ; will not cut 
 without difficulty, nor easily strike fire with steel. Being often 
 found in broad flat pieces, it makes good pavement for paths 
 about houses, never becoming slippery in frost or rain ; is 
 excellent for dry walls, and is sometimes used in buildings. 
 In many parts of that waste it lies scattered on the surface 
 of the ground ; but is dug on Weaver's Down, a vast hill on 
 the eastern verge of that forest, where the pits are shallow 
 and the stratum thin. This stone is imperishable. 
 
 From a notion of rendering their work the more elegant, 
 and giving it a finish, masons chip this stone into small frag- 
 ments about the size of the head of a large nail, and then 
 stick the pieces into the wet mortar along the joints of their 
 freestone walls; this embellishment carries an odd appear- 
 ance, and has occasioned strangers sometimes to ask us 
 pleasantly, "whether we fastened our walls together with 
 tenpenny nails." 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE II 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 There may probably be also in the chalk itself that is burnt for lime a 
 proportion of sand : for few chalks are so pure as to have none. G. W. 
 
 2 To surbed stone is to set it edgewise, contrary to the posture it had in 
 the quarry, says Dr. Plot, " Oxfordshire," p. 77. But sur bedding does not 
 succeed in our dry walls ; neither do we use it so in ovens, though he says 
 it is best for Teynton stone. G. W. 
 
 8 " Firestone is full of salts, and has no sulphur : must be close-grained, 
 and have no interstices. Nothing supports fire like salts ; saltstone per- 
 ishes exposed to wet and frost." PLOT'S Staff., p. 152. G. W. 
 
 LETTER V 
 
 AMONG the singularities of this place the two rocky hollow 
 lanes, the one to Alton, and the other to the forest, deserve 
 our attention. These roads, running through the malm lands, 
 are, by the traffic of ages, and the fretting of water, worn 
 down through the first stratum of our freestone, and partly 
 through the second ; so that they look more like water-courses 
 than roads ; and are bedded with naked rag for furlongs to- 
 gether. In many places they are reduced sixteen or eighteen 
 feet beneath the level of the fields ; and after floods, and in 
 frosts, exhibit very grotesque and wild appearances, from the 
 tangled roots that are twisted among the strata, and from the 
 torrents rushing down their broken sides ; and especially when 
 those cascades are frozen into icicles, hanging in all the fanci- 
 ful shapes of frost-work. These rugged gloomy scenes affright 
 the ladies when they peep down into them from the paths above, 
 and make timid horsemen shudder while they ride along them ; 
 but delight the naturalist with their various botany, and partic- 
 ularly with their curious filices with which they abound. 
 
 The manor of Selborne, was it strictly looked after, with all 
 its kindly aspects, and all its sloping coverts, would swarm 
 with game ; even now hares, partridges, and pheasants abound ; 
 and in old days woodcocks were as plentiful. There are few 
 quails, because they more affect open fields than enclosures ; 
 after harvest some few landrails are seen. 
 
 The parish of Selborne, by taking in so much of the forest, 
 
12 
 
 WHITE 
 
 is a vast district. Those who tread the bounds are employed 
 part of three days in the business, and are of opinion that the 
 outline, in all its curves and indentings, does not comprise less 
 than thirty miles. 
 
 The village stands in a sheltered spot, secured by the 
 Hanger from the strong westerly winds. The air is soft, but 
 rather moist from the effluvia of so many trees ; yet perfectly 
 healthy and free from agues. 
 
 The quantity of rain that falls on it is very considerable, as 
 may be supposed in so woody and mountainous a district. 1 
 As my experience of measuring the water is but of short date, 
 I am not qualified to give the mean quantity. 2 I only know 
 that 
 
 From May 
 Jan. 
 Jan. 
 Jan. 
 Jan. 
 Jan. 
 Jan. 
 Tan. 
 
 . 1779, to the e 
 1780, to Jan. 
 1781, to Jan. 
 1782, to Jan. 
 1783, to Jan. 
 1784, to Jan. 
 1785, to Jan. ] 
 1786. to Tan. ] 
 
 id of the year there fell . 
 . 1781 
 
 Inch. 
 . 28 
 27 
 
 Hund. 
 37! 
 32 
 71 
 26! 
 
 71 
 80 
 
 55 
 
 S7 
 
 1782 
 
 JQ 
 
 178-? 
 
 CQ 
 
 , 1784 
 178? 
 
 3^ 
 
 33 
 z-j 
 
 1786 
 
 IT 
 
 , 1787 
 
 J* 
 
 1Q 
 
 The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oakhanger, 
 with the single farms, and many scattered houses along the 
 verge of the forest, contain upwards of six hundred and 
 seventy inhabitants. 3 
 
 We abound with poor ; many of whom are sober and indus- 
 trious, and live comfortably in good stone or brick cottages, 
 which are glazed, and have chambers above stairs ; mud build- 
 ings we have none. Besides the employment from husbandry, 
 the men work in hop-gardens, of which we have many ; and 
 fell and bark timber. In the spring and summer the women 
 weed the corn; and enjoy a second harvest in September by 
 hop-picking. Formerly, in the dead months they availed them- 
 selves greatly by spinning wool, for making of barragons, a 
 genteel corded stuff, much in vogue at that time for summer 
 wear ; and chiefly manufactured at Alton, a neighboring town, 
 by some of the people called Quakers ; but from circumstances 
 this trade is at an end. 4 The inhabitants enjoy a good share 
 of health and longevity ; and the parish swarms with children. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Mr. Bell, who lives in the house which was White's, says that the 
 rainfall at Selborne now is much above the average, and White rightly 
 attributes this to the hilly and wooded nature of the district. G. C. D. 
 
 2 A very intelligent gentleman assures me (and he speaks from upwards 
 of forty years' experience), that the mean rain of any place cannot be as- 
 certained till a person has measured it for a very long period. "If I had 
 only measured the rain," says he, "for the four first years, from 1740 to 
 1743, I should have said the mean rain at Lyndon was i6\ inches for the 
 year; if from 1740 to 1750, 18^ inches. The mean rain before 1763 was 
 20\ inches, from 1763 and since, 25! inches, from 1770 to 1780, 26 inches. 
 If only 1773, 1774, and 1775 had been measured, Lyndon mean rain 
 would have been called 32 inches." G. W. 
 
 8 A STATE OF THE PARISH OF SELBORNE, TAKEN OCTOBER 4TH, 1783 
 
 The number of tenements or families, 136. 
 The number of inhabitants in the street is 313) T . ot ^ 676; near five 
 
 In the rest of the parish 363 ( mhabltants to each 
 
 J J ) tenement. 
 
 In the time of the Rev. Gilbert White, Vicar, who died in 1727-8, the 
 number of inhabitants was computed at about 500. 
 
 Average of baptisms for 60 years 
 
 1729, both 
 years inclus. 
 
 . 6,0 j 
 
 12,9 
 
 years mclus. 
 
 1749 incl. ) 
 
 * 
 
 F - 6 ' 6 ) 
 
 From 1760 ) 
 to V 
 1769 incl. ) 
 From 1770 
 
 to 
 1779 incl. 
 
 Total of baptisms of Males . 
 " " Females 
 
 515 
 465 
 
 640 
 
 Total of baptisms from 1720 to 1779, both inclusive, 60 years 
 Average of burials for 60 years 
 
 980 
 
 1729, both | F 
 years inclus. J 
 
 years inclus. 
 
 Fem. 
 
 1749 
 
 incl. j 
 incl. ( 
 
 1.4,6) o 
 f . 3,8f 8 " 
 
 3,0 
 
 From 1770 
 
 to 
 1779 incl. . 
 
 r,7 
 
 1759 
 
 Total of burials of Males . . 315 
 " " Females . 325 
 
 Total of burials from 1720 to 1779, both inclusive, 60 years . . 640 
 
 Baptisms exceed Burials by more than one-third. 
 Baptisms of Males exceed Females by one-tenth, or one in ten. 
 Burials of Females exceed Males by one in thirty. 
 It appears that a child, born or bred in this parish, has an equal chance 
 to live above forty years. 
 
14 WHITE 
 
 Twins thirteen times, many of whom dying young have lessened the 
 chance for life. 
 
 Chances for life in men and women appear to be equal. 
 
 A TABLE 
 176 
 
 OF THE BAPTISMS, BURIALS, AND MARRIAGES, FROM JANUARY 2, 
 , TO DECEMBER 25, 1780, IN THE PARISH OF SELBORNE 
 
 1761 
 
 M. 
 
 ... 8 
 
 BAPTISMS 
 F. Tot. 
 10 18 
 8 15 
 10 18 
 9 20 
 6 18 
 
 13 22 
 
 5 19 
 6 13 
 14 23 
 13 23 
 6 16 
 
 10 21 
 
 5 13 
 
 13 19 
 
 7 27 
 
 10 21 
 I 3 21 
 13 20 
 8 22 
 
 9 17 
 
 M. 
 2 
 IO 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 4 
 3 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 13 
 
 4 
 7 
 3 
 5 
 ii 
 
 BURIALS 
 F. Tot. 
 
 4 6 
 
 14 24 
 
 4 7 
 8 18 
 7 16 
 6 16 
 5 ii 
 5 7 
 5 ii 
 7 ii 
 4 7 
 10 16 
 
 5 12 
 8 10 
 
 8 21 
 
 6 10 
 3 10 
 4 7 
 6 ii 
 
 4 15 
 
 MAR 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 4 
 3 
 3 
 i 
 6 
 6 
 4 
 5 
 5 
 3 
 
 1762 . 
 
 7 
 
 
 ... 8 
 
 1 764 
 
 ii 
 
 i v6c 
 
 12 
 
 1766 . 
 
 q 
 
 
 14 
 
 1768 
 
 7 
 
 
 q 
 
 
 IO 
 
 1771 
 
 10 
 
 
 II 
 
 
 ... 8 
 
 1 774 
 
 ... 6 
 
 I77C 
 
 20 
 
 
 ii 
 
 1777 
 
 ... 8 
 
 1778 . 
 
 7 
 
 
 14. 
 
 1780 . 
 
 . . . 8 
 
 
 
 198 
 
 188 
 
 386 
 
 123 
 
 123 
 
 246 
 
 83 
 
 During this period of twenty years the births of males exceeded those 
 of females ........... 10 
 
 The burials of each sex were equal. 
 
 And the births exceeded the deaths 140 
 
 G. W. 
 4 Since the passage above was written, I am happy in being able to say 
 
 that the spinning employment is a little revived, to the no small comfort 
 
 of the industrious housewife. G. W. 
 
 LETTER VI 
 
 SHOULD I omit to describe with some exactness the forest of 
 Wolmer, of which three-fifths perhaps lie in this parish, my 
 account of Selborne would be very imperfect, as it is a district 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 15 
 
 abounding with many curious productions, both animal and 
 vegetable; and has often afforded me much entertainment 
 both as a sportsman and as a naturalist. 
 
 The royal forest of Wolmer is a tract of land of about seven 
 miles in length, by two and a half in breadth, running nearly 
 from north to south, and is abutted on, to begin to the south, 
 and so to proceed eastward, by the parishes of Greatham, 
 Lysse, Rogate, and Trotton, in the county of Sussex; by 
 Bramshot, Hedleigh, and Kingsley. This royalty consists en- 
 tirely of sand covered with heath and fern ; but is somewhat 
 diversified with hills and dales, without having one standing 
 tree in the whole extent. In the bottoms, where the waters 
 stagnate, are many bogs, which formerly abounded with sub- 
 terraneous trees ; though Dr. Plot says positively, 1 that " there 
 never were any fallen trees hidden in the mosses of the south- 
 ern counties." But he was mistaken : for I myself have seen 
 cottages on the verge of this wild district, whose timbers con- 
 sisted of a black hard wood, looking like oak, which the owners 
 assured me they procured from the bogs by probing the soil 
 with spits, or some such instruments : but the peat is so much 
 cut out, and the moors have been so well examined, that none 
 has been found of late. 2 Besides the oak, I have also been 
 shown pieces of fossil wood of a paler color, and softer nature, 
 which the inhabitants called fir : but, upon a nice examination, 
 and trial by fire, I could discover nothing resinous in them ; 
 and therefore rather suppose that they were parts of a willow 
 or alder, or some such aquatic tree. 
 
 This lonely domain is a very agreeable haunt for many 
 sorts of wild fowls, which not only frequent it in the winter, 
 but breed there in the summer; such as lapwings, snipes, 
 wild-ducks, and, as I have discovered within these few years, 
 teals. Partridges in vast plenty are bred in good seasons on 
 the verge of this forest, into which they love to make excur- 
 sions ; and in particular, in the dry summers of 1740 and 1741, 
 and some years after, they swarmed to such a degree that 
 parties of unreasonable sportsmen killed twenty and some- 
 times thirty brace in a day. 
 
 But there was a nobler species of game in this forest, now 
 extinct, which I have heard old people say abounded much 
 
16 WHITE 
 
 before shooting flying became so common, and that was the 
 heath-cock, black-game, or grouse. When I was a little boy I 
 recollect one coming now and then to my father's table. The 
 last pack remembered was killed about thirty-five years ago ; 
 and within these ten years one solitary greyhen was sprung by 
 some beagles in beating for a hare. The sportsmen cried out 
 "A hen pheasant! " but a gentleman present, who had often 
 seen grouse in the north of England, assured me that it was 
 a greyhen. 
 
 Nor does the loss of our black-game prove the only gap in 
 the Fauna Selborniensis ; for another beautiful link in the 
 chain of beings is wanting, I mean the red deer, which toward 
 the beginning of this century amounted to about five hundred 
 head, and made a stately appearance. There is an old keeper, 
 now alive, named Adams, whose great grandfather (mentioned 
 in a perambulation taken in 1635), grandfather, father, and 
 self, enjoyed the head keepership of Wolmer Forest in succes- 
 sion for more than a hundred years. This person assures me, 
 that his father has often told him, that Queen Anne, as she 
 was journeying on the Portsmouth road, did not think the for- 
 est of Wolmer beneath her royal regard. For she came out 
 of the great road at Lippock, which is just by, and, reposing 
 herself on a bank smoothed for that purpose, lying about half 
 a mile to the east of Wolmer Pond, and still called Queen's 
 Bank, saw with great complacency and satisfaction the whole 
 herd of red deer brought by the keepers along the vale before 
 her, consisting then of about five hundred head. A sight this, 
 worthy the attention of the greatest sovereign ! But he farther 
 adds that, by means of the Waltham blacks or, to use his own 
 expression, as soon as they began blacking, they were reduced 
 to about fifty head, and so continued decreasing till the time 
 of the late Duke of Cumberland. It is now more than thirty 
 years ago that His Highness sent down a huntsman, and six 
 yeoman-prickers, in scarlet jackets laced with gold, attended 
 by the staghounds ; ordering them to take every deer in this 
 forest alive, and to convey them in carts to Windsor. In the 
 course of the summer they caught every stag, some of which 
 showed extraordinary diversion : but in the following winter, 
 when the hinds were also carried off, such fine chases were 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE I/ 
 
 exhibited as served the country people for matter of talk and 
 wonder for years afterwards. I saw myself one of the yeoman- 
 prickers single out a stag from the herd, and must confess that 
 it was the most curious feat of activity I ever beheld, superior 
 to anything in Mr. Astley's riding-school. The exertions made 
 by the horse and deer much exceeded all my expectations ; 
 though the former greatly excelled the latter in speed. When 
 the devoted deer was separated from his companions, they 
 gave him, by their watches, law, as they called it, for twenty 
 minutes ; when, sounding their horns, the stop-dogs were per- 
 mitted to pursue, and a most gallant scene ensued. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 See his " History of Staffordshire." G. W. 
 
 2 Old people have assured me, that on a winter's morning they have dis- 
 covered these trees, in the bogs, by the hoar frost, which lay longer over the 
 space where they are concealed than in the surrounding morass. Nor does 
 this seem to be a fanciful notion, but consistent with true philosophy. Dr. 
 Hales saith, " That the warmth of the earth, at some depth under ground, 
 has an influence in promoting a thaw, as well as the change of the weather 
 from a freezing to a thawing state, is manifest from this observation, viz., 
 Nov. 29th, 1731, a little snow having fallen in the night, it was, by eleven 
 the next morning, mostly melted away on the surface of the earth, except in 
 several places in Bushy Park, where there were drains dug and covered with 
 earth, on which the snow continued to lie, whether those drains were full 
 of water or dry ; as also where elm-pipes lay under ground : a plain proof 
 this, that those drains intercepted the warmth of the earth from ascending 
 from greater depths below them ; for the snow lay where the drain had more 
 than four feet depth of earth over it. It continued also to lie on thatch, 
 tiles, and the tops of walls." See Hale's " Haemastatics," p. 360. QUERY, 
 Might not such observations be reduced to domestic use, by promoting the 
 discovery of old obliterated drains and wells about houses ; and in Roman 
 stations and camps lead to the finding of pavements, baths and graves, and 
 other hidden relics of curious antiquity? G. W. 
 
 LETTER VII 
 
 THOUGH large herds of deer do much harm to the neigh- 
 borhood, yet the injury to the morals of the people is of more 
 moment than the loss of their crops. The temptation is irre- 
 sistible ; for most men are sportsmen by constitution : and 
 3 
 
1 8 WHITE 
 
 there is such an inherent spirit for hunting in human nature, 
 as scarce any inhibitions can restrain. Hence, towards the 
 beginning of this century all this country was wild about deer- 
 stealing. Unless he was a hunter, as they affected to call 
 themselves, no young person was allowed to be possessed of 
 manhood or gallantry. The Waltham blacks at length com- 
 mitted such enormities, that government was forced to interfere 
 with that severe and sanguinary act called the " Black Act," 1 
 which now comprehends more felonies than any law that ever 
 was framed before. And, therefore, a late Bishop of Win- 
 chester, when urged to re-stock Waltham Chase, 2 refused, from 
 a motive worthy of a prelate, replying " that it had done mis- 
 chief enough already." 
 
 Our old race of deer-stealers is hardly extinct yet : it was but 
 a little while ago that, over their ale, they used to recount the 
 exploits of their youth ; such as watching the pregnant hind 
 to her lair, and, when the calf was dropped, paring its feet with 
 a penknife to the quick to prevent its escape, till it was large 
 and fat enough to be killed ; the shooting at one of their neigh- 
 bors with a bullet in a turnip-field by moonshine, mistaking 
 him for a deer ; and the losing a dog in the following extraor- 
 dinary manner : Some fellows, suspecting that a calf new-fallen 
 was deposited in a certain spot of thick fern, went, with a 
 lurcher, to surprise it ; when the parent-hind rushed out of the 
 brake, and, taking a vast spring with all her feet close together, 
 pitched upon the neck of the dog, and broke it short in two. 3 
 
 Another temptation to idleness and sporting was a number 
 of rabbits, which possessed all the hillocks and dry places : but 
 these being inconvenient to the huntsmen, on account of their 
 burrows, when they came to take away the deer, they permitted 
 the country-people to destroy them all. 
 
 Such forests and wastes, when their allurements to irregu- 
 larities are removed, are of considerable service to neighbor- 
 hoods that verge upon them, by furnishing them with peat and 
 turf for their firing ; with fuel for the burning their lime ; and 
 with ashes for their grasses ; and by maintaining their geese 
 and their stock of young cattle at little or no expense. 
 
 The manor farm of the parish of Greatham has an admitted 
 claim, I see (by an old record taken from the Tower of Lon- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 19 
 
 don), of turning all live stock on the forest, at proper sea- 
 sons, "bidentibus exceptis." 4 The reason, I presume, why 
 sheep 5 are excluded, is, because, being such close grazers, 
 they would pick out all the finest grasses, and hinder the deer 
 from thriving. 
 
 Though (by statute 4 and 5 W. and Mary, c. 23) " to burn 
 on any waste, between Candlemas and Midsummer, any grig, 
 ling, heath and furze, goss or fern, is punishable with whipping 
 and confinement in the house of correction ; " yet, in this forest, 
 about March or April, according to the dryness of the season, 
 such vast heath-fires are lighted up, that they often get to a 
 masterless head, and, catching the hedges, have sometimes 
 been communicated to the underwoods, woods, and coppices, 
 where great damage has ensued. The plea for these burnings 
 is, that, when the old coat of heath, etc., is consumed, young 
 will sprout up, and afford much tender browse for cattle ; but, 
 where there is large old furze, the fire, following the roots, 
 consumes the very ground ; so that for hundreds of acres noth- 
 ing is to be seen but smother and desolation, the whole circuit 
 round looking like the cinders of a volcano ; and, the soil being 
 quite exhausted, 'no traces of vegetation are to be found for 
 years. 6 These conflagrations, as they take place usually with 
 a northeast or east wind, much annoy this village with their 
 smoke, and often alarm the country ; and, once in particular, 
 I remember that a gentleman, who lives beyond Andover, 
 coming to my house, when he got on the downs between that 
 town and Winchester, at twenty-five miles' distance, was sur- 
 prised much with smoke and a hot smell of fire; and concluded 
 that Alresf ord was in flames ; but, when he came to that town, 
 he then had apprehensions for the next village, and so on to 
 the end of his journey. 
 
 On two of the most conspicuous eminences of this forest 
 stand two arbors or bowers, made of the boughs of oak ; the 
 one called Waldon Lodge, the other Brimstone Lodge : these 
 the keepers renew annually on the feast of St. Barnabas, tak- 
 ing the old materials for a perquisite. The farm called Black- 
 moor, in this parish, is obliged to find the posts and brush-wood 
 for the former ; while the farms at Greatham, in rotation, fur- 
 nish for the latter; and are all enjoined to cut and deliver the 
 
20 WHITE 
 
 materials at the spot This custom I mention, because I look 
 upon it to be of very remote antiquity. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Statute 9 Geo. I. cap. 22. G. W. 
 
 2 This chase remains unstocked to this day ; the bishop was Dr. 
 Hoadly. G. W. 
 
 8 Deer will attack serpents by jumping on them with all four feet at once, 
 and I have seen sheep serve obnoxious objects in the same way. G. C. D. 
 
 4 For this privilege the owners of that estate used to pay to the king 
 annually seven bushels of oats. G. W. 
 
 5 In the Holt, where a full stock of fallow-deer has been kept up till lately, 
 no sheep are admitted to this day. G. W. 
 
 6 On the Welsh hills these conflagrations continually take place, and are 
 very splendid at night. It is often expedient to burn a patch of gorse or 
 heather for the sake of the sheep ; but when the fire gets beyond control, 
 as it sometimes does, the mischief done is enormous. The conical hill in 
 the Vale of Llangollen, known as Crow Castle, clothed on three sides with 
 fir plantations, once caught fire, and from base to summit was a mass of 
 flames, that lit up the country for miles by night, and shaded the valley 
 with its smoke by day. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER VIII 
 
 ON the verge of the forest, as it is now circumscribed, are 
 three considerable lakes, two in Oakhanger, of which I have 
 nothing particular to say; and one called Bin's, or Bean's 
 Pond, which is worthy the attention of a naturalist or a sports- 
 man. For, being crowded at the upper end with willows, and 
 with the carex cespitosa, 1 it affords such a safe and pleasing 
 shelter to wild ducks, teals, snipes, etc., that they breed there. 
 In the winter this covert is also frequented by foxes, and some- 
 times by pheasants ; and the bogs produce many curious plants. 
 (For which consult Letter XLI. to Mr. Barrington.) 
 
 By a perambulation of Wolmer Forest and the Holt, made 
 in 1635, and the eleventh year of Charles I. (which now lies 
 before me), it appears that the limits of the former are much 
 circumscribed. For, to say nothing of the farther side, with 
 which I am not so well acquainted, the bounds on this side, in 
 old times, came into Binswood ; and extended to the ditch of 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 21 
 
 Ward le Ham Park, in which stands the curious mount called 
 King John's Hill, and Lodge Hill ; and to the verge of Hart- 
 ley Mauduit, called Mauduit Hatch ; comprehending also 
 Short Heath, Oakhanger, and Oakwoods ; a large district, now 
 private property, though once belonging to the royal domain. 
 
 It is remarkable that the term purlieu is never once men- 
 tioned in this long roll of parchment. It contains, besides the 
 perambulation, a rough estimate of the value of the timbers, 
 which were considerable, growing at that time in the district 
 of the Holt ; and enumerates the officers, superior and infe- 
 rior, of those joint forests, for the time being, and their osten- 
 sible fees and perquisites. In those days, as at present, there 
 were hardly any trees in Wolmer Forest. 
 
 Within the present limits of the forest are three considera- 
 ble lakes, Hogmer, Cranmer, and Wolmer ; all of which are 
 stocked with carp, tench, eels, and perch : but the fish do not 
 thrive well, because the water is hungry, and the bottoms are 
 a naked sand. 
 
 A circumstance respecting these ponds, though by no means 
 peculiar to them, I cannot pass over in silence ; and that is, 
 that instinct by which in summer all the kine, whether oxen, 
 cows, calves, or heifers, retire constantly to the water during 
 the hotter hours ; where, being more exempt from flies, and 
 inhaling the coolness of that element, some belly deep, and 
 some only to mid-leg, they ruminate and solace themselves 
 from about ten in the morning till four in the afternoon, and 
 then return to their feeding. During this great proportion of 
 the day they drop much dung, in which insects nestle ; and so 
 supply food for the fish, which would be poorly subsisted but 
 from this contingency. Thus Nature, who is a great econo- 
 mist, converts the recreation of one animal to the support of 
 another ! Thomson, who was a nice observer of natural occur- 
 rences, did not let this pleasing circumstance escape him. He 
 says, in his " Summer," 
 
 " A various group the herds and flocks compose ; 
 
 on the grassy bank 
 
 Some ruminating lie ; while others stand 
 Half in the flood, and, often bending, sip 
 The circling surface." 
 
22 WHITE 
 
 Wolmer Pond, so called, I suppose, for eminence* sake, is 
 a vast lake for this part of the world, containing, in its whole 
 circumference, 2,646 yards, or very near a mile and a half. 
 The length of the north-west and opposite side is about 704 
 yards, and the breadth of the south-west end about 456 yards. 
 This measurement, which I caused to be made with good ex- 
 actness, gives an area of about sixty-six acres, exclusive of a 
 large irregular arm at the north-east corner, which we did not 
 take into the reckoning. 
 
 On the face of this expanse of waters, and perfectly secure 
 from fowlers, lie all day long, in the winter season, vast flocks 
 of ducks, teals, and widgeons, of various denominations ; where 
 they preen and solace, and rest themselves, till towards sunset, 
 when they issue forth in little parties (for in their natural state 
 they are all birds of the night) to feed in the brooks and mead- 
 ows ; returning again with the dawn of the morning. Had 
 this lake an arm or two more, and were it planted round with 
 thick covert (for now it is perfectly naked), it might make a 
 valuable decoy. 
 
 Yet neither its extent, nor the clearness of its water, nor 
 the resort of various and curious fowls, nor its picturesque 
 groups of cattle, can render this meer so remarkable as the 
 great quantity of coins that were found in its bed about forty 
 years ago. But, as such discoveries more properly belong to 
 the antiquities of this place, I shall suppress all particulars for 
 the present, till I enter professedly on my series of letters 
 respecting the more remote history of this village and district. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 1 mean that sort which, rising into tall hassocks, is called by the for- 
 esters torrets; a corruption, I suppose, of turrets. G. W. 
 
 In the beginning of the summer of 1787, the royal forests of Wolmer and 
 Holt were measured by persons sent down by government. G. W. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 23 
 
 LETTER IX 
 
 BY way of supplement, I shall trouble you once more on 
 this subject, to inform you that Wolmer, with her sister forest 
 Ayles Holt, alias Alice Holt, 1 as it is called in old records, is 
 held by grant from the crown for a term of years. 
 
 The grantees that the author remembers are Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral Emanuel Scroope Howe, and his lady, Ruperta, who was 
 a natural daughter of Prince Rupert by Margaret Hughes ; a 
 Mr. Mordaunt, of the Peterborough family, who married a 
 dowager Lady Pembroke; Henry Bilson Legge and lady; 
 and now Lord Stawell, their son. 
 
 The lady of General Howe lived to an advanced age, long 
 surviving her husband; and, at her death, left behind her 
 many curious pieces of mechanism of her father's construct- 
 ing, who was a distinguished mechanic and artist, 2 as well as 
 warrior ; and among the rest, a very complicated clock, lately 
 in possession of Mr. Elmer, the celebrated game painter at 
 Farnham, in the county of Surrey. 
 
 Though these two forests are only parted by a narrow range 
 of enclosures, yet no two soils can be more different ; for the 
 Holt consists of a strong loam, of a miry nature, carrying a 
 good turf, and abounding with oaks that grow to be large tim- 
 ber; while Wolmer is nothing but a hungry, sandy, barren 
 waste. 
 
 The former being all in the parish of Binsted, is about two 
 miles in extent from north to south, and near as much from 
 east to west; and contains within it many wood-lands and 
 lawns, and the great lodge where the grantees reside, and a 
 smaller lodge called Goose Green ; and is abutted on by the 
 parishes of Kingsley, Frinsham, Farnham, and Bentley ; all of 
 which have right of common. 
 
 One thing is remarkable, that though the Holt has been of 
 old well stocked with fallow-deer, unrestrained by any pales 
 or fences more than a common hedge, yet they were never 
 seen within the limits of Wolmer ; nor were the red deer of 
 Wolmer ever known to haunt the thickets or glades of the 
 Holt. 
 
24 WHITE 
 
 At present the deer of the Holt are much thinned and re- 
 duced by the night hunters, who perpetually harass them in 
 spite of the efforts of numerous keepers, and the severe penal- 
 ties that have been put in force against them as often as they 
 have been detected, and rendered liable to the lash of the law. 
 Neither fines nor imprisonments can deter them ; so impossi- 
 ble is it to extinguish the spirit of sporting which seems to be 
 inherent in human nature. 
 
 General Howe turned out some German wild boars and 
 sows in his forests, to the great terror of the neighborhood, 
 and, at one time, a wild bull or buffalo ; but the country rose 
 upon them and destroyed them. 
 
 A very large fall of timber, consisting of about one thou- 
 sand oaks, has been cut this spring (viz., 1784) in the Holt 
 forest: one-fifth of which, it is said, belongs to the grantee, 
 Lord Stawell. He lays claim also to the lop and top ; but 
 the poor of the parishes of Binsted and Frinsham, Bentley 
 and Kingsley, assert that it belongs to them, and assembling 
 in a riotous manner, have actually taken it all away. One 
 man, who keeps a team, has carried home for his share forty 
 stacks, of wood. Forty-five of these people his lordship has 
 served with actions. These trees, which were very sound and 
 in high perfection, were winter-cut, viz., in February and 
 March, before the bark would run. In old times the Holt 
 was estimated to be eighteen miles, computed measure from 
 water-carriage, viz., from the town of Chertsey, on the Thames ; 
 but now it is not half that distance, since the Wey is made navi- 
 gable up to the town of Godalming in the county of Surrey. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 " In Rot. Inquisit. de statu forest, in Scaccar. 36 Edw. III., it is called 
 Aisholt." G. W. 
 
 In the same, "Tit. Woolmer and Aisholt Hantisc. Dominus Rex habet 
 imam capellam in haia sua de Kingesle." " Haia, sepes, sepimentum, parcus ; 
 a Gall, haie and haye." SPELMAN'S Glossary. G. W. 
 
 3 This prince was the inventor of mezzotinto. G. W. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 25 
 
 LETTER X 
 
 August 4tb, 1767. 
 
 IT has been my misfortune never to have had any neigh- 
 bors whose studies have led them towards the pursuit of nat- 
 ural knowledge ; so that, for want of a companion to quicken 
 my industry and sharpen my attention, I have made but slen- 
 der progress in a kind of information to which I have been 
 attached from my childhood. 
 
 As to swallows (Jiinindines rustics) being found in a torpid 
 state during the winter in the Isle of Wight or any other part 
 of this county, I never heard any such account worth attend- 
 ing to. But a clergyman, of an inquisitive turn, assures me, that 
 when he was a great boy, some workmen, in pulling down the 
 battlements of a church tower early in the spring, found two 
 or three swifts (hirimdines apodes) among the rubbish, which 
 were at first appearance dead, but on being carried towards 
 the fire revived. He told me, that out of his great care to pre- 
 serve them, he put them in a paper bag, and hung them by 
 the kitchen fire, where they were suffocated. 
 
 Another intelligent person has informed me, that while he 
 was a schoolboy at Brighthelmstone, in Sussex, a great frag- 
 ment of the chalk cliff fell down one stormy winter on the 
 beach, and that many people found swallows among the rub- 
 bish ; but on my questioning him whether he saw any of those 
 birds himself, to my no small disappointment, he answered me 
 in the negative ; but that others assured him they did. 
 
 Young broods of swallows began to appear this year on 
 July I ith, and young martins (hirimdines urbica) were then 
 fledged in their nests. Both species will breed again once. 
 For I see by my fauna of last year, that young broods came 
 forth so late as September i8th. Are not these late hatchings 
 more in favor of hiding than migration ? Nay, some young 
 martins remained in their nests last year so late as Septem- 
 ber 2Qth ; and yet they totally disappeared with us by the 5th 
 October. 
 
 How strange it is that the swift, which seems to live exactly 
 the same life with the swallow and house-martin, should leave 
 us before the middle of August invariably ! while the latter 
 
26 WHITE 
 
 stay often till the middle of October ; and once I saw numbers 
 of house-martins on the /th November. The martins and red- 
 wing fieldfares were flying in sight together, an uncommon 
 assemblage of summer and winter birds ! 
 
 A little yellow bird 1 (it is either a species of the alauda tri- 
 vialis, or rather perhaps of the motacilla trochilus) still con- 
 tinues to make a sibilous shivering noise in the tops of tall 
 woods. The stoparola of Ray (for which we have as yet no 
 name in these parts) is called in your zoology the fly-catcher. 
 There is one circumstance characteristic of this bird which 
 seems to have escaped observation, and that is, it takes its stand 
 on the top of some stake or post, from whence it springs forth 
 on its prey, catching a fly in the air, and hardly ever touching 
 the ground, but returning still to the same stand for many times 
 together. 2 
 
 I perceive there are more than one species of the motacilla 
 trochilus. Mr. Derham supposes, in " Ray's Philos. Letters," 
 that he has discovered three. In these there is again an in- 
 stance of some very common birds that have as yet no English 
 name. 
 
 Mr. Stillingfleet makes a question whether the black-cap 
 {motacilla atricapilld) be a bird of passage or not 8 : I think 
 there is no doubt of it : for, in April, in the first fine weather, 
 they come trooping all at once, into these parts, but are never 
 seen in the winter. They are delicate songsters. 
 
 Numbers of snipes breed every summer in some moory 
 ground on the verge of this parish. It is very amusing to see 
 the cock bird on wing at that time, and to hear his piping and 
 humming notes. 4 
 
 I have had no opportunity yet of procuring any of those 
 mice which I mentioned to you in town. The person that 
 brought me the last says they are plenty in harvest, at which 
 time I will take care to get more ; and will endeavor to put 
 the matter out of doubt, whether it be a nondescript species 
 or not. 
 
 I suspect much there may be two species of water-rats. 5 Ray 
 says, and Linnaeus after him, that the water-rat is web-footed 
 behind. Now I have discovered a rat on the banks of our little 
 stream that is not web-footed, and yet is an excellent swimmer 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 2? 
 
 and diver : it answers exactly to the mus amphibius of Linnaeus 
 (see Syst. Nat.) which he says " natat infossis et urinatur" I 
 should be glad to procure one " plantis palmatis " Linnaeus 
 seems to be in a puzzle about his mus amphibius, and to doubt 
 whether it differs from his mus terrestris ; which if it be, as he 
 allows, the "mus agrestis capite grandi brachyuros" of Ray, 
 is widely different from the water-rat, both in size, make, and 
 manner of life. 
 
 As to the /#/<:<?, which I mentioned in town, I shall take the 
 liberty to send it down to you into Wales ; presuming on your 
 candor, that you will excuse me if it should appear as familiar 
 to you as it is strange to me. Though mutilated " qualem dices 
 . . . antehac fuisse, tales cum sint reliquia !" 
 
 It haunted a marshy piece of ground in quest of wild-ducks 
 and snipes ; but, when it was shot, had just knocked down a 
 rook, which it was tearing in pieces. I cannot make it answer 
 to any of our English hawks ; neither could I find any like it 
 at the curious exhibition of stuffed birds in Spring Gardens. 
 I found it nailed up at the end of a barn, which is the country- 
 man's museum. 6 
 
 The parish I live in is a very abrupt, uneven country, full of 
 hills and woods, and therefore full of birds. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Possibly the Grasshopper Warbler. This little bird has a peculiar 
 sibilant warble, which, like the cry of the corncrake, is apparently ventrilo- 
 quous. The sound seems here, there, and everywhere, and it is only by the 
 closest observation and the greatest caution that a sight of the tiny songster 
 can be obtained. G. C. D. 
 
 2 In the verandah of my father's house in Shropshire, four or five pairs 
 of fly-catchers used to build, and there were other nests on a ledge in the 
 orchard wall, so that in the summer the standard roses and the gateposts 
 each had a fly-catcher using it as a raiding-point. The birds which rested 
 in the verandah took not the slightest notice of people passing and repass- 
 ing. Sparrows, wrens, and chaffinches also nested among the roses which 
 trailed up it. G. C. D. 
 
 8 The Black-cap does migrate. G. C. D. 
 
 4 The humming of the snipe has puzzled many a naturalist to say how it 
 was made. It is also called bleating, and, in Norfolk, " lamming," because 
 the noise is something like that caused by a lamb. I have noticed great 
 numbers of snipe bleating on the Norfolk Roads, and I am satisfied that it 
 is made by the rapid vibration of the long feathers of the tail and wings. 
 
28 WHITE 
 
 The sound is only made when the snipe is in the air and descending a little, 
 rapidly, in an oblique direction against the wind. G. C. D. 
 
 6 There is only one species of water-rat, and strictly speaking it is not 
 a rat. It differs anatomically and in its mode of life from the rat. Its proper 
 name is the water-vole. Its feet are not webbed. Its food is entirely vege- 
 table, while the common rat, which is found in numbers by the waterside, 
 will eat fish or animal matter. Of the rat proper there are two species, the 
 original black English rat, which is exceedingly rare, and the Norway rat, 
 which is the one now so common. It has completely ousted the black 
 rat. G. C. D. 
 
 6 This hawk was apparently a variety of the Peregrine Falcon. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XI 
 
 SELBORNE, September gt/t, 1767. 
 
 IT will not be without impatience that I shall wait for your 
 thoughts with regard to \ho.falco ; as to its weight, breadth, 
 etc., I wish I had set them down at the time ; but, to the best 
 of my remembrance, it weighed two pounds and eight ounces, 
 and measured, from wing to wing, thirty-eight inches. Its cere 
 and feet were yellow, and the circle of its eyelids a bright yellow. 
 As it had been killed some days, and the eyes were sunk, I 
 could make no good observation on the color of the pupils and 
 the irides. 
 
 The most unusual birds I ever observed in these parts were 
 a pair of hoopoes (upupa)} which came several years ago in 
 the summer, and frequented an ornamented piece of ground, 
 which j oins to my garden, for some weeks. They used to march 
 about in a stately manner, feeding in the walks, many times in 
 the day ; and seemed disposed to breed in my outlet ; but were 
 frighted and persecuted by idle boys, who would never let them 
 be at rest. 
 
 Three grossbeaks 2 (loxia coccothraustes) appeared some 
 years ago in my fields, in the winter ; one of which I shot. 
 Since that, now and then, one is occasionally seen in the same 
 dead season. 
 
 A crossbill 3 (loxia curvirostra) was killed last year in this 
 neighborhood. 
 
 Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end of 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 29 
 
 the village, yield nothing but the bull's head or miller's thumb 4 
 (gobius fluviatilis capitatus), the trout (trutta fluviatilis), the 
 eel 5 (anguilld), the lampern 6 (lampcetra parva et fluviatilis), 
 and the stickle-back 7 {pisciculus aculeatus). 
 
 We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost as many from 
 a great river, and therefore see but little of sea birds. As to 
 wild fowls, we have a few teems of ducks bred in the moors 
 where the snipes breed ; and multitudes of widgeons and teals 
 in hard weather frequent our lakes in the forest. 
 
 Having some acquaintance with a tame brown owl, I find 
 that it casts up the fur of mice, and the feathers of birds in 
 pellets, after the manner of hawks ; when full, like a dog, it 
 hides what it cannot eat. 
 
 The young of the barn-owl are not easily raised, as they 
 want a constant supply of fresh mice ; whereas the young of 
 the brown owl will eat indiscriminately all that is brought ; 
 snails, rats, kittens, puppies, magpies, and any kind of carrion 
 or offal. 
 
 The house-martins have eggs still, and squab young. The 
 last swift I observed was about the 2ist August: it was a 
 straggler. 
 
 Red-starts, fly-catchers, white-throats, and reguli non cristati, 
 still appear : but I have seen no black-caps lately. 
 
 I forgot to mention that I once saw, in Christ Church Col- 
 lege quadrangle in Oxford, on a very sunny warm morning, a 
 house-martin flying about, and settling on the parapet, so late 
 as the 2Oth November. 
 
 At present I know only two species of bats, the common 
 vespertilio murinus and the vespertilio auribus* 
 
 I was much entertained last summer with a tame bat, which 
 would take flies out of a person's hand. If you gave it any- 
 thing to eat, it brought its wings round before the mouth, hov- 
 ering and hiding its head in the manner of birds of prey when 
 they feed. The adroitness it showed in shearing off the wings 
 of the flies, which are always rejected, was worthy of observa- 
 tion, and pleased me much. Insects seemed to be most ac- 
 ceptable, though it did not refuse raw flesh when offered ; so 
 that the notion, that bats go down chimneys and gnaw men's 
 bacon, seems no improbable story. While I amused myself 
 
30 WHITE 
 
 with this wonderful quadruped, I saw it several times confute 
 the vulgar opinion, that bats when down upon a flat surface 
 cannot get on the wing again, by rising with great ease from 
 the floor. It ran, I observed, with more despatch than I was 
 aware of ; but in a most ridiculous and grotesque manner. 
 
 Bats drink on the wing, like swallows, by sipping the sur- 
 face, as they play over pools and streams. They love to fre- 
 quent waters, not only for the sake of drinking, but on account 
 of insects, which are found over them in the greatest plenty. 
 As I was going some years ago, pretty late, in a boat from 
 Richmond to Sunbury, on a warm summer's evening, I think 
 I saw myriads of bats between the two places ; the air swarmed 
 with them all along the Thames, so that hundreds were in sight 
 at a time. I am, etc. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 One occasionally sees mention made in the scientific and natural his- 
 tory periodicals of the occurrence of the hoopoe (iipupa epops). Of course 
 it is generally shot, and no chance is given it of breeding. Its nest has 
 only rarely been found in England. G. C. D. 
 
 2 The grossbeak (coccothraustes vulgaris), or as it is more commonly 
 called, the hawfinch, is not so rare as is generally supposed. Its shyness 
 prevents its being easily observed. G. C. D. 
 
 8 The crossbill may occasionally be seen, in small flocks, in districts 
 where the larch is plentiful. With its peculiar curved mandibles, it ex- 
 tracts the seeds from the fir-cones. The birds vary greatly in size and 
 color, according to age and sex. They are yellow, green, red, or brown at 
 different times, so if it were not for their crossed bills, it would be rather 
 hard to distinguish them. They breed in Norway and Sweden, and very 
 occasionally in England. G. C. D. 
 
 4 We used, when I was a boy, to catch great numbers of bull-heads to 
 bait our eel lines with. They were found under every flat stone in the 
 Shropshire streams, in company with the loach, also an excellent bait. 
 G. C. D. 
 
 6 It is now well known that there are three kinds of eels which inhabit our 
 rivers and pools, the snig, and the broad-nosed and sharp-nosed species. 
 The habits of eels are very peculiar.. Nothing certain is known about their 
 breeding, but it is believed that the young are born alive. In the autumn 
 the eels descend the rivers in vast numbers, and go either to sea or to the 
 brackish waters, where they breed. In the spring the little eels, or elvers, 
 ascend the rivers in columns so dense that they may be scooped out by the 
 bucketful. G. C. D. 
 
 6 In the Dee at Llangollen, lamperns were very numerous. They hold 
 on to stones by means of their round sucker-like mouths, and can move very 
 heavy ones. G. C. D. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 31 
 
 7 There are six kinds of sticklebacks. Every one knows the common 
 three-finned one. One kind builds a nest among the weeds, and guards it 
 with the utmost vigilance. G. C. D. 
 
 8 There seem to be about twenty species of British bats. Four or five 
 species are tolerably common. The squeak made by the bat is so veryy#<?, 
 that while to some ears it is loud, by others it cannot be heard. I once, 
 when a boy, was exploring a hollow tree after owls' nests, when the smell 
 from one particular hole was so dreadful that we put some lighted paper 
 down to see what would come out ; and to our astonishment dozens of large, 
 reddish bats flew out, and dashed madly about in the bright sunlight. The 
 bat has more vermin upon it than any other creature of its size. It seems 
 needless to state that the bat is an animal, and not a bird or an insect ; but 
 I saw it gravely stated in the columns of a local journal by two correspond- 
 ents that it was either of the two latter. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XII 
 
 November $th, 1767. 
 
 SIR, It gave me no small satisfaction to hear that \hzfalco 
 turned out an uncommon one. I must confess I should have 
 been better pleased to have heard that I had sent you a bird 
 that you had never seen before ; but that, I find, would be a 
 difficult task. 
 
 I have procured some of the mice mentioned in my former 
 letters, a young one and a female with young, both of which 
 I have preserved in brandy. From the color, shape, size, and 
 manner of nesting, I make no doubt but that the species is 
 nondescript. They are much smaller, and more slender, than 
 the mus domesticus medius of Ray ; and have more of the squir- 
 rel or dormouse color ; their belly is white, a straight line along 
 their sides divides the shades of their back and belly. They 
 never enter into houses ; are carried into ricks and barns with 
 the sheaves ; abound in harvest ; and build their nests amidst 
 the straws of the corn above the ground, and sometimes in 
 thistles. They breed as many as eight at a litter, in a little 
 round nest composed of the blades of grass or wheat. 1 
 
 One of these nests I procured this autumn, most artificially 
 platted, and composed of the blades of wheat, perfectly round, 
 and about the size of a cricket-ball ; with the aperture so in- 
 geniously closed, that there was no discovering to what part 
 
32 WHITE 
 
 it belonged. It was so compact and well filled, that it would 
 roll across the table without being discomposed, though it con- 
 tained eight little mice that were naked and blind. As this 
 nest was perfectly full, how could the dam come at her litter 
 respectively so as to administer a teat to each ? Perhaps she 
 opens different places for that purpose, adjusting them again 
 when the business is over ; but she could not possibly be con- 
 tained herself in the ball with her young, which moreover 
 would be daily increasing in bulk. This wonderful procreant 
 cradle, an elegant instance of the efforts of instinct, was found 
 in a wheat-field suspended in the head of a thistle. 
 
 A gentleman, curious in birds, wrote me word that his ser- 
 vant had shot one last January, in that severe weather, which 
 he believed would puzzle me. I called to see it this summer, 
 not knowing what to expect, but the moment I took it in hand, 
 I pronounced it the male garrulus bohemicus or German silk- 
 tail, from the five peculiar crimson tags or points which it carries 
 at the ends of five of the short remiges. It cannot, I suppose, 
 with any propriety, be called an English bird ; and yet I see, 
 by Ray's " Philosophical Letters," that great flocks of them, 
 feeding on haws, appeared in this kingdom in the winter of 
 1685. 
 
 The mention of haws puts me in mind that there is a total 
 failure of that wild fruit, so conducive to the support of many 
 of the winged nation. For the same severe weather, late in 
 the spring, which cut off all the produce of the more tender 
 and curious trees, destroyed also that of the more hardy and 
 common. 
 
 Some birds, haunting with the missel-thrushes, and feeding 
 on the berries of the yew tree, which answered to the descrip- 
 tion of the merula torquata, or ring-ousel, were lately seen in 
 this neighborhood. I employed some people to procure me a 
 specimen, but without success. (See Letter VIII.) 
 
 Query. Might not canary birds be naturalized to this cli- 
 mate, provided their eggs were put, in the spring, into the nests 
 of some of their congeners, as goldfinches, greenfinches, etc. ? 
 Before winter perhaps they might be hardened, and able to 
 shift for themselves. 
 
 About ten years ago I used to spend some weeks yearly at 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 33 
 
 Sunbury, which is one of those pleasant villages lying on the 
 Thames, near Hampton Court. In the autumn, I could not 
 help being much amused with* those myriads of the swallow 
 kind which assemble in those parts. But what struck me most 
 was, that, from the time they began to congregate, forsaking 
 the chimneys and houses, they roosted every night in the osier- 
 beds of the aits of that river. 2 Now this resorting towards that 
 element, at that season of the year, seems to give some coun- 
 tenance to the northern opinion (strange as it is) of their re- 
 tiring under water. A Swedish naturalist is so much persuaded 
 of that fact, that he talks, in his calendar of Flora, as familiarly 
 of the swallow's going under water in the beginning of Sep- 
 tember, as he would of his poultry going to roost a little before 
 sunset. 
 
 An observing gentleman in London writes me word that he 
 saw a house-martin, on the twenty-third of last October, flying 
 in and out of its nest in the Borough. And I myself, on the 
 twenty-ninth of last October (as I was travelling through Ox- 
 ford), saw four or five swallows hovering round and settling 
 on the roof of the county hospital. 
 
 Now is it likely that these poor little birds (which perhaps 
 had not been hatched but a few weeks) should, at that late 
 season of the year, and from so midland a county, attempt a 
 voyage to Goree or Senegal, almost as far as the equator ? 3 
 
 I acquiesce entirely in your opinion that, though most of 
 the swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do stay behind 
 and hide with us during the winter. 
 
 As to the short-winged, soft-billed birds, which come troop- 
 ing in such numbers in the spring, I am at a loss even what 
 to suspect about them. I watched them narrowly this year, and 
 saw them abound till about Michaelmas, when they appeared 
 no longer. Subsist they cannot openly among us, and yet 
 elude the eyes of the inquisitive : and, as to their hiding, no 
 man pretends to have found any of them in a torpid state in 
 the winter. But with regard to their migration, what difficulties 
 attend that supposition ! that such feeble, bad fliers (who the 
 summer long never flit but from hedge to hedge) should be able 
 to traverse vast seas and continents in order to enjoy milder 
 seasons amidst the regions of Africa ! 
 4 
 
34 WHITE 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 The harvest mouse is the smallest of British animals. Unlike its rela- 
 tives, it builds its nest on the stalks of grass or corn at a little distance from 
 the ground. The nest is globular in shape, made of woven grass, and has 
 a small entrance like that of a wren's. It is tolerably common in some of 
 the southern counties, but it is not easily found. G. C. D. 
 
 2 There was a pool in Shropshire where I used to fish for roach, and I 
 was always struck with the number of swallows which roosted on the willow 
 bushes fringing the banks. One could almost take them in one's hand. At 
 Acle, in Norfolk, one August, the swallows roosted on the telegraph wires 
 in such extraordinary numbers that they formed continuous black festoons 
 as far as the eye could reach. G. C. D. 
 
 8 See Adanson's "Voyage to Senegal." G. W. 
 
 LETTER XIII 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. 22nd, 1768. 
 
 SIR, As in one of your former letters you expressed the 
 more satisfaction from my correspondence on account of my liv- 
 ing in the most southerly county ; so now I may return the 
 compliment, and expect to have my curiosity gratified by your 
 living much more to the North. 
 
 For many years past I have observed that towards Christ- 
 mas vast flocks of chaffinches have appeared in the fields ; 
 many more, I used to think, than could be hatched in any one 
 neighborhood. But, when I came to observe them more nar- 
 rowly, I was amazed to find that they seemed to me to be almost 
 all hens. I communicated my suspicions to some intelligent 
 neighbors, who, after taking pains about the matter, declared 
 that they also thought them mostly females, at least fifty to 
 one. This extraordinary occurrence brought to my mind the 
 remark of Linnaeus, that " before winter all their hen chaf- 
 finches migrate through Holland into Italy." Now I want to 
 know, from some curious person in the north, whether there 
 are any large flocks of these finches with them in the winter, 
 and of which sex they mostly consist ? For from such intelli- 
 gence, one might be able to judge whether our female flocks 
 migrate from the other end of the island, or whether they come 
 over to us from the continent. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 35 
 
 We have, in the winter, vast flocks of the common linnets ; 
 more, I think, than can be bred in any one district. These, I 
 observe, when the spring advances, assemble on some tree in 
 the sunshine, and join all in a gentle sort of chirping, as if 
 they were about to break up their winter quarters and betake 
 themselves to their proper summer homes. It is well known, 
 at least, that the swallows and the fieldfares do congregate 
 with a gentle twittering before they make their respective 
 departure. 
 
 You may depend on it that the bunting, Emberiza miliaria, 
 does not leave this county in the winter. In January, 1767, 1 
 saw several dozen of them, in the midst of a severe frost, 
 among the bushes on the downs near Andover : in our wood- 
 land enclosed district it is a rare bird. 
 
 Wagtails, both white and yellow, are with us all the winter. 
 Quails crowd to our southern coast, and are often killed in 
 numbers by people that go on purpose. 
 
 Mr. Stillingfleet, in his Tracts, says that " if the wheatear 
 (cenanthe) does not quit England, it certainly shifts places ; 
 for about harvest they are not to be found, where there was 
 before great plenty of them." This well accounts for the 
 vast quantities that are caught about that time on the south 
 downs near Lewes, where they are esteemed a delicacy. There 
 have been shepherds, I have been credibly informed, that have 
 made many pounds in a season by catching them in traps. 
 And though such multitudes are taken, I never saw (and I am 
 well acquainted with those parts) above two or three at a time, 
 for they are never gregarious. They may perhaps migrate 
 in general; and, for that purpose, draw towards the coast 
 of Sussex in autumn: but that they do not all withdraw I 
 am sure ; because I see a few stragglers in many counties, 
 at all times of the year, especially about warrens and stone 
 quarries. 
 
 I have no acquaintance, at present, among the gentlemen of 
 the navy ; but have written to a friend, who was a sea-chaplain 
 in the late war, desiring him to look into his minutes, with 
 respect to birds that settled on their rigging during their 
 voyage up or down the Channel. What Hasselquist says on 
 that subject is remarkable; there were little short- winged birds 
 
36 WHITE 
 
 frequently coming on board his ship all the way from our Chan- 
 nel quite up to the Levant, especially before squally weather. 
 
 What you suggest, with regard to Spain, is highly probable. 
 The winters of Andalusia are so mild, that, in all likelihood, 
 the soft-billed birds that leave us at that season may find insects 
 sufficient to support them there. 
 
 Some young man, possessed of fortune, health, and leisure, 
 should make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom; and 
 should spend a year there, investigating the natural history of 
 that vast country. Mr. Willughby l passed through that king- 
 dom on such an errand; but he seems to have skirted along 
 in a superficial manner and an ill-humor, being much disgusted 
 at the rude dissolute manners of the people. 
 
 I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to about the 
 swallows roosting on the aits of the Thames : nor can I hear 
 any more about those birds which I suspected were Merulce 
 torquatcz. 
 
 As to the small mice, I have farther to remark, that though 
 they hang their nests for breeding up amidst the straws of the 
 standing corn, above the ground ; yet I find that, in the winter, 
 they burrow deep in the earth, and make warm beds of grass : 
 but their grand rendezvous seems to be in corn-ricks, into 
 which they are carried at harvest. A neighbor housed an oat- 
 rick lately, under the thatch of which were assembled nearly 
 a hundred, most of which were taken, and some I saw. I 
 measured them ; and found that, from nose to tail, they were 
 just two inches and a quarter, and their tails just two inches 
 long. Two of them, in a scale, weighed down just one copper 
 halfpenny, which is about the third of an ounce avoirdupois : so 
 that I suppose they are the smallest quadrupeds in this island. 
 A full-grown Mus medius domes ticus weighs, I find, one ounce 
 lumping weight, which is more than six times as much as the 
 mouse above ; and measures from nose to rump four inches 
 and a quarter, and the same in its tail. We have had a very 
 severe frost and deep snow this month. My thermometer was 
 one day fourteen degrees and a half below the freezing- 
 point, within doors. The tender evergreens were injured pretty 
 much. It was very providential that the air was still, and the 
 ground well covered with snow, else vegetation in general 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 3/ 
 
 must have suffered prodigiously. There is reason to believe 
 that some days were more severe than any since the year 
 1739-40. I am, etc., etc. 
 
 NOTE 
 1 See Ray's "Travels," p. 466. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XIV 
 
 SELBORNE, March i2th, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, If some curious gentleman would procure the 
 head of a fallow-deer, and have it dissected, he would find it 
 furnished with two spiracula, or breathing places, besides the 
 nostrils ; probably analogous to the puncta lachrymalia in the 
 human head. When deer are thirsty they plunge their noses, 
 like some horses, very deep under water, while in the act of 
 drinking, and continue them in that situation for a consider- 
 able time : but, to obviate any inconveniency, they can open 
 two vents, one at the inner corner of each eye, having a com- 
 munication with the nose. Here seems to be an extraordinary 
 provision of nature worthy our attention ; and which has not, 
 that I know of, been noticed by any naturalist. For it looks as 
 if these creatures would not be suffocated, though both their 
 mouths and nostrils were stopped. This curious formation of 
 the head may be of singular service to beasts of chase, by 
 affording them free respiration : and no doubt these additional 
 nostrils are thrown open when they are hard run. Mr. Ray 
 observed that at Malta, the owners slit up the nostrils of such 
 asses as were hard worked : for they, being naturally straight 
 or small, did not admit air sufficient to serve them when they 
 travelled, or labored, in that hot climate. And we know that 
 grooms, and gentlemen of the turf, think large nostrils neces- 
 sary, and a perfection, in hunters and running horses. 
 
 Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, seems to have 
 had some notion that stags have four spiracula : 
 
 " TerpaSv/xoi pu/es, irtovpes toi/oiiy ot StavAoi." 
 " Quadrifidae nares, quadruplices ad respirationem canales." 
 
 OPP. CYN. Lib. ii. 1. 181. 
 
38 WHITE 
 
 Writers, copying from one another, make Aristotle say that 
 goats breathe at their ears ; whereas he asserts just the con- 
 trary : " 'AXtepauop yap ovtc a\r)6rj Xe^ei, (/xz/uez'o? avajrveiv ra? 
 alyds Kara TO, &TO," "Alcmaeon does not advance what is true, 
 when he avers that goats breathe through their ears." " His- 
 tory of Animals." Book I., chap, xi. 1 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 Naturalists seem now agreed that the curious slits referred to in the 
 foregoing chapter are not and cannot be used for breathing, but for some 
 other sense of which we can but guess the nature. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XV 
 
 SELBORNE, March y>th, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Some intelligent country people have a notion 
 that we have in these parts a species of the genus mustelinum, 
 besides the weasel, stoat, ferret, and polecat ; a little reddish 
 beast, not much bigger than a field-mouse, but much longer, 
 which they call a cane. This piece of intelligence can be little 
 depended on ; but farther inquiry may be made. 1 
 
 A gentleman in this neighborhood had two milkwhite rooks 
 in one nest. A booby of a carter, finding them before they 
 were able to fly, threw them down and destroyed them, to the 
 regret of the owner, who would have been glad to have pre- 
 served such a curiosity in his rookery. I saw the birds myself 
 nailed against the end of a barn, and was surprised to find that 
 their bills, legs, feet, and claws were milkwhite. 
 
 A shepherd saw, as he thought, some white larks on a 
 down above my house this winter : were not these the Em- 
 beriza nivalis, the snow-flake of the Brit. Zool. ? No doubt 
 they were. 
 
 A few years ago I saw a cock bullfinch in a cage, which had 
 been caught in the fields after it was come to its full colors. 
 In about a year it began to look dingy ; and, blackening every 
 succeeding year, it became coal-black at the end of four. Its 
 chief food was hempseed. Such influence has food on the 
 color of animals ! The pied and mottled colors of domesticated 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 39 
 
 animals are supposed to be owing to high, various, and unusual 
 food. 
 
 I had remarked, for years, that the root of the cuckoo- 
 pint (arum) was frequently scratched out of the dry banks of 
 hedges, and eaten in severe snowy weather. After observing, 
 with some exactness, myself, and getting others to do the same, 
 we found it was the thrush kind that searched it out. The 
 root of the arum is remarkably warm and pungent. 
 
 Our flocks of female chaffinches have not yet forsaken us. 
 The blackbirds and thrushes are very much thinned down by 
 that fierce weather in January. 
 
 In the middle of February I discovered, in my tall hedges, 
 a little bird that raised my curiosity : it was of that yellow- 
 green color that belongs to the salicaria kind, and, I think, was 
 soft-billed. It was no parus ; and was too long and too big 
 for the golden-crowned wren, appearing most like the largest 
 willow-wren. It hung sometimes with its back downwards, 
 but never continuing one moment in the same place. I shot 
 at it, but it was so desultory that I missed my aim. 
 
 I wonder that the stone-curlew, Ckaradriuscedicnemtts, should 
 be mentioned by the writers as a rare bird : it abounds in all 
 the champaign parts of Hampshire and Sussex, and breeds, I 
 think, all the summer, having young ones, I know, very late 
 in the autumn. Already they begin clamoring in the evening, 
 They cannot, I think, with any propriety, be called, as they 
 are by Mr. Ray, " circa aquas vers antes ; " for with us, by day 
 at least, they haunt only the most dry, open, upland fields and 
 sheep-walks, far removed from water : what they may do in 
 the night I cannot say. Worms are their usual food, but they 
 also eat toads and frogs. 
 
 I can show you some good specimens of my new mice. 
 Linnaeus perhaps would call the species Mus minimus. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 The cane is simply a local name for the weasel. It is called mouse- 
 hunter in Norfolk. A peculiarity of the weasel is its curiosity. If you 
 startle it and it runs into a hole, wait a few moments, and it will probably 
 come out again to look at you in a very impertinent kind of way. G. C. D. 
 
40 WHITE 
 
 LETTER XVI 
 
 SELBORNE, April i8M, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The history of the stone-curlew, Charadrius 
 cedicnemtis, is as follows. It lays its eggs, usually two, never 
 more than three, on the bare ground, without any nest, in the 
 field; so that the countryman, in stirring his fallows, often 
 destroys them. The young run immediately from the egg 
 like partridges, etc., and are withdrawn to some flinty field by 
 the dam, where they skulk among the stones, which are their 
 best security ; for their feathers are so exactly of the color of 
 our gray spotted flints, that the most exact observer, unless 
 he catches the eye of the young bird, may be eluded. The 
 eggs are short and round ; of a dirty white, spotted with dark 
 bloody blotches. Though I might not be able, just when I 
 pleased, to procure you a bird, yet I could show you them al- 
 most any day ; and any evening you may hear them round the 
 village, for they make a clamor which may be heard a mile. 
 CEdicnemus is a most apt and expressive name for them, 
 since their legs seem swollen like those of a gouty man. After 
 harvest I have shot them before the pointers in turnip-fields. 
 
 I make no doubt but there are three species of the willow- 
 wrens ; 1 two I know perfectly, but have not been able yet to 
 procure the third. No two birds can differ more in their notes, 
 and that constantly, than those two that I am acquainted with ; 
 for the one has a joyous, easy, laughing note, the other a harsh 
 loud chirp. The former is every way larger, and three-quar- 
 ters of an inch longer, and weighs two drams and a half, while 
 the latter weighs but two ; so the songster is one-fifth heavier 
 than the chirper. The chirper (being the first summer-bird 
 of passage that is heard, the wryneck sometimes excepted) 
 begins his two notes in the middle of March, and continues 
 them through the spring and summer till the end of August, 
 as appears by my journals. The legs of the larger of these 
 two are flesh-colored ; of the less black. 
 
 The grasshopper-lark began his sibilous note in my fields 
 last Saturday. Nothing can be more amusing than the whis- 
 per of this little bird, which seems to be close by though at a 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 41 
 
 hundred yards distance ; and when close at your ear, is scarce 
 any louder than when a great way off. Had I not been a little 
 acquainted with insects, and known that the grasshopper kind 
 is not yet hatched, I should have hardly believed but that it 
 had been a locusta whispering in the bushes. The country 
 people laugh when you tell them that it is the note of a bird. 
 It is a most artful creature, skulking in the thickest part of a 
 bush ; and will sing at a yard distance, provided it be con- 
 cealed. I was obliged to get a person to go on the other side 
 of the hedge where it haunted, and then it would run, creep- 
 ing like a mouse, before us for a hundred yards together, 
 through the bottom of the thorns ; yet it would not come into 
 fair sight; but in a morning early, and when undisturbed, it 
 sings on the top of a twig, gaping and shivering with its wings. 
 Mr. Ray himself had no knowledge of this bird, but received 
 his account from Mr. Johnson, who apparently confounds it 
 with the reguli non cristati, from which it is very distinct. 
 See Ray's " Philos. Letters," p. 108. 
 
 The fly-catcher (stoparold) has not yet appeared ; it usually 
 breeds in my vine. The redstart begins to sing, its note is 
 short and imperfect, but is continued till about the middle of 
 June. The willow-wrens (the smaller sort) are horrid pests in 
 a garden, destroying the peas, cherries, currants, etc. ; and are 
 so tame that a gun will not scare them. 
 
 A LIST OF THE SUMMER BlRDS OF PASSAGE DISCOVERED IN THIS 
 
 NEIGHBORHOOD, RANGED SOMEWHAT IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY 
 APPEAR 
 
 NOMINA 
 
 Smallest willow-wren, Motacilla trochilus. 
 
 Wryneck, Jynxtorquitta. 
 
 House-swallow, Hirundo rustica. 
 
 Martin, Hirundo urbica. 
 
 Sand-martin, Hirundo riparia. 
 
 Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus. 
 
 Nightingale, Motacilla Ittscinia. 
 
 Black-cap, Motacilla atricapilla. 
 
 Whitethroat, Motacilla sylvia. 
 
 Middle willow-wren, Motacilla trochilus. 
 
 Swift, Hirundo apus. 
 
 Stone-curlew? Charadrius cedicnemus? 
 
 Turtle-dove ? Turtur aldrovandi ? 
 
 Grasshopper-lark, Alauda trivialis. 
 
42 WHITE 
 
 LINN^I NOMINA 
 
 Landrail, Rallus crex. 
 
 Largest willow-wren, Motacilla trochilus. 
 
 Redstart, Motacilla phcenicurus. 
 
 Goat-sucker, or fern-owl, Caprimulgus europ<zus. 
 
 Fly-catcher, Muscicapa grisola. 
 
 My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter 
 with its bill against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling 
 it a jar-bird. I procured one to be shot in the very fact; it 
 proved to be the Sitta etiropcea (the nuthatch). 2 Mr. Ray says 
 that the less spotted woodpecker does the same. This noise 
 may be heard a furlong or more. 
 
 Now is the only time to ascertain the short-winged summer 
 birds; for, when the leaf is out, there is no making any re- 
 marks on such a restless tribe; and when once the young 
 begin to appear it is all confusion : there is no distinction of 
 genus, species, or sex. 
 
 In breeding time snipes play over the moors, piping and 
 humming ; they always hum as they are descending. Is not 
 their hum ventriloquous like that of the turkey ? Some sus- 
 pect it is made by their wings. 
 
 This morning I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose crown 
 glitters like burnished gold. 3 It often hangs like a titmouse, 
 with its back downwards. 
 
 Yours, etc., etc. 
 NOTES 
 
 1 White probably means the willow-wren and chiff-chaff which are 
 common, and the wood-wren which is rare. G C. D. 
 
 2 The nuthatch builds in holes in trees, and if the opening is too large, 
 it builds it up with mud, leaving only sufficient room for its own egress and 
 ingress. G. C. D. 
 
 8 The golden-crested wren suspends its deep purse-like nest beneath 
 some thick fir branch, and lays a number of tiny yellow-brown eggs, like 
 green-peas in size. All the winter through this wren and the long-tailed 
 tit frequented the hedgerows and coppices in Shropshire, and were frequent 
 victims to a school-boy's love of chevying. G. C. D. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 43 
 
 LETTER XVII 
 
 SELBORNE, June iSt/i, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, On Wednesday last arrived your agreeable 
 letter of June loth. It gives me great satisfaction to find 
 that you pursue these studies still with such vigor, and are in 
 such forwardness with regard to reptiles and fishes. 
 
 The reptiles, few as they are, I am not acquainted with, so 
 well as I could wish, with regard to their natural history. There 
 is a degree of dubiousness and obscurity attending the propa- 
 gation of this class of animals, something analogous to that of 
 the cryptogamia in the sexual system of plants : and the case 
 is the same with regard to some of the fishes ; as the eel, etc. 1 
 
 The method in which toads procreate and bring forth seems 
 to be very much in the dark. Some authors say that they are 
 viviparous : and yet Ray classes them among his oviparous 
 animals; and is silent with regard to the manner of their 
 bringing forth. Perhaps they may be eo&> pev WOTO/COI, efo) Be 
 ZCOOTOKOI, as is known to be the case with the viper. 
 
 The copulation of frogs (or at least the appearance of it ; 
 for Swammerdam proves that the male has no penis intrans) 
 is notorious to everybody : because we see them sticking upon 
 each other's backs for a month together in the spring : and 
 yet I never saw, or read of toads being observed in the same 
 situation. It is strange that the matter with regard to the 
 venom of toads has not been yet settled. That they are not 
 noxious to some animals is plain : for ducks, buzzards, owls, 
 stone-curlews, and snakes, eat them, to my knowledge, with 
 impunity. And I well remember the time, but was not eye- 
 witness to the fact (though numbers of persons were) when 
 a quack, at this village, ate a toad to make the country-people 
 stare ; afterwards he drank oil. 2 
 
 I have been informed also, from undoubted authority, that 
 some ladies (ladies you will say of peculiar taste) took a fancy 
 to a toad, which they nourished summer after summer, for 
 many years, till he grew to a monstrous size, with the mag- 
 gots which turn to flesh-flies. The reptile used to come forth 
 every evening from a hole under the garden-steps ; and was 
 
44 WHITE 
 
 taken up, after supper, on the table to be fed. But at last a 
 tame raven, kenning him as he put forth his head, gave him 
 such a severe stroke with his horny beak as put out one eye. 
 After this accident the creature languished for some time and 
 died. 
 
 I need not remind a gentleman of your extensive reading 
 of the excellent account there is from Mr. Derham, in Ray's 
 "Wisdom of God in the Creation" (p. 365), concerning the 
 migration of frogs from their breeding ponds. In this account 
 he at once subverts that foolish opinion of their dropping from 
 the clouds in rain ; showing that it is from the grateful cool- 
 ness and moisture of those showers that they are tempted to 
 set out on their travels, which they defer till those fall. Frogs 
 are as yet in their tadpole state ; but, in a few weeks, our lanes, 
 paths, fields, will swarm for a few days with myriads of those 
 emigrants, no larger than my little finger nail. Swammerdam 
 gives a most accurate account of the method and situation in 
 which the male impregnates the spawn of the female. How 
 wonderful is the economy of Providence with regard to the 
 limbs of so vile a reptile ! While it is an aquatic it has a fish- 
 like tail, and no legs ; as soon as the legs sprout, the tail drops 
 off as useless, and the animal betakes itself to the land ! 
 
 Merret, I trust, is widely mistaken when he advances that 
 the Rana arborea is an English reptile ; it abounds in Ger- 
 many and Switzerland. 3 
 
 It is to be remembered that the Salamandra aqttatica of Ray 
 (the water-newt or eft) will frequently bite at the angler's bait, 
 and is often caught on his hook. I used to take it for granted 
 that the Salamandra aquatica was hatched, lived, and died in 
 the water. But John Ellis, Esq., F.R.S. (the coralline Ellis), 
 asserts, in a letter to the Royal Society, dated June 5th, 1766, 
 in his account of the mud inguana, an amphibious bipes from 
 South Carolina, that the water-eft, or newt, is only the larva 
 of the land-eft, as tadpoles are of frogs. 4 Lest I should be 
 suspected to misunderstand his meaning, I shall give it in his 
 own words. Speaking of the opercula or coverings to the gills 
 of the mudinguana> he proceeds to say that, "the form of these 
 pennated coverings approaches very near to what I have some 
 time ago observed in the lava or aquatic state of our English 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 45 
 
 lacerta, known by the name of eft, or newt ; which serve them 
 for coverings to their gills, and for fins to swim with while in 
 this state ; and which they lose, as well as the fins of their 
 tails, when they change their state and become land animals, 
 as I have observed, by keeping them alive for some time 
 myself." 
 
 Linnaeus, in his "Systema Naturae," hints at what Mr. Ellis 
 advances more than once. 
 
 Providence has been so indulgent to us as to allow of but 
 one venomous reptile of the serpent kind in these kingdoms, 
 and that is the viper. As you propose the good of mankind 
 to be an object of your publications, you will not omit to 
 mention common salad-oil as a sovereign remedy against the 
 bite of the viper. As to the blind worm (Anguis fragilis, 
 so-called because it snaps in sunder with a small blow), I have 
 found, on examination, that it is perfectly innocuous. 5 A 
 neighboring yeoman (to whom I am indebted for some good 
 hints) killed and opened a female viper about the 2/th May : 
 he found her filled with a chain of eleven eggs, about the size 
 of those of a blackbird ; but none of them were advanced so 
 far towards a state of maturity as to contain any rudiments 
 of young. Though they are oviparous, yet they are vivipa- 
 rous also, hatching their young within their bellies, and then 
 bringing them forth. Whereas snakes lay chains of eggs 
 every summer in my melon beds, in spite of all that my peo- 
 ple can do to prevent them ; which eggs do not hatch till the 
 spring following, as I have often experienced. Several intel- 
 ligent folks assure me that they have seen the viper open her 
 mouth and admit her helpless young down her throat on sud- 
 den surprises, just as the female opossum does her brood into 
 the pouch under her belly, upon the like emergencies ; and yet 
 the London viper-catchers insist on it, to Mr. Barrington, that 
 no such thing ever happens. The serpent kind eat, I believe, 
 but once in a year; or rather, but only just at one season of 
 the year. Country-people talk much of a water-snake, but, I 
 am pretty sure, without any reason ; for the common snake 
 (Coluber natrix) delights much to sport in the water, perhaps 
 with a view to procure frogs and other food. 6 
 
 I cannot well guess how you are to make out your twelve 
 
46 WHITE 
 
 species of reptiles, unless it be by the various species, or rather 
 varieties, of our lacerti, of which Ray enumerates five. I have 
 not had opportunity of ascertaining these; but remember well 
 to have seen, formerly, several beautiful green lacerti on the 
 sunny sandbanks near Farnham, in Surrey ; and Ray admits 
 there are such in Ireland. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Toads lay eggs as frogs do. Every dweller in the country will be famil- 
 iar with the masses of jelly-like substance in the ditches which constitutes 
 the spawn of frogs. That of toads forms long strings instead of masses. 
 G. C. D. 
 
 2 There seems to be little doubt that the secretion which exudes from the 
 tubercles on the toad's skin is very offensive, and might irritate a delicate 
 skin. Dogs will not mouth them a second time. G. C. D. 
 
 8 This pretty green frog, which lives on a tree, and is sometimes kept as 
 a pet, is not considered a native species. Mr. J. G. Wood says he saw a 
 colony of them in a hole in an apple-tree at Marston, near Oxford ; but 
 they must have been introduced there, or strayed from some one who kept 
 them. G. C. D. 
 
 4 There is but one species of newt, which goes through all its changes in 
 the water. The male has a beautiful waving crest along its back and tail. 
 When young it has gills ; but when it reaches the perfect state it has to rise 
 constantly to the surface to take in a supply of air. It is possible that by 
 the term land-eft, White may refer to the lizard, which belongs to a different 
 family. Most country people of the lower order are dreadfully afraid of 
 newts or effets, and think their bite is deadly. As a fact, however, they are 
 quite harmless. G. C. D. 
 
 5 The blind-worm or slow-worm does not need a blow to induce it to cast 
 off its tail. A sudden fright is sufficient. While you are looking at the tail 
 wriggling and jumping about, the body quietly makes its escape. G. C. D. 
 
 6 The common snake takes readily to the water, and swims sometimes 
 altogether beneath it, and sometimes with the head and neck above. I have 
 very often seen them doing this ; and although I knew they were harmless, 
 I did not like them diving close by me when I was swimming. There is 
 no English species of "water-snake." G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XVIII 
 
 SELBORNE, July 27^, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I received your obliging and communicative 
 letter of June 28th, while I was on a visit at a gentleman's 
 house, where I had neither books to turn to, nor leisure to 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 47 
 
 sit down, to return you an answer to many queries, which I 
 wanted to resolve in the best manner that I am able. 
 
 A person, by my order, has searched our brooks, but could 
 find no such fish as the Gasterosteus pungitius l ; he found the 
 Gasterosteus aculeatus in plenty. This morning, in a basket, 
 I packed a little earthen pot full of wet moss, and in it some 
 sticklebacks, male and female ; the females big with spawn : 
 some lamperns; some bull's heads; but I could procure no 
 minnows. This basket will be in Fleet Street by eight this 
 evening ; so I hope Mazel will have them fresh and fair to- 
 morrow morning. I gave some directions, in a letter, to what 
 particulars the engraver should be attentive. 
 
 Finding, while I was on a visit, that I was within a reason- 
 able distance of Ambresbury, I sent a servant over to that 
 town, and procured several living specimens of loaches, which 
 he brought, safe and brisk, in a glass decanter. They were 
 taken in the gullies that were cut for watering the meadows. 
 From these fishes (which measured from two to four inches 
 in length) I took the following description : " The loach, in 
 its general aspect, has a pellucid appearance ; its back is mot- 
 tled with irregular collections of small black dots, not reaching 
 much below the linea lateralis, as are the back and tail fins ; 
 a black line runs from each eye down to the nose ; its belly is 
 of a silvery white; the upper jaw projects beyond the lower, 
 and is surrounded with six feelers, three on each side ; its pec- 
 toral fins are large, its ventral much smaller ; the fin behind 
 its anus small ; its dorsal-fin large, containing eight spines ; its 
 tail, where it joins to the tail-fin, remarkably broad, without 
 any taperness, so as to be characteristic of this genus ; the 
 tail-fin is broad, and square at the end. From the breadth 
 and muscular strength of the tail it appears to be an active 
 nimble fish." 
 
 In my visit I was not very far from Hungerford, and did 
 not forget to make some inquiries concerning the wonderful 
 method of curing cancers by means of toads. Several intelli- 
 gent persons, both gentry and clergy, do I find give a great 
 deal of credit to what is asserted in the papers, and I myself 
 dined with a clergyman who seemed to be persuaded that what 
 is related is matter of fact ; but, when I came to attend to his 
 
48 WHITE 
 
 account, I thought I discerned circumstances which did not a 
 little invalidate the woman's story of the manner in which she 
 came by her skill. She says of herself " that, laboring under 
 a virulent cancer, she went to some church where there was 
 a vast crowd; on going into a pew, she was accosted by a 
 strange clergyman, who, after expressing compassion for her 
 situation, told her that if she would make such an application 
 of living toads as is mentioned she would be well." Now is 
 it likely that this unknown gentleman should express so much 
 tenderness for this single sufferer, and not feel any for the 
 many thousands that daily languish under this terrible dis- 
 order ? Would he not have made use of this invaluable nos- 
 trum for his own emolument ; or at least, by some means of 
 publication or other, have found a method of making it public 
 for the good of mankind ? In short, this woman (as it appears 
 to me) having set up for a cancer-doctress, finds it expedient 
 to amuse the country with this dark and mysterious relation. 
 The water-eft has not, that I can discern, the least appear- 
 ance of any gills ; for want of which it is continually rising to 
 the surface of the water to take in fresh air. I opened a big- 
 bellied one indeed, and found it full of spawn. Not that this 
 circumstance at all invalidates the assertion that they are larva ; 
 for the larva of insects are full of eggs, which they exclude the 
 instant they enter their last state. The water-eft is continually 
 climbing over the brims of the vessel, within which we keep it 
 in water, and wandering away ; and people every summer see 
 numbers crawling out of the pools where they are hatched, up 
 the dry banks. There are varieties of them, differing in color ; 
 and some have fins up their tail and back, and some have not. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 The Gasterosteus pungitius is the ten-spined stickleback. The other 
 is the common one with three spines. G. C. D. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 49 
 
 LETTER XIX 
 
 SELBORNE, August 17 th, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I have now, past dispute, made out three dis- 
 tinct species of the willow-wrens (motacilfa trochili) which con- 
 stantly and invariably use distinct notes. But at the same time 
 I am obliged to confess that I know nothing of your willow- 
 lark. In my letter of April i8th, I had told you peremptorily 
 that I knew your willow-lark, but had not seen it then ; but 
 when I came to procure it, it proved in all respects a very 
 motacilla trochilus, only that it is a size larger than the two 
 others, and the yellow-green of the whole upper part of the 
 body is more vivid, and the belly of a clearer white. I have 
 specimens of the three sorts now lying before me, and can dis- 
 cern that there are three gradations of sizes, and that the least 
 has black legs, and the other two flesh-colored ones. The yel- 
 lowest bird is considerably the largest, and has its quill-feathers 
 and secondary feathers tipped with white, which the others have 
 not. This last haunts only the tops of trees in high beechen 
 woods, and makes a sibilous grasshopper-like noise, now and 
 then, at short intervals, shivering a little with its wings when 
 it sings ; and is, I make no doubt now, the regulus non cristatus 
 of Ray, which he says " cantat voce striduld locusta" Yet 
 this great ornithologist never suspected that there were three 
 species. 
 
 LETTER XX 
 
 SELBORNE, October 8t%, 1768. 
 
 IT is I find in zoology as it is in botany ; all nature is so 
 full that that district produces the greatest variety which is 
 the most examined. Several birds, which are said to belong 
 to the north only, are it seems often in the south. I have dis- 
 covered this summer three species of birds with us, which 
 writers mention as only to be seen in the northern counties. 
 The first that was brought me (on the I4th May), was the 
 sandpiper, tringa hypoleucus : it was a cock bird, and haunted 
 5 
 
50 WHITE 
 
 the banks of some ponds near the village ; and, as it had a 
 companion, doubtless intended to have bred near that water. 
 Besides, the owner has told me since, that on recollection, he 
 has seen some of the same birds round his ponds in former 
 summers. 
 
 The next bird that I procured (on the 2ist May) was a male 
 red-backed butcher-bird, lanius collurio. My neighbor, who 
 shot it, says that it might easily have escaped his notice, had 
 not the outcries and chattering of the whitethroats and other 
 small birds drawn his attention to the bush where it was ; its 
 craw was filled with the legs and wings of beetles. 
 
 The next rare birds (which were procured for me last week) 
 were some ring-ousels, turdi torquati. 1 
 
 This week twelve months a gentleman from London, being 
 with us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, he told 
 us, on an old yew hedge where there were berries, some birds 
 like blackbirds, with rings of white round their necks : a neigh- 
 boring farmer also at the same time observed the same ; but, 
 as no specimens were procured, little notice was taken. I men- 
 tioned this circumstance to you in my letter of November 4th, 
 1 767 (you, however, paid but small regard to what I said, as I 
 had not seen these birds myself) ; but last week the aforesaid 
 farmer, seeing a large flock, twenty or thirty of these birds, 
 shot two cocks and two hens, and says, on recollection, that 
 he remembers to have observed these birds again last spring, 
 about Lady-day, as it were on their return to the north. Now 
 perhaps these ousels are not the ousels of the north of Eng- 
 land, but belong to the more northern parts of Europe ; and 
 may retire before the excessive rigor of the frosts in those 
 parts, and return to breed in the spring, when the cold abates. 
 If this be the case, here is discovered a new bird of winter 
 passage, concerning whose migrations the writers are silent ; 
 but if these birds should prove the ousels of the north of Eng- 
 land, then here is a migration disclosed within our own king- 
 dom never before remarked. It does not yet appear whether 
 they retire beyond the bounds of our island to the south ; but 
 it is most probable that they usually do, or else one cannot 
 suppose that they would have continued so long unnoticed in 
 the southern countries. The ousel is larger than a blackbird, 
 
RED-BACKED BUTCHER BIRD (Lanius Collurio). 
 
WHITE 
 
 -- -rr . fxrtsds near the vill; >: -jitd, as it had a 
 
 r that water. 
 
 r*e of tlie same birds round is in former 
 
 Sid that I procured (on t?* ) was a male 
 
 butcher-bird, lanius r^/'s- r sieighbor, who 
 
 that it might easily h^ notice, had 
 
 u , -t* and other 
 
 was ; its 
 
 <\ C AY<\ WAXY 
 
 ni, being 
 , he told 
 me birds 
 : aneigh- 
 me ; but, 
 
 I, as I 
 
 ollection, that 
 
 in last spring, 
 
 north. Now 
 
 with of Eng- 
 
 pe ; and 
 
 !-',ie north of Eng- 
 
 ,j -\;t 'jiscio.- : .! -xvfthin our own king- 
 4. It doc- not yet appear whether 
 nds of our island to the south ; bi^ 
 tlw:y usually do, or else OT 
 sve continued so long unnottc-. ci : : 
 '%&: -nwkJ is larger than a blackbird, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 5 1 
 
 and feeds on haws ; but last autumn (when there were no haws) 
 it fed on yew-berries : in the spring it feeds on ivy-berries, 
 which ripen only at that season, in March and April. 
 
 I must not omit to tell you (as you have been so lately on the 
 study of reptiles) that my people, every now and then of late, 
 draw up with a bucket of water from my well, which is sixty- 
 three feet deep, a large black warty lizard with a fin-tail and 
 yellow belly. How they first came down at that depth, and 
 how they were ever to have got out thence without help, is more 
 than I am able to say. 
 
 My thanks are due to you for your trouble and care in the 
 examination of a buck's head. As far as your discoveries reach 
 at present, they seem much to corroborate my suspicions ; and 
 
 I hope Mr. may find reason to give his decision in my 
 
 favor ; and then, I think, we may advance this extraordinary 
 provision of nature as a new instance of the wisdom of God 
 in the creation. 
 
 As yet I have not quite done with my history of the cedicne- 
 mus, or stone-curlew ; for I shall desire a gentleman in Sus- 
 sex (near whose house these birds congregate in vast flocks in 
 the autumn) to observe nicely when they leave him (if they do 
 leave him), and when they return again in the spring : I was 
 with this gentleman lately, and saw several single birds. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 The ring-ousel was common on the Eglwyseg Rocks bordering the 
 Vale of Llangollen. It appears to make a partial migration to the south 
 of England in the autumn. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XXI 
 
 _U5- SELBORNE, Nov. zWi, 1768. 
 
 DEAR SIR, With regard to the cedicnemus, or stone-curlew, 
 I intend to write very soon to my friend near Chichester, in 
 whose neighborhood these birds seem most to abound ; and 
 shall urge him to take particular notice when they begin to con- 
 gregate, and afterwards to watch them most narrowly whether 
 they do not withdraw themselves during the dead of the winter. 
 
52 WHITE 
 
 When I have obtained information with respect to this circum- 
 stance, I shall have finished my history of the stone-curlew, 
 which I hope will prove to your satisfaction, as it will be, I 
 trust, very near the truth. This gentleman, as he occupies a 
 large farm of his own, and is abroad early and late, will be a 
 very proper spy upon the motions of these birds ; and besides, 
 as I have prevailed on him to buy the Naturalist's Journal (with 
 which he is much delighted), I shall expect that he will be very 
 exact in his dates. It is very extraordinary, as you observe, 
 that a bird so common with us should never struggle to you. 
 
 And here will be the properest place to mention, while I think 
 of it, an anecdote which the above-mentioned gentleman told me 
 when I was last at his house; which was that, in a warren join- 
 ing to his outlet, many daws (corvi monedulce) built every year in 
 the rabbit-burrows under ground. The way he and his brothers 
 used to take their nests, while they were boys, was by listening 
 at the mouths of the holes ; and, if they heard the young ones 
 cry, they twisted the nest out with a forked stick. Some water- 
 fowls (viz., the puffins) breed, I know, in that manner ; but I 
 should never have suspected the daws of building in holes on 
 the flat ground. 1 
 
 Another very unlikely spot is made use of by daws as a place 
 to breed in, and that is Stonehenge. These birds deposit their 
 nests in the interstices between the upright and the impost 
 stones of that amazing work of antiquity : which circumstance 
 alone speaks the prodigious height of the upright stones, that 
 they should be tall enough to secure those nests from the annoy- 
 ance of shepherd-boys, who are always idling round that place. 
 
 One of my neighbors last Saturday, November 26th, saw a 
 martin in a sheltered bottom : the sun shone warm, and the 
 bird was hawking briskly after flies. I am now perfectly satis- 
 fied that they do not all leave this island in the winter. 
 
 You judge very right, I think, in speaking with reserve and 
 caution concerning the cures done by toads : for, let people 
 advance what they will on such subjects, yet there is such a 
 propensity in mankind towards deceiving and being deceived, 
 that one cannot safely relate anything from common report, 
 especially in print, without expressing some degree of doubt 
 and suspicion. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 53 
 
 Your approbation, with regard to my new discovery of the 
 migration of the ring-ousel, gives me satisfaction ; and I find 
 you concur with me in suspecting that they are foreign birds 
 which visit us. You will be sure, I hope, not to omit to make 
 inquiry whether your ring-ousels leave your rocks in the 
 autumn. What puzzles me most, is the very short stay they 
 make with us ; for in about three weeks they are all gone. I 
 shall be very curious to remark whether they will call on us 
 at their return in the spring, as they did last year. 
 
 I want to be better informed with regard to ichthyology. If 
 fortune had settled me near the seaside, or near some great 
 river, my natural propensity would soon have urged me to have 
 made myself acquainted with their productions : but as I have 
 lived mostly in inland parts, and in an upland district, my 
 knowledge of fishes extends little farther than to those common 
 sorts which our brooks and lakes produce. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTE 
 
 1 At Craigyrhiw, a limestone cliff near Oswestry, on the Welsh border, 
 where the jackdaws bred by the thousand, numbers of them made their nests 
 in the rabbit holes at the foot of the rocks. I often used to find a stock- 
 dove's nest in a rabbit hole there, too. We would sit and watch them from 
 a crag, until we saw a bird leave or enter. On the Norfolk warrens, too, 
 stock-doves breed in the rabbit holes. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XXII 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. 2nd, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, As to the peculiarity of jackdaws building with 
 us under the ground in rabbit-burrows, you have, in part, hit 
 upon the reason ; for, in reality, there are hardly any towers or 
 steeples in all this country. And perhaps, Norfolk excepted, 
 Hampshire and Sussex are as meanly furnished with churches 
 as almost any counties in the kingdom. We have many livings 
 of two or three hundred pounds a year, whose houses of wor- 
 ship make little better appearance than dovecots. When I 
 first saw Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdon- 
 shire, and the fens of Lincolnshire, I was amazed at the number 
 
54 WHITE 
 
 of spires which presented themselves in every point of view. 
 As an admirer of prospects, I have reason to lament this 
 want in my own country ; for such objects are very necessary 
 ingredients in an elegant landscape. 
 
 What you mention with respect to reclaimed toads raises my 
 curiosity. An ancient author, though no naturalist, has well 
 remarked that " every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of ser- 
 pents, and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed, 
 of mankind." 
 
 It is a satisfaction to me to find that a green lizard has actu- 
 ally been procured for you in Devonshire ; because it corrobo- 
 rates my discovery, which I made many years ago, of the same 
 sort, on a sunny sandbank near Farnham, in Surrey. I am 
 well acquainted with the South Hams of Devonshire ; and can 
 suppose that district, from its southerly situation, to be a proper 
 habitation for such animals in their best colors. 
 
 Since the ring-ousels of your vast mountains do certainly not 
 forsake them against winter, our suspicions that those which 
 visit this neighborhood about Michaelmas are not English birds, 
 but driven from the more northern parts of Europe by the frosts, 
 are still more reasonable ; and it will be worth your pains to 
 endeavor to trace from whence they come, and to inquire why 
 they make so very short a stay. 
 
 In your account of your error with regard to the two 
 species of herons, you incidentally gave me great entertain- 
 ment in your description of the heronry at Cressi Hall ; which 
 is a curiosity I never could manage to see. Fourscore nests 
 of such a bird on one tree is a rarity which I would ride half 
 as many miles to have a sight of. Pray be sure to tell me in 
 your next whose seat Cressi Hall is, and near what town it 
 lies. I have often thought that those vast extents of fens 
 have never been sufficiently explored. If half a dozen gentle- 
 men, furnished with a good strength of water-spaniels, were 
 to beat them over for a week, they would certainly find more 
 species. 
 
 There is no bird, I believe, whose manners I have studied 
 more than that of the caprimulgus (the goat-sucker), as it is a 
 wonderful and curious creature ; but I have always found that 
 though sometimes it may chatter as it flies, as I know it does, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 55 
 
 yet in general it utters its jarring note sitting on a bough; and 
 I have for many a half hour watched it as it sat with its under 
 mandible quivering, and particularly this summer. It perches 
 usually on a bare twig, with its head lower than its tail, in 
 an attitude well expressed by your draughtsman in the folio 
 " British Zoology." l This bird is most punctual in beginning 
 its song exactly at the close of day ; so exactly that I have 
 known it strike up more than once or twice just at the report 
 of the Portsmouth evening gun, which we can hear when the 
 weather is still. It appears to me past all doubt that its notes 
 are formed by organic impulse, by the powers of the parts of 
 its windpipe, formed for sound, just as cats purr. You will 
 credit me, I hope, when I assure you that, as my neighbors 
 were assembled in an hermitage on the side of a steep hill 
 where we drink tea, one of these churn-owls came and settled 
 on the cross of that little straw edifice and began to chatter, 
 and continued his note for many minutes ; and we were all 
 struck with wonder to find that the organs of that little ani- 
 mal, when put in motion, gave a sensible vibration to the 
 whole building! This bird also sometimes makes a small 
 squeak, repeated four or five times; and I have observed 
 that to happen when the cock has been pursuing the hen in 
 a toying way through the boughs of a tree. 
 
 It would not be at all strange if your bat, which you have 
 procured, should prove a new one, since five species have 
 been found in a neighboring kingdom. The great sort that 
 I mentioned is certainly a nondescript ; I saw but one this 
 summer, and that I had no opportunity of taking. 
 
 Your account of the Indian grass was entertaining. I am 
 no angler myself ; but inquiring of those that are, what they 
 supposed that part of their tackle to be made of ? they re- 
 plied, " Of the intestines of a silkworm." 2 
 
 Though I must not pretend to great skill in entomology, 
 yet I cannot say that I am ignorant of that kind of knowl- 
 edge ; I may now and then perhaps be able to furnish you 
 with a little information. 
 
 The vast rains ceased with us much about the same time as 
 with you, and since we have had delicate weather. Mr. Bar- 
 ker, who has measured the rain for more than .thirty years, 
 
$6 WHITE 
 
 says, in a late letter, that more has fallen this year than in 
 any he ever attended to; though from July 1763 to January 
 1764, more fell than in any seven months of this year. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 The goat-sucker or nightjar perches lengthwise on a bough instead of 
 across it as other birds do. The eggs, which it lays on the ground, in an 
 apology for a nest, are most beautifully marbled. G. C. D. 
 
 2 The gut used by anglers is made from the silkworm, and is the substance 
 from which the silk would be spun if the caterpillar were allowed to continue 
 its existence. The Indian grass is of very little use for fishing, as it is brittle. 
 G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XXIII 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. 2$tft, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, It is not improbable that the Guernsey lizard 
 and our green lizards may be specifically the same ; all that I 
 know is, that, when some years ago many Guernsey lizards 
 were turned loose in Pembroke College garden, in the Univer- 
 sity of Oxford, they lived a great while, and seemed to enjoy 
 themselves very well, but never bred. Whether this circum- 
 stance will prove anything either way I shall not pretend to 
 say. 
 
 I return you thanks for your account of Cressi Hall ; but 
 recollect, not without regret, that in June 1746 I was visiting 
 for a week together at Spalding, without ever being told that 
 such a curiosity was just at hand. Pray send me word in your 
 next what sort of tree it is that contains such a quantity of 
 herons' nests ; and whether the heronry consists of a whole 
 grove of wood, or only of a few trees. 
 
 It gave me satisfaction to find we accorded so well about 
 the caprimulgus; all I contended for was to prove that it often 
 chatters sitting as well as flying ; and therefore the noise was 
 voluntary, and from organic impulse, and not from the resist- 
 ance of the air against the hollow of its mouth and throat. 
 
 If ever I saw anything like actual migration, it was last 
 Michaelmas Day. I was travelling, and out early in the morn- 
 ing ; at first there was a vast fog ; but, by the time that I was 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 57 
 
 got seven or eight miles from home towards the coast, the sun 
 broke out into a delicate warm day. We were then on a large 
 heath or common, and I could discern, as the mist began to 
 break away, great numbers of swallows (Jiirundines rusticce) 
 clustering on the stunted shrubs and bushes, as if they had 
 roosted there all night. As soon as the air became clear and 
 pleasant they were all on the wing at once ; and, by a placid 
 and easy flight, proceeded on southward towards the sea ; 
 after this I did not see any more flocks, only now and then a 
 straggler. 
 
 I cannot agree with those persons that assert that the swal- 
 low kind disappear some and some, gradually, as they come, 
 for the bulk of them seem to withdraw at once ; only some 
 stragglers stay behind a long while, and do never, there is the 
 greatest reason to believe, leave this island. Swallows seem 
 to lay themselves up, and to come forth in a warm day, as 
 bats do continually of a warm evening, after they have disap- 
 peared for weeks. For a very respectable gentleman assured 
 me that, as he was walking with some friends under Merton 
 Wall on a remarkably hot noon, either in the last week in 
 December or the first week in January, he espied three or 
 four swallows huddled together on the moulding of one of 
 the windows of that college. I have frequently remarked that 
 swallows are seen later at Oxford than elsewhere ; is it owing 
 to the vast massy buildings of that place, to the many waters 
 round it, or to what else ? 
 
 When I used to rise in the morning last autumn, and see 
 the swallows and martins clustering on the chimneys and 
 thatch of the neighboring cottages, I could not help being 
 touched with a secret delight, mixed with some degree of mor- 
 tification ; with delight, to observe with how much ardor and 
 punctuality those poor little birds obeyed the strong impulse 
 towards migration, or hiding, imprinted on their minds by 
 their great Creator ; and with some degree of mortification, 
 when I reflected that, after all our pains and inquiries, we are 
 yet not quite certain to what regions they do migrate ; and are 
 still farther embarrassed to find that some do not actually mi- 
 grate at all. 
 
 These reflections made so strong an impression on my im- 
 
58 WHITE 
 
 agination, that they became productive of a composition that 
 may perhaps amuse you for a quarter of an hour when next I 
 have the honor of writing to you. 
 
 LETTER XXIV 
 
 SELBORNE, May 2gth, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The scarabaus fullo I know very well, having 
 seen it in collections ; but have never been able to discover 
 one wild in its natural state. Mr. Banks told me he thought 
 it might be found on the seacoast. 
 
 On the 1 3th April I went to the sheep-down, where the ring- 
 ousels have been observed to make their appearance at spring 
 and fall, in their way perhaps to the north or south ; and was 
 much pleased to see these birds about the usual spot. We shot 
 a cock and a hen ; they were plump and in high condition. The 
 hen had but very small rudiments of eggs within her, which 
 proves they are late breeders ; whereas those species of the 
 thrush kind that remain with us the whole year have fledged 
 young before that time. In their crops was nothing very dis- 
 tinguishable, but somewhat that seemed like blades of vege- 
 tables nearly digested. In autumn they feed on haws and 
 yew-berries, and in the spring on ivy-berries. I dressed one 
 of these birds, and found it juicy and well flavored. It is re- 
 markable that they make but a few days' stay in their spring 
 visit, but rest near a fortnight at Michaelmas. These birds, 
 from the observations of three springs and two autumns, are 
 most punctual in their return ; and exhibit a new migration 
 unnoticed by the writers, who supposed they never were to 
 be seen in any southern countries. 
 
 One of my neighbors lately brought me a new salicaria, 
 which at first I suspected might have proved your willow-lark, 
 but on a nicer examination, it answered much better to the 
 description of that species which you shot at Revesby, in 
 Lincolnshire. My bird I describe thus : " It is a size less than 
 the grasshopper-lark; the head, back, and coverts of the 
 wings, of & dusky brown, without those dark spots of the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 59 
 
 grasshopper-lark; over each eye is a milk-white stroke; 
 the chin and throat are white, and the under parts of a yel- 
 lowish white ; the rump is tawny, and the feathers of the tail 
 sharp-pointed ; the bill is dusky and sharp, and the legs are 
 dusky ; the hinder claw long and crooked." The person that 
 shot it says that it sung so like a reed-sparrow that he took it 
 for one ; and that it sings all night : but this account merits 
 farther inquiry. For my part, I suspect it is a second sort 
 of locustela, hinted at by Dr. Derham in Ray's Letters : see 
 p. 108. He also procured me a grasshopper-lark. 
 
 The question that you put with regard to those genera of 
 animals that are peculiar to America, viz., how they came there, 
 and whence? is too puzzling for me to answer; and yet so 
 obvious as often to have struck me with wonder. If one looks 
 into the writers on that subject little satisfaction is to be found. 
 Ingenious men will readily advance plausible arguments to 
 support whatever theory they shall choose to maintain ; but 
 then the misfortune is, every one's hypothesis is each as good 
 as another's, since they are all founded on conjecture. The 
 late writers of this sort, in whom may be seen all the argu- 
 ments of those that have gone before, as I remember, stock 
 America from the western coast of Africa and the south of 
 Europe ; and then break down the Isthmus that bridged over 
 the Atlantic. But this is making use of a violent piece of 
 machinery ; it is a difficulty worthy of the interposition of a 
 god! " Incredulus odi" 
 
 TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 
 
 THE NATURALIST'S SUMMER-EVENING WALK 
 
 equidem credo, quia sit divinitus illis 
 
 Ingenium. VIRG. Georg. 
 
 WHEN day declining sheds a milder gleam, 
 What time the may-fly 1 haunts the pool or stream ; 
 When the still owl skims round the grassy mead, 
 What time the timorous hare limps forth to feed ; 
 Then be the time to steal adown the vale, 
 And listen to the vagrant 2 cuckoo's tale ; 
 
60 WHITE 
 
 To hear the clamorous 3 curlew call his mate, 
 Or the soft quail his tender pain relate ; 
 To see the swallow sweep the darkening plain 
 Belated, to support her infant train ; 
 To mark the swift in rapid giddy ring 
 Dash round the steeple, unsubdued of wing : 
 Amusive birds ! say where your hid retreat 
 When the frost rages and the tempests beat ; 
 Whence your return, by such nice instinct led, 
 When spring, soft season, lifts her bloomy head ? 
 Such baffled searches mock man's prying pride, 
 The GOD OF NATURE is your secret guide ! 
 
 While deepening shades obscure the face of day, 
 To yonder bench leaf-sheltered let us stray, 
 Till blended objects fail the swimming sight, 
 And all the fading landscape sinks in night ; 
 To hear the drowsy dor come brushing by 
 With buzzing wing, or the shrill 4 cricket cry ; 
 To see the feeding bat glance through the wood ; 
 To catch the distant falling of the flood ; 
 While o'er the cliff th' awakened churn-owl hung 
 Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song ; 
 While high in air, and poised upon his wings, 
 Unseen, the soft enamored 5 woodlark sings : 
 These, NATURE'S works, the curious mind employ, 
 Inspire a soothing melancholy joy : 
 As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain 
 Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein ! 
 
 Each rural sight, each sound, each smell, combine ; 
 The tinkling sheep-bell or the breath of kine ; 
 The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze, 
 Or cottage-chimney smoking through the trees. 
 
 The chilling night-dews fall : away, retire ! 
 For see, the glow-worm lights her amorous fire ! 6 
 Thus, ere night's veil had half obscured the sky, 
 Th' impatient damsel hung her lamp on high : 
 True to the signal, by love's meteor led, 
 Leander hastened to his Hero's bed. 7 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 6l 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 The angler's may-fly, the ephemera vulgata LINN., comes forth from its 
 aurelia state, and emerges out of the water about six in the evening, and dies 
 about eleven at night, determining the date of its fly state in about five or 
 six hours. They usually begin to appear about the 4th June, and continue 
 in succession for near a fortnight. See Swaimnerdam^ Derham, Scopoli, 
 etc. G. W. 
 
 2 Vagrant cuckoo ; so called because, being tied down by no incubation 
 or attendance about the nutrition of its young, it wanders without control. 
 G. W. 
 
 8 Charadrius cedicnemus. G. W. 
 
 4 Gry 'Hits campestris. G. W. 
 
 5 In hot summer nights woodlarks soar to a prodigious height, and hang 
 singing in the air. G. W. 
 
 6 The light of the female glow-worm (as she often crawls up the stalk of 
 a grass to make herself more conspicuous) is a signal to the male, which is a 
 slender dusky scarabceus. G. W. 
 
 7 See the story of Hero and Leander. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XXV 
 
 SELBORNE, Aug. ysth, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, It gives me satisfaction to find that my account 
 of the ousel migration pleases you. You put a very shrewd 
 question when you ask me how I know that their autumnal 
 migration is southward ? Was not candor and openness the 
 very life of natural history, I should pass over this query just 
 as a sly commentator does over a crabbed passage in a classic ; 
 but common ingenuousness obliges me to confess, not without 
 some degree of shame, that I only reasoned in that case from 
 analogy. For as all other autumnal birds migrate from the 
 northward to us, to partake of our milder winters, and return 
 to the northward again when the rigorous cold abates, so I 
 concluded that the ring-ousels did the same, as well as their 
 congeners the fieldfares; and especially as ring-ousels are 
 known to haunt cold mountainous countries : but I have good 
 reason to suspect since that they may come to us from the 
 westward ; because I hear from very good authority, that they 
 breed on Dartmoor ; and that they forsake that wild district 
 
62 WHITE 
 
 about the time that our visitors appear, and do not return till 
 late in the spring. 
 
 I have taken a great deal of pains about your salicaria and 
 mine, with a white stroke over its eye and a tawny rump. 1 I 
 have surveyed it alive and dead, and have procured several 
 specimens, and am perfectly persuaded myself (and trust you 
 will soon become convinced of the same) that it is no more nor 
 less than \kt passer arundinaceus minor of Ray. This bird, by 
 some means or other, seems to be entirely omitted in the " British 
 Zoology ; " and one reason probably was because it is so strangely 
 classed in Ray, who ranges it among his picis affines. It ought 
 no doubt to have gone among his aviculce caudd unicolore, and 
 among your slender-billed small birds of the same division. 
 Linnaeus might with great propriety have put it into his genus 
 of motacilla; and motacilla salicaria of his fauna stiecica seems 
 to come the nearest to it. It is no uncommon bird, haunting the 
 sides of ponds and rivers where there is covert, and the reeds 
 and sedges of moors. The country-people in some places call 
 it the sedge-bird. It sings incessantly night and day during 
 the breeding time, imitating the note of a sparrow, a swallow, a 
 skylark ; and has a strange hurrying manner in its song. My 
 specimens correspond most minutely to the description of your 
 fen salicaria shot near Revesby. Mr. Ray has given an ex- 
 cellent characteristic of it when he says, "Rostrum et pedes in 
 hac aviculd multb majores stint quam pro corporis rationed See 
 letter, May 29th, 1769. (Preceding letter, XXIV.) 
 
 I have got you the egg of an cedicnemus, or stone-curlew, 
 which was picked up in a fallow on the naked ground ; there 
 were two, but the finder inadvertently crushed one with his 
 foot before he saw them. 
 
 When I wrote to you last year on reptiles, I wish I had not 
 forgot to mention the faculty that snakes have of stinking se 
 defendendo. I knew a gentleman who kept a tame snake, 
 which was in its person as sweet as any animal while in good 
 humor and unal armed ; but as soon as a stranger, or a dog or 
 cat, came in, it fell to hissing, and filled the room with such 
 nauseous effluvia as rendered it hardly supportable. Thus the 
 squnck, or stonck, of Ray's " Synop. Quadr." is an innocuous 
 and sweet animal ; but, when pressed hard by dogs and men, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 63 
 
 it can eject such a most pestilent and fetid smell and excre- 
 ment, that nothing can be more horrible. 
 
 A gentleman sent me lately a fine specimen of the lanius 
 minor cinerascens cum maculd in scapulis albd, Rail ; which is 
 a bird that, at the time of your publishing your two first vol- 
 umes of " British Zoology," I find you had not seen. You 
 have described it well from Edwards's drawing. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 The bird referred to is the sedge-warbler. White says it sings like a 
 reed-sparrow. The reed-sparrow has no song, but the reed-wren, or reed- 
 warbler, has, and White must mean this species by the term reed-sparrow. 
 G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XXVI 
 
 SELBORNE, December 8M, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I was much gratified by your communicative 
 letter on your return from Scotland, where you spent some 
 considerable time, and gave yourself good room to examine 
 the natural curiosities of that extensive kingdom, both those of 
 the islands, as well as those of the highlands. The usual bane 
 of such expeditions is hurry, because men seldom allot them- 
 selves half the time they should do ; but, fixing on a day for 
 their return, post from place to place, rather as if they were on 
 a journey that required despatch, than as philosophers investi- 
 gating the works of nature. You must have made, no doubt, 
 many discoveries, and laid up a good fund of materials for a 
 future edition of the " British Zoology ; " and will have no rea- 
 son to repent that you have bestowed so much pains on a part 
 of Great Britain that perhaps was never so well examined 
 before. 
 
 It has always been matter of wonder to me that fieldfares, 
 which are so congenerous to thrushes and blackbirds, should 
 never choose to breed in England ; but that they should not 
 think even the highlands cold and northerly, and sequestered 
 enough, is a circumstance still more strange and wonderful. 
 The ring-ousel, you find, stays in Scotland the whole year 
 round ; so that we have reason to conclude that those migrat- 
 
64 WHITE 
 
 ors that visit us for a short space every autumn do not come 
 from thence. 
 
 And here, I think, will be the proper place to mention that 
 those birds were most punctual again in their migration this 
 autumn, appearing, as before, about the 3Oth September ; but 
 their flocks were larger than common, and their stay protracted 
 somewhat beyond the usual time. If they came to spend the 
 whole winter with us, as some of their congeners do, and then 
 left us, as they do, in spring, I should not be so much struck 
 with the occurrence, since it would be similar to that of the 
 other winter birds of passage ; but when I see them for a fort- 
 night at Michaelmas, and again for about a week in the middle 
 of April, I am seized with wonder, and long to be informed 
 whence these travellers come, and whither they go, since they 
 seem to use our hills merely as an inn or baiting place. 
 
 Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is 
 very amusing ; and strange it is that such a short-winged bird 
 should delight in such perilous voyages over the northern 
 ocean ! Some country-people in the winter time have every 
 now and then told me that they have seen two or three white 
 larks on our downs, but, on considering the matter, I begin to 
 suspect that these are some stragglers of the birds we are talk- 
 ing of, which sometimes perhaps may rove so far to the south- 
 ward. 
 
 It pleases me to find that white hares are so frequent on the 
 Scottish mountains, and especially as you inform me that it is 
 a distinct species ; for the quadrupeds of Britain are so few, 
 that every new species is a great acquisition. 
 
 The eagle-owl, could it be proved to belong to us, is so 
 majestic a bird, that it would grace OUT fauna much. I never 
 was informed before where wild-geese are known to breed. 
 
 You admit, I find, that I have proved your fen salicaria to 
 be the lesser reed-sparrow of Ray ; and I think you may be se- 
 cure that I am right, for I took very particular pains to clear 
 up that matter, and had some fair specimens ; but, as they 
 were not well preserved, they are decayed already. You will, 
 no doubt, insert it in its proper place in your next edition. 
 Your additional plates will much improve your work. 
 
 De Buffon, I know, has described the water shrew-mouse: 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 65 
 
 but still I am pleased to find you have discovered it in Lincoln- 
 shire, for the reason I have given in the article of the white 
 hare. 
 
 As a neighbor was lately ploughing a dry, chalky field, far 
 removed from any water, he turned out a water-rat, that was 
 curiously lain up in a hybernaculum artificially formed of grass 
 and leaves. At one end of the burrow lay above a gallon of 
 potatoes regularly stowed, on which it was to have supported 
 itself for the winter. But the difficulty with me is how this 
 amphibius mus came to fix its winter station at such a distance 
 from the water. Was it determined in its choice of that place 
 by the mere accident of finding the potatoes which were 
 planted there ; or is it the constant practice of the aquatic rat 
 to forsake the neighborhood of the water in the colder months ? 
 
 Though I delight very little in analogous reasoning, know- 
 ing how fallacious it is with respect to natural history ; yet, in 
 the following instance, I cannot help being inclined to think 
 it may conduce towards the explanation of a difficulty that I 
 have mentioned before, with respect to the invariable early re- 
 treat of the hirundo apus, or swift, so many weeks before its 
 congeners ; and that not only with us, but also in Andalusia, 
 where they also begin to retire about the beginning of August. 
 
 The great large bat (which by the bye is at present a nonde- 
 script in England, and what I have never been able yet to pro- 
 cure) retires or migrates very early in the summer; it also 
 ranges very high for its food, feeding in a different region of 
 the air; and that is the reason I never could procure one. 
 Now this is exactly the case with the swifts; for they take 
 their food in a more exalted region than the other species, and 
 are very seldom seen hawking for flies near the ground, or over 
 the surface of the water. From hence I would conclude that 
 these hirundines and the larger bats are supported by some 
 sorts of high-flying gnats, scarabs, orpkalcena, that are of short 
 continuance ; and that the short stay of these strangers is reg- 
 ulated by the defect of their food. 
 
 By my journal it appears that curlews clamored on to 
 October 3ist; since which I have not seen nor heard any. 
 Swallows were observed on to November 3rd. 
 
66 WHITE 
 
 LETTER XXVII 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. 22nd, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Hedgehogs abound in my gardens and fields. 
 The manner in which they eat the roots of the plantain in my 
 grass-walks is very curious ; with their upper mandible, which 
 is much longer than their lower, they bore under the plant, and 
 so eat the root off upwards, leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. 
 In this respect they are serviceable, as they destroy a very 
 troublesome weed ; but they deface the walks in some measure 
 by digging little round holes. It appears, by the dung that they 
 drop upon the turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable part of 
 their food. 1 In June last I procured a litter of four or five young 
 hedgehogs, which appeared to be about five or six days old : 
 they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and could not see when 
 they came to my hands. No doubt their spines are soft and flex- 
 ible at the time of their birth, or else the poor dam would have 
 but a bad time of it in the critical moment of parturition, but 
 it is plain they soon harden ; for these little pigs had such stiff 
 prickles on their backs and sides as would easily have fetched 
 blood, had they not been handled with caution. Their spines 
 are quite white at this age ; and they have little hanging ears, 
 which I do not remember to be discernible in the old ones. 
 They can, in part, at this age draw their skin down over their 
 faces ; but are not able to contract themselves into a ball, as they 
 do, for the sake of defence, when full grown. The reason, I sup- 
 pose, is, because the curious muscle that enables the creature 
 to roll itself up in a ball was not then arrived at its full tone 
 and firmness. Hedgehogs make a deep and warm hybernac- 
 ulum with leaves and moss, in which they conceal themselves 
 for the winter ; but I never could find that they stored in any 
 winter provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do. 
 
 I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the fieldfare 
 (turdus pilaris\ which I think is particular enough ; this bird, 
 though it sits on trees in the day-time, and procures the great- 
 est part of its food from white-thorn hedges ; yea, moreover, 
 builds on very high trees, as may be seen by the fauna suecica ; 
 yet always appears with us to roost on the ground. They are 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 67 
 
 seen to come in flocks just before it is dark, and to settle and 
 nestle among the heath on our forest. 2 And besides, the larkers 
 in dragging their nets by night, frequently catch them in the 
 wheat stubbles; while the bat-fowlers, who take many red- 
 wings in the hedges, never entangle any of this species. Why 
 these birds, in the matter of roosting, should differ from all their 
 congeners, and from themselves also with respect to their pro- 
 ceedings by day, is a fact for which I am by no means able to 
 account. 
 
 I have somewhat to inform you of concerning the moose- 
 deer ; but in general foreign animals fall seldom in my way ; 
 my little intelligence is confined to the narrow sphere of my 
 own observations at home. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Hedgehogs are indiscriminate feeders upon flesh or vegetables, insects 
 or eggs. It is persistently asserted by country-people, and as persistently 
 denied by naturalists, that the hedgehog will suck the teats of sleeping cows. 
 That it is occasionally up to mischief the following note copied from the 
 Field of May 24th, 1879, w ^ show : 
 
 " Some few days ago a farmer had an ewe caught in some brambles, and 
 when he went to see his sheep in the morning, he found that something 
 had eaten the ewe's udder off. Of course he killed the sheep at once, and, 
 as he was taking it home in the cart, I thought it was a strange case, and 
 got up into the cart and examined the part that had been bitten. I saw the 
 marks of small teeth on the skin, and told the farmer I thought it was a 
 hedgehog. I set some traps where the blood had been spilt on the ground, 
 and strewed some small portions of half-decayed liver round about the traps 
 for one or two nights. About the third night the portions of liver were all 
 gone. I left the traps set, and strewed more liver, and this morning I had 
 got a very large hedgehog, a little over 2 Ib. weight. I skinned him, and 
 examined the stomach, and found in it some soft dark-brown pulpy substance, 
 mixed with a small quantity of wool. 
 
 "W. R. SMITH, GAMEKEEPER, 
 
 Okehampton, N. Devon." 
 
 G. C. D. 
 
 2 The fieldfare and redwing nest among the pines and firs of Norway and 
 Sweden, and arrive in England in large flocks in the winter. G. C. D. 
 
68 WHITE 
 
 LETTER XXVIII 
 
 SELBORNE, March, 1770. 
 
 ON Michaelmas day 1768 I managed to get a sight of the 
 female moose belonging to the Duke of Richmond, at Good- 
 wood ; but was greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, 
 to find that it died, after having appeared in a languishing way 
 for some time on the morning before. However, understand- 
 ing that it was not stripped, I proceeded to examine this rare 
 quadruped ; I found it in an old greenhouse, slung under the 
 belly and chin by ropes, and in a standing posture ; but, though 
 it had been dead for so short a time, it was in so putrid a state 
 that the stench was hardly supportable. The grand distinction 
 between this deer, and any other species that I have ever met 
 with, consisted in the strange length of its legs ; on which it 
 was tilted up much in the manner of the birds of the grall<z 
 order. I measured it, as they do a horse, and found that, 
 from the ground to the withers it was just five feet four 
 inches ; which height answers exactly to sixteen hands, a 
 growth that few horses arrive at : but then, with this length 
 of legs, its neck was remarkably short, no more than twelve 
 inches ; so that, by straddling with one foot forward and the 
 other backward, it grazed on the plain ground, with the great- 
 est difficulty, between its legs ; the ears were vast and lopping, 
 and as long as the neck; the head was about twenty inches 
 long, and ass-like ; and had such a redundancy of upper lip 
 as I never saw before, with huge nostrils. This lip, travellers 
 say, is esteemed a dainty dish in North America. It is very 
 reasonable to suppose that this creature supports itself chiefly 
 by browsing of trees, and by wading after water plants ; tow- 
 ards which way of livelihood the length of legs and great lip 
 must contribute much. I have read somewhere that it delights 
 in eating the nymph(za> or water-lily. From the fore-feet to the 
 belly behind the shoulder it measured three feet and eight 
 inches : the length of the legs before and behind consisted a 
 great deal in the tibia, which was strangely long ; but, in my 
 haste to get out of the stench, I forgot to measure that joint 
 exactly. Its scut seemed to be about an inch long ; the color 
 
THE MOOSE A T HOME. 
 
 Photogravure from a painting loaned by " Recreation." 
 

 TER XXVIII 
 
 ON Michaelmas day 1768 I manag< 
 
 female moose belonging to the I '<*- 
 
 wood; but was greatly disappr 
 
 to find that it died, after h v ' a Y 
 
 for some time on the mo 
 ing that it was not s 
 quadruped; I found 
 belly and chin by rop-, 
 it had been dead for 
 that the stench was h- 
 
 between this deer, a m ^ 
 
 with, consisted in tl which it 
 
 was tilted up much in 
 
 <*tor. I me ^$y 
 
 i the ground t 
 H^;"-Wte^' 
 growth that few hor 
 of legs, its neck was 
 
 inches ; so that, by : tne 
 
 other backward, it g ; :rh tne & re 
 
 est difficulty, betwo lopping, 
 
 and as long as- 
 long, and ass-lil 
 as I never saw 1 
 say, is esteemed 
 reasonable to v>: 
 by browsini JS, sri! 
 
 ards which way of li lt h P 
 
 must contribute rnucM. it delights 
 
 in eating the ^ nre-feet to the 
 
 belly behin- eet and ei S ht 
 
 hesrthelerr re and behind o 
 
 at deal in th rangeiy long ; b 
 
 7: get ou; 
 
 ItS SCI il % i tne 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 69 
 
 was a grizzly black ; the mane about four inches long ; the 
 fore-hoofs were upright and shapely, the hind flat and splayed. 
 The spring before it was only two years old, so that most prob- 
 ably it was not then come to its growth. What a vast tall beast 
 must a full-grown stag be ! I have been told some arrive at ten 
 feet and a half ! This poor creature had at first a female com- 
 panion of the same species, which died the spring before. In 
 the same garden was a young stag, or red deer, between whom 
 and this moose it was hoped that there might have been a breed ; 
 but their inequality of height must have always been a bar to 
 any commerce of the amorous kind. I should have been glad 
 to have examined the teeth, tongue, lips, hoofs, etc., minutely ; 
 but the putrefaction precluded all farther curiosity. This ani- 
 mal, the keeper told me, seemed to enjoy itself best in the ex- 
 treme frost of the former winter. In the house they showed 
 me the horn of a male moose, which had no front antlers, but 
 only a broad palm with some snags on the edge. The noble 
 owner of the dead moose proposed to make a skeleton of her 
 bones. 
 
 Please to let me hear if my female moose corresponds with 
 that you saw ; and whether you think still that the American 
 moose and European elk are the same creature. 
 
 I am, with the greatest esteem, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXIX 
 
 SELBORNE, May i2th, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Last month we had such a series of cold tur- 
 bulent weather, such a constant succession of frost, and snow, 
 and hail, and tempest, that the regular migration or appear- 
 ance of the summer birds was much interrupted. Some did 
 not show themselves (at least were not heard) till weeks after 
 their usual time ; as the black-cap and whitethroat ; and some 
 have not been heard yet, as the grasshopper-lark and largest 
 willow-wren. As to the fly-catcher, I have not seen it ; it is 
 indeed one of the latest, but should appear about this time : 
 and yet, amidst all this meteorous strife and war of the ele- 
 
70 WHITE 
 
 ments, two swallows discovered themselves as long ago as 
 April nth, in frost and snow; but they withdrew quickly, 
 and were not visible again for many days. House-martins, 
 which are always more backward than swallows, were not 
 observed till May came in. 
 
 Among the monogamous birds several are to be found, after 
 pairing time, single, and of each sex ; but whether this state 
 of celibacy is matter of choice or necessity, is not so easy dis- 
 coverable. When the house-sparrows deprive my martins of 
 their nests, as soon as I cause one to be shot the other, be it 
 cock or hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several 
 times following. 
 
 I have known a dove-house infested by a pair of white owls, 
 which made great havoc among the young pigeons : one of 
 the owls was shot as soon as possible ; but the survivor readily 
 found a mate, and the mischief went on. After some time 
 the new pair were both destroyed, and the annoyance ceased. 
 
 Another instance I remember of a sportsman, whose zeal 
 for the increase of his game being greater than his humanity, 
 after pairing time he always shot the cock bird of every couple 
 of partridges upon his grounds ; supposing that the rivalry of 
 many males interrupted the breed : he used to say, that, though 
 he had widowed the same hen several times, yet he found she 
 was still provided with a fresh paramour, that did not take her 
 away from her usual haunt. 
 
 Again ; I knew a lover of setting, an old sportsman, who 
 has often told me that soon after harvest he has frequently 
 taken small coveys of partridges, consisting of cock birds 
 alone ; these he pleasantly used to call old bachelors. 
 
 There is a propensity belonging to common house-cats that 
 is very remarkable; I mean their violent fondness for fish, 
 which appears to be their most favorite food : and yet nature 
 in this instance seems to have planted in them an appetite 
 that, unassisted, they know not how to gratify : for of all quad- 
 rupeds cats are the least disposed towards water ; and will 
 not, when they can avoid it, deign to wet a foot, much less to 
 plunge into that element. 
 
 Quadrupeds that prey on fish are amphibious : such is the 
 otter, which by nature is so well formed for diving, that it 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 7 1 
 
 makes great havoc among the inhabitants of the waters. Not 
 supposing that we had any of those beasts in our shallow 
 brooks, I was much pleased to see a male otter, brought to 
 me, weighing twenty-one pounds, that had been shot on the 
 bank of our stream below the Priory, where the rivulet divides 
 the parish of Selborne from Harteley Wood. 1 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 Shy as the otter is, a pair made their home in a hole under some stone- 
 work on the banks of the canal at Llangollen, within six yards of several 
 cottages. 
 
 4 
 
 LETTER XXX 
 
 SELBORNE, Aug. u/, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The French, I think, in general are strangely 
 prolix in their natural history. What Linnaeus says with re- 
 spect to insects holds good in every other branch : " Verbositas 
 press entis s<zculi> calami tas artis" 
 
 Pray how do you approve of Scopoli's new work ? As I 
 admire his " Entomologia," I long to see it. 
 
 I forgot to mention in my last letter (and had not room to 
 insert in the former) that the male moose, in rutting time, 
 swims from island to island, in the lakes and rivers of North 
 America, in pursuit of the females. My friend, the chaplain, 
 saw one killed in the water as it was on that errand in the 
 river St. Lawrence : it was a monstrous beast, he told me ; 
 but he did not take the dimensions. 
 
 When I was last in town our friend Mr. Harrington most 
 obligingly carried me to see many curious sights. As you 
 were then writing to him about horns, he carried me to see 
 many strange and wonderful specimens. There is, I remem- 
 ber, at Lord Pembroke's at Wilton, a horn room furnished 
 with more than thirty different pairs ; but I have not seen that 
 house lately. 
 
 Mr. Barrington showed me many astonishing collections of 
 stuffed and living birds from all quarters of the world. After 
 I had studied over the latter for a time, I remarked that every 
 species almost that came from distant regions, such as South 
 
72 WHITE 
 
 America, the coast of Guinea, etc., were thick-billed birds of 
 the loxia and fringilla genera ; and no motacillce> or musci- 
 capce, were to be met with. When I came to consider, the 
 reason was obvious enough ; for the hard-billed birds subsist 
 on seeds which are easily carried on board ; while the soft- 
 billed birds, which are supported by worms and insects, or, 
 what is a succedaneum for them, fresh raw meat, can meet with 
 neither in long and tedious voyages. It is from this defect of 
 food that our collections (curious as they are) are defective, 
 and we are deprived of some of the most delicate and lively 
 genera. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXXI 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. itfh, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, You saw, I find, the ring-ousels again among 
 their native crags ; and are farther assured that they continue 
 resident in those cold regions the whole year. From whence 
 then do our ring-ousels migrate so regularly every September, 
 and make their appearance again, as if in their return, every 
 April ? They are more early this year than common, for some 
 were seen at the usual hill on the fourth of this month. 
 
 An observing Devonshire gentleman tells me that they fre- 
 quent some parts of Dartmoor, and breed there ; but leave 
 those haunts about the end of September, or beginning of 
 October, and return again about the end of March. 
 
 Another intelligent person assures me that they breed in 
 great abundance all over the peak of Derby, and are called 
 there tor-ousels ; withdraw in October and November, and re- 
 turn in spring. This information seems to throw some light 
 on my new migration. 
 
 Scopoli's new work (which I have just procured) has its 
 merit in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tyrol and Car- 
 niola. Monographers, come from whence they may, have, I 
 think, fair pretence to challenge some regard and approba- 
 tion from the lovers of natural history ; for, as no man can 
 alone investigate the works of nature, these partial writers 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 73 
 
 may, each in their department, be more accurate in their dis- 
 coveries, and freer from errors, than more general writers ; 
 and so by degrees may pave the way to an universal correct 
 natural history. Not that Scopoli is so circumstantial and 
 attentive to the life and conversation of his birds as I could 
 wish : he advances some false facts ; as when he says of the 
 hirundo urbica that "pullos extra nidum non nutrit" This 
 assertion I know to be wrong from repeated observation this 
 summer ; for house-martins do feed their young flying, though 
 it must be acknowledged not so commonly as the house-swal- 
 low ; and the feat is done in so quick a manner as not to be 
 perceptible to indifferent observers. He also advances some 
 (I was going to say) improbable facts ; as when he says of 
 the woodcock that "pullos rostro portat fugiens ab hoste" 
 But candor forbids me to say absolutely that any fact is false, 
 because I have never been witness to such a fact. I have 
 only to remark that the long unwieldy bill of the woodcock is 
 perhaps the worst adapted of any among the winged creation 
 for such a feat of natural affection. 1 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTE 
 
 1 It is a fact that the woodcock does carry its young. The legs and beak 
 are both employed in holding the young one to the parent's breast as it 
 flies. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XXXII 
 
 SELBORNE, October 29^, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, After an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, Bris- 
 son, etc., I begin to suspect that I discern my brother's hirundo 
 hyberna in Scopoli' s new discovered hirundo rupestris, p. 167. 
 His description of "Supra murina, subtus albida ; rectrices 
 maculd ovali albd in latere interno ; pedes nudi, nigri ; rostrum 
 nigrum ; remiges obscuriores qiiam plumes dorsales ; rectrices 
 remigibus concolores ; caudd emarginatd, nee forcipatd ;" agrees 
 very well with the bird in question : but when he comes to 
 advance that it is " statura hirundinis urbica" and that " defi- 
 nitio hirundinis tiparia Linncei huic quoque conveniit" he in 
 
74 WHITE 
 
 some measure invalidates all he has said ; at least he shows 
 at once that he compares them to these species merely from 
 memory : for I have compared the birds themselves, and find 
 they differ widely in every circumstance of shape, size, arid 
 color. However, as you will have a specimen, I shall be glad 
 to hear what your judgment is in the matter. 
 
 Whether my brother is forestalled in his nondescript or not, 
 he will have the credit of first discovering that they spend their 
 winters under the warm and sheltry shores of Gibraltar and 
 Barbary. 
 
 Scopoli's characters of his ordines and genera are clear, 
 just, and expressive, and much in the spirit of Linnaeus. 
 These few remarks are the result of my first perusal of Sco- 
 poli's "Annus Primus." 
 
 The bane of our science is the comparing one animal to 
 the other by memory : for want of caution in this particular 
 Scopoli falls into errors : he is not so full with regard to the 
 manners of his indigenous birds as might be wished, as you 
 justly observe : his Latin is easy, elegant, and expressive, and 
 very superior to Kramer's. 1 
 
 I am pleased to see that my description of the moose cor- 
 responds so well with yours. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTE 
 
 1 See his "Elenchus Vegetabilium et Animalium per Austriam Inferiorem, 
 etc." G. W. 
 
 LETTER XXXIII 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. 26th, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I was much pleased to see, among the collec- 
 tion of birds from Gibraltar, some of those short-winged Eng- 
 lish summer birds of passage, concerning whose departure we 
 have made so much inquiry. Now if these birds are found 
 in Andalusia to migrate to and from Barbary, it may easily be 
 supposed that those that come to us may migrate back to the 
 continent, and spend their winters in some of the warmer 
 parts of Europe. This is certain, that many soft-billed birds 
 that come to Gibraltar appear there only in spring and autumn, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 75 
 
 seeming to advance in pairs towards the northward, for the 
 sake of breeding during the summer months ; and retiring in 
 parties and broods towards the south at the decline of the 
 year ; so that the rock of Gibraltar is the great rendezvous, 
 and place of observation, from whence they take their de- 
 parture each way towards Europe or Africa. It is therefore 
 no mean discovery, I think, to find that our small short-winged 
 summer birds of passage are to be seen spring and autumn 
 on the very skirts of Europe ; it is presumptive proof of their 
 emigrations. 
 
 Scopoli seems to me to have found the hirundo melba, the 
 great Gibraltar swift, in the Tyrol, without knowing it. For 
 what is his hirundo alpina but the afore-mentioned bird in 
 other words ? Says he " Omnia prioris " (meaning the swift) ; 
 " sed pectus album ; paulo major priore" I do not suppose 
 this to be a new species. It is true also of the melba, that 
 " nidificat in excelsis Alpium rupibus" Vid. Annum Primum. 
 
 My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, 
 but no naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone- 
 curlew, cedicnemus, sends me the following account : " In look- 
 ing over my Naturalist's Journal for the month of April, I find 
 the stone-curlews are first mentioned on the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth, which date seems to me rather late. They live 
 with us all the spring and summer, and at the beginning of 
 autumn prepare to take leave by getting together in flocks. 
 They seem to me a bird of passage that may travel into some 
 dry hilly country south of us, probably Spain, because of the 
 abundance of sheep-walks in that country; for they spend 
 their summers with us in such districts. This conjecture I 
 hazard', as I have never met with any one that has seen them 
 in England in the winter. I believe they are not fond of going 
 near the water, but feed on earthworms, that are common on 
 sheep-walks and downs. They breed on fallows and lay-fields 
 abounding with gray mossy flints, which much resemble their 
 young in color ; among which they skulk and conceal them- 
 selves. They make no nest, but lay their eggs on the bare 
 ground, producing in common but two at a time. There is 
 reason to think their young run soon after they are hatched ; 
 and that the old ones do not feed them, but only lead them 
 
76 WHITE 
 
 about at the time of feeding, which for the most part is in the 
 night." Thus far, my friend. 
 
 In the manners of this bird you see there is something very 
 analogous to the bustard, whom it also somewhat resembles 
 in aspect and make, and in the structure of its feet. 
 
 For a long time I have desired my relation to look out for 
 these birds in Andalusia ; and now he writes me word that, 
 for the first time, he saw one dead in the market on the 3rd 
 September. 
 
 When the cedicnemus flies it stretches out its legs straight 
 behind, like a heron. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV 
 
 SELBORNE, March $Qth, 1771. 
 
 DEAR SIR, There is an insect with us, especially on chalky 
 districts, which is very troublesome and teasing all the latter 
 end of the summer, getting into people's skins, especially 
 those of women and children, and raising tumors which itch 
 intolerably. This animal (which we call a harvest bug) is very 
 minute, scarce discernible to the naked eye ; of a bright scar- 
 let color, and of the genus of Acarus. They are to be met 
 with in gardens on kidney-beans, or any legumens, but pre- 
 vail only in the hot months of summer. Warreners, as some 
 have assured me, are much infested by them on chalky downs ; 
 where these insects swarm sometimes to so infinite a degree 
 as to discolor their nets, and to give them a reddish cast, while 
 the men are so bitten as to be thrown into fevers. 
 
 There is a small long shining fly in these parts very trouble- 
 some to the housewife, by getting into the chimneys, and lay- 
 ing its eggs in the bacon while it is drying ; these eggs produce 
 maggots called jumpers, which, harboring in the gammons and 
 best parts of the hogs, eat down to the bone, and make great 
 waste. This fly I suspect to be a variety of the musca putris 
 of Linnaeus ; it is to be seen in the summer in farm-kitchens 
 on the bacon-racks and about the mantel-pieces, and on the 
 ceilings. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 77 
 
 The insect that infests turnips and many crops in the garden 
 (destroying often whole fields while in their seedling leaves) is 
 an animal that wants to be better known. The country-people 
 here call it the turnip-fly and black-dolphin ; but I know it to 
 be one of the coleoptera; the "ckrysomcla oleracea, sanatoria, 
 femoribus posticis crass is simis" In very hot summers they 
 abound to an amazing degree, and, as you walk in a field or in 
 a garden, make a pattering like rain, by jumping on the leaves 
 of the turnips or cabbages. 
 
 There is an oestrus, known in these parts to every plough- 
 boy; which, because it is omitted by Linnaeus, is also passed 
 over by late writers ; and that is the curvicauda of old Mouset, 
 mentioned by Derham in his " Physico-Theology," p. 250; an 
 insect worthy of remark for depositing its eggs as it flies in so 
 dexterous a manner on the single hairs of the legs and flanks 
 of grass-horses. But then Derham is mistaken when he ad- 
 vances that this oestrus is the parent of that wonderful star- 
 tailed maggot which he mentions afterwards ; for more modern 
 entomologists have discovered that singular production to be 
 derived from the egg of the musca cham&leon; see Geoff roy, 
 t. xvii. f. 4. 
 
 A full history of noxious insects hurtful in the field, garden, 
 and house, suggesting all the known and likely means of de- 
 stroying them, would be allowed by the public to be a most use- 
 ful and important work. What knowledge there is of this sort 
 lies scattered, and wants to be collected ; great improvements 
 would soon follow of course. A knowledge of the properties, 
 economy, propagation, and in short of the life and conversa- 
 tion of these animals is a necessary step to lead us to some 
 method of preventing their depredations. 
 
 As far as I am a judge, nothing would recommend ento- 
 mology more than some neat plates that should well express 
 the generic distinctions of insects according to Linnaeus ; for 
 I am well assured that many people would study insects, could 
 they set out with a more adequate notion of those distinctions 
 than can be conveyed at first by words alone. 
 
78 WHITE 
 
 LETTER XXXV 
 
 SELBORNE, 1771. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Happening to make a visit to my neighbor's 
 peacocks, I could not help observing that the trains of those 
 magnificent birds appear by no means to be their tails ; those 
 long feathers growing not from their uropygitim, but all up their 
 backs. A range of short brown stiff feathers, about six inches 
 long, fixed in the uropygium y is the real tail, and serves as the 
 fiilcrum to prop the train, which is long and top-heavy, when 
 set on end. When the train is up, nothing appears of the bird 
 before but his head and neck ; but this would not be the case 
 were those long feathers fixed only in the rump, as may be 
 seen by the turkey cock when in a strutting attitude. By a 
 strong muscular vibration these birds can make the shafts of 
 their long feathers clatter like the swords of a sword dancer ; 
 they then trample very quick with their feet, and run back- 
 "wards v tbwards the females. 
 
 I should tell you that I have got an uncommon calculus 
 cegogropila, taken out of the stomach of a fat ox; it is per- 
 fectly round, and about the size of a large Seville orange; 
 such are, I think, usually flat. 
 
 LETTER XXXVI 
 
 Sept. 1771. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The summer through I have seen but two of 
 that large species of bat which I call vespertilio altivolans, 
 from its manner of feeding high in the ait ; I procured one of 
 them, and found it to be a male ; and made no doubt, as they 
 accompanied together, that the other was a female ; but, hap- 
 pening in an evening or two to procure the other likewise, I 
 was somewhat disappointed, when it appeared to be also of 
 the same sex. This circumstance, and the great scarcity of 
 this sort, at least in these parts, occasions some suspicions in 
 my mind whether it is really a species, or whether it may not 
 be the male part of the more known species, one of which 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 79 
 
 may supply many females ; as is known to be the case in 
 sheep and some other quadrupeds. But this doubt can only 
 be cleared by a farther examination, and some attention to the 
 sex, of more specimens : all that I know at present is, that my 
 two were amply furnished with the parts of generation, much 
 resembling those of a boar. 
 
 In the extent of their wings they measured fourteen inches 
 and a half ; and four inches and a half from the nose to the 
 tip of the tail ; their heads were large, their nostrils bilobated, 
 their shoulders broad and muscular ; and their whole bodies 
 fleshy and plump. Nothing could be more sleek and soft than 
 their fur, which was of a bright chestnut color ; their maws 
 were full of food, but so macerated that the quality could not 
 be distinguished ; their livers, kidneys, and hearts were large, 
 and their bowels covered with fat. They weighed each, when 
 entire, full one ounce and one drachm. Within the ear there 
 was somewhat of a peculiar structure that I did not under- 
 stand perfectly ! but refer it to the observation of .the curious 
 anatomist. These creatures sent forth a very rancid and 
 offensive smell. 
 
 LETTER XXXVII 
 
 SELBORNE, 1771. 
 
 DEAR SIR, On the I2th July I had a fair opportunity of 
 contemplating the motions of the caprimulgus, or fern-owl, as 
 it was playing round a large oak that swarmed with scarabcei 
 solstitiales, or fern-chafers. The powers of its wing were 
 wonderful, exceeding, if possible, the various evolutions and 
 quick turns of the swallow genus. But the circumstance that 
 pleased me most was, that I saw it distinctly, more than once, 
 put out its short leg while on the wing, and, by a bend of the 
 head, deliver somewhat into its mouth. If it takes any part 
 of its prey with its foot, as I have now the greatest reason to 
 suppose it does these chafers, I no longer wonder at the use 
 of its middle toe, which is curiously furnished with a serrated 
 claw. 
 
 Swallows and martins, the bulk of them I mean, have for- 
 
80 WHITE 
 
 saken us sooner this year than usual ; for on September 22nd 
 they rendezvoused in a neighbor's walnut-tree, where it 
 seemed probable they had taken up their lodging for the 
 night. At the dawn of the day, which was foggy, they arose 
 all together in infinite numbers, occasioning such a rushing 
 from the strokes of their wings against the hazy air, as might 
 be heard to a considerable distance : since that no flock has 
 appeared, only a few stragglers. 
 
 Some swifts stayed late, till the 22nd August a rare in- 
 stance ! for they usually withdraw within the first week. 
 
 On September 24th three or four ring-ousels appeared in 
 my fields for the first time this season ; how punctual are these 
 visitors in their autumnal and spring migrations ! 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII 
 
 SELBORNE, March i$th, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, By my journal for last autumn it appears that 
 the house-martins bred very late, and stayed very late in these 
 parts; for, on the ist October, I saw young martins in their 
 nest nearly fledged; and again on the 2ist October, we had 
 at the next house a nest full of young martins just ready to 
 fly; and the old ones were hawking for insects with great 
 alertness. The next morning the brood forsook their nest, 
 and were flying round the village. From this day I never saw 
 one of the swallow kind till November 3rd; when twenty, or 
 perhaps thirty, house-martins were playing all day long by the 
 side of the hanging wood, and over my field. Did these small 
 weak birds, some of which were nestling twelve days ago, shift 
 their quarters at this late season of the year to the other side 
 of the northern tropic ? Or rather, is it not more probable 
 that the next church, ruin, chalk-cliff, steep covert, or perhaps 
 sandbank, lake or pool (as a more northern naturalist would 
 say), may become their hybernaculum, and afford them a ready 
 and obvious retreat ? 
 
 We now begin to expect our vernal migration of ring-ousels 
 every week. Persons worthy of credit assure me that ring- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 8 1 
 
 ousels were seen at Christmas 1770 in the forest of Bere, on 
 the southern verge of this county. Hence we may conclude 
 that their migrations are only internal, and not extended to the 
 continent southward, if they do at first come at all from the 
 northern parts of this island only, and not from the north of 
 Europe. Come from whence they will, it is plain, from the 
 fearless disregard that they show for men or guns, that they 
 have been little accustomed to places of much resort. Navi- 
 gators mention that in the Isle of Ascension, and other such 
 desolate districts, birds are so little acquainted with the human 
 form that they settle on men's shoulders ; and have no more 
 dread of a sailor than they would have of a goat that was 
 grazing. 1 A young man at Lewes, in Sussex, assured me that 
 about seven years ago ring-ousels abounded so about that 
 town in the autumn that he killed sixteen himself in one after- 
 noon ; he added further, that some had appeared since in every 
 autumn ; but he could not find that any had been observed 
 before the season in which he shot so many. I myself have 
 found these birds in little parties in the autumn cantoned all 
 along the Sussex Downs, wherever there were shrubs and 
 bushes, from Chichester to Lewes ; particularly in the autumn 
 of 1770. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTE 
 
 1 Even in England birds often show great confidence in man. One even- 
 ing last summer I was sitting in Jesmond Dene, Newcastle-on-Tyne, when 
 a robin hopped close by me ; and as I kept perfectly still, it inspected me 
 closely, flew on to my boot, on to the seat by my side, and closely inspected 
 my hand, then hopped on to my knee, and finally on to my shoulder. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XXXIX 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. qth, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, As you desire me to send you such observa- 
 tions as may occur, I take the liberty of making the following 
 remarks, that you may, according as you think me right or 
 wrong, admit or reject what I here advance, in your intended 
 new edition of the " British Zoology." 
 7 
 
82 WHITE 
 
 The osprey was shot about a year ago at Frinsham Pond, a 
 great lake at about six miles from hence, while it was sitting 
 on the handle of a plough and devouring a fish : it used to pre- 
 cipitate itself into the water, and so take its prey by surprise. 
 
 A great ash-colored butcher-bird was shot last winter in 
 Tisted Park, and a red-backed butcher-bird [shrike] at Sel- 
 borne : they are rarce aves in this country. 1 
 
 Crows go in pairs all the year round. 
 
 Cornish choughs abound, and breed on Beechy Head, and 
 on all the cliffs of the Sussex coast. 
 
 The common wild pigeon, or stock-dove, 2 is a bird of pas- 
 sage in the south of England, seldom appearing till towards 
 the end of November ; is usually the latest winter bird of pas- 
 sage. Before our beechen woods were so much destroyed we 
 had myriads of them, reaching in strings for a mile together 
 as they went out in a morning to feed. They leave us early 
 in spring : where do they breed ? 
 
 The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel-bird 
 the storm-cock, because it sings early in the spring in blowing 
 showery weather ; its song often commences with the year : 
 with us it builds much in orchards. 
 
 A gentleman assures me he has taken the nests of ring-ousels 
 on Dartmoor : they build in banks on the sides of streams. 
 
 Titlarks not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but also 
 as they play and toy about on the wing ; and particularly while 
 they are descending, and sometimes they stand on the ground. 
 
 Adanson's testimony seems to me to be a very poor evidence 
 that European swallows migrate during our winter to Senegal : 
 he does not talk at all like an ornithologist ; and probably saw 
 only the swallows of that country, which I know build within 
 Governor O'Hara's hall against the roof. Had he known 
 European swallows, would he not have mentioned the species ? 
 
 The house-swallow washes by dropping into the water as it 
 flies : this species appears commonly about a week before the 
 house-martin, and about ten or twelve days before the swift. 
 
 In 1772 there were young house-martins in their nest till 
 October 23rd. 
 
 The swift appears about ten or twelve days later than the 
 house-swallow, viz., about the 24th or 26th April. 
 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 83 
 
 Whin-chats and stone-chatters stay with us the whole year. 3 
 
 Some wheat-ears continue with us the winter through. 
 
 Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter. 4 
 
 Bullfinches, when fed on hempseed, often become wholly 
 black. 
 
 We have vast flocks of female chaffinches all the winter, 
 with hardly any males among them. 
 
 When you say that in breeding time the cock snips make a 
 bleating noise, and I a drumming (perhaps I should rather 
 have said a humming), I suspect we mean the same thing. 
 However, while they are playing about on the wing they 
 certainly make a loud piping with their mouths : but whether 
 that bleating or humming is ventriloquous, or proceeds from 
 the motion of their wings, I cannot say ; but this I know, that 
 when this noise happens the bird is always descending, and 
 his wings are violently agitated. 
 
 Soon after the lapwings have done breeding they congre- 
 gate, and, leaving the moors and marshes, betake themselves 
 to downs and sheep-walks. 
 
 Two years ago last spring the little auk was found alive and 
 unhurt, but fluttering and unable to rise, in a lane a few miles 
 from Alresford, where there is a great lake ; it was kept 
 awhile, but died. 
 
 I saw young teals taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer Forest 
 in the beginning of July last, along with flappers, or young 
 wild-ducks. 
 
 Speaking of the swift, that page says "its drink the dew;" 
 whereas it should be "it drinks on the wing;" for all the 
 swallow kind sip their water as they sweep over the face of 
 pools or rivers : like Virgil's bees, they drink flying ; "Jlumina 
 summa libant" In this method of drinking perhaps this 
 genus may be peculiar. 
 
 Of the sedge-bird be pleased to say it sings most part of the 
 night ; its notes are hurrying, but not unpleasing, and imita- 
 tive of several birds ; as the sparrow, swallow, skylark. When 
 it happens to be silent in the night, by throwing a stone or 
 clod into the bushes where it sits you immediately set it 
 a singing ; or in other words, though it slumbers sometimes, 
 yet as soon as it is awakened it reassumes its song. 
 
84 WHITE 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 The red-backed butcher-bird, or shrike, is common enough in some dis- 
 tricts. I found several nests one year in some thorn-trees in a small field 
 in Norfolk. The shrike has a habit of impaling the beetles or other small 
 live creatures it feeds upon, on the thorns, to await its convenience for eat- 
 ing them, and some spots have quite the appearance of a well-stocked larder. 
 G. C. D. 
 
 2 The stock-dove is not the common wild pigeon. The pigeons usually 
 found in England are the ring-dove, which makes its nests on trees, and is 
 called the cushat, or in Shropshire the qutce, the stock-dove, which breeds 
 in holes in trees, and also in rabbit holes ; the rock-dove, and the pretty 
 little turtle-dove, which builds so slight a nest in a tree or big bush that the 
 small white eggs can be seen through it from below. G. C. D. 
 
 8 Whin-chats migrate, but stone-chats do not as a rule. G. C. D. 
 4 The yellow-wagtail migrates, but the pied and gray wagtails do not. 
 G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. 2nd, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Before your letter arrived, and of my own 
 accord, I had been remarking and comparing the tails of the 
 male and female swallow, and this ere any young broods ap- 
 peared ; so that there was no danger of confounding the dams 
 with their pulli: and besides, as they were then always in 
 pairs, and busied in the employ of nidification, there could be 
 no room for mistaking the sexes, nor the individuals of differ- 
 ent chimneys the one for the other. From all my observations, 
 it constantly appeared that each sex has the long feathers in 
 its tail that give it that forked shape; with this difference, 
 that they are longer in the tail of the male than in that of the 
 female. 
 
 Nightingales, when their young first come abroad, and are 
 helpless, make a plaintive and jarring noise ; and also a snap- 
 ping or cracking, pursuing people along the hedges as they 
 walk: these last sounds seem intended for menace and de- 
 fiance. 
 
 The grasshopper-lark chirps all night in the height of 
 summer. 
 
 Swans turn white the second year, and breed the third. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 85 
 
 Weasels prey on moles, as appears by their being some- 
 times caught in mole-traps. 
 
 Sparrow-hawks sometimes breed in old crows' nests, and 
 the kestril in churches and ruins. 
 
 There are supposed to be two sorts of eels in the island 
 of Ely. The threads sometimes discovered in eels are per- 
 haps their young: the generation of eels is very dark and 
 mysterious. 
 
 Hen harriers breed on the ground, and seem never to settle 
 on trees. 
 
 When redstarts shake their tails they move them horizon- 
 tally, as dogs do when they fawn : the tail of a wagtail, when 
 in motion, bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse. 
 
 Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in 
 breeding time ; as soon as frosty mornings come they make a 
 very piping plaintive noise. 
 
 Many birds which become silent about midsummer reassume 
 their notes again in September; as the thrush, blackbird, 
 woodlark, willow-wren, etc. ; hence August is by much the 
 most mute month, the spring, summer, and autumn through. 
 Are birds induced to sing again because the temperament of 
 autumn resembles that of spring ? 
 
 Linnaeus ranges plants geographically; palms inhabit the 
 tropics, grasses the temperate zones, and mosses and lichens 
 the polar circles ; no doubt animals may be classed in the 
 same manner with propriety. 
 
 House-sparrows build under eaves in the spring; as the 
 weather becomes hotter they get out for coolness, and nest 
 in plum-trees and apple-trees. These birds have been known 
 sometimes to build in rooks' nests, and sometimes in the forks 
 of boughs under rooks' nests. 
 
 As my neighbor was housing a rick he observed that his 
 dogs devoured all the little red mice that they could catch, 
 but rejected the common mice; and that his cats ate the 
 common mice, refusing the red. 
 
 Redbreasts sing all through the spring, summer, and au- 
 tumn. The reason that they are called autumn songsters is, 
 because in the two first seasons their voices are drowned and 
 lost in the general chorus ; in the latter their song becomes 
 
86 WHITE 
 
 distinguishable. Many songsters of the autumn seem to be 
 the young cock redbreasts of that year : notwithstanding the 
 prejudices in their favor, they do much mischief in gardens 
 to the summer-fruits. 1 
 
 The titmouse, which early in February begins to make two 
 quaint notes, like the whetting of a saw, is the marsh titmouse ; 
 the great titmouse sings with three cheerful joyous notes, and 
 begins about the same time. 
 
 Wrens sing all the winter through, frost excepted. 
 
 House-martins came remarkably late this year both in Hamp- 
 shire and Devonshire : is this circumstance for or against either 
 hiding or migration ? 
 
 Most birds drink sipping at intervals ; but pigeons take a 
 long-continued draught, like quadrupeds. 
 
 Notwithstanding what I have said in a former letter, no 
 gray crows were ever known to breed on Dartmoor ; it was 
 my mistake. 
 
 The appearance and flying of the Scarabceus solstitialis, or 
 fern-chafer, commence with the month of July, and cease about 
 the end of it. These scarabs are the constant food of Capri- 
 mulgi, or fern-owls, through that period. They abound on the 
 chalky downs and in some sandy districts, but not in the clays. 
 
 In the garden of the Black Bear inn in the town of Reading, 
 is a stream or canal running under the stables and out into the 
 fields on the other side of the road : in this water are many 
 carps, which lie rolling about in sight, being fed by travellers, 
 who amuse themselves by tossing them bread ; but as soon as 
 the weather grows at all severe, these fishes are no longer seen, 
 because they retire under the stables, where they remain till 
 the return of spring. Do they lie in a torpid state ? If they 
 do not, how are they supported ? 2 
 
 The note of the whitethroat, which is continually repeated, 
 and often attended with odd gesticulations on the wing, is harsh 
 and displeasing. These birds seem of a pugnacious disposi- 
 tion ; for they sing with an erected crest and attitudes of rivalry 
 and defiance ; are shy and wild in breeding time, avoiding neigh- 
 borhoods, and haunting lonely lanes and commons ; nay, even 
 the very tops of the Sussex Downs, where there are bushes 
 and covert ; but in July and August they bring their broods 
 
ARROW HAWK (Valco Tinnnnculus}. 
 From the collection of Chicago Academy of Sciences. 
 

 
 The titmouse, which early in F 
 quaint notes, like the wh 
 the great titmouse sings with thw 
 begins about the same time. 
 
 Wrens sing all the winter thro* 
 
 House-martins came reman 
 shire and Devonshire : is this 
 hiding or migration : ; 
 
 Most birds drink 
 long-continued d 
 
 Notwithstanding what I h 
 gray cnw were ever known to 
 my mistake. 
 
 rm to be 
 
 the 
 
 -.tens 
 
 two 
 
 ith in 3HL 
 
 it either 
 
 er letter, no 
 ; it was 
 
 
 .y downs and in 5 
 
 In the garden of th 
 
 is a stream or canal n 
 
 He ids on the other si 
 
 the weat ).:? urows at 
 
 but 
 
 this water are many 
 
 do not, haw are t 
 
 The note ol th.v w mally repeated, 
 
 and often attended v o^s on the wing, is harsh 
 
 and displeasing. These bird* *cem of a pugnacious dis; 
 ; for they sing with an erected crest and attitudes of rh 
 lefiance ; are shy and wild in breeding time, avoiding n< 
 
 \QS and commons; n 
 
 
From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 8/ 
 
 into gardens and orchards, and make great havoc among the 
 summer-fruits. 
 
 The blackcap has in common a full, sweet, deep, loud, and 
 wild pipe; yet that strain is of short continuance, and his 
 motions are desultory ; but when that bird sits calmly and en- 
 gages in song in earnest, he pours forth very sweet, but in- 
 ward melody, and expresses great variety of soft and gentle 
 modulations, superior perhaps to those of any of our warblers, 
 the nightingale excepted. 
 
 Blackcaps mostly haunt orchards and gardens ; while they 
 warble their throats are wonderfully distended. 
 
 The song of the redstart is superior, though somewhat like 
 that of the whitethroat ; some birds have a few more notes 
 than others. Sitting very placidly on the top of a tall tree in 
 a village, the cock sings from morning to night : he affects 
 neighborhoods, and avoids solitude, and loves to build in or- 
 chards and about houses ; with us he perches on the vane of 
 a tall maypole. 
 
 The fly-catcher is of all our summer birds the most mute 
 and the most familiar; it also appears the last of any. It 
 builds in a vine, or a sweetbrier, against the wall of a house, 
 or in the hole of a wall, or on the end of a beam or plate, and 
 often close to the post of a door where people are going in 
 and out all day long. This bird does not make the least pre- 
 tension to song, but uses a little inward wailing note when it 
 thinks its young in danger from cats or other annoyances ; it 
 breeds but once, and retires early. 
 
 Selborne parish alone can and has exhibited at times more 
 than half the birds that are ever seen in all Sweden ; the for- 
 mer has produced more than one hundred and twenty species, 
 the latter only two hundred and twenty-one. Let me add also 
 that it has shown near half the species that were ever known 
 in Great Britain. 
 
 On a retrospect, I observe that my long letter carries with 
 it a quaint and magisterial air, and is very sententious ; but 
 when I recollect that you requested stricture and anecdote, I 
 hope you will pardon the didactic manner for the sake of the 
 information it may happen to contain. 
 
88 WHITE 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 They eat also the berries of the ivy, the honeysuckle, and the Euonymus 
 europaus, or spindle-tree. G. W. 
 
 2 Carp, tench, and eels retire into the mud, if it is soft enough, in the very 
 cold weather, but cannot be said to become torpid, like a tortoise does. Fish 
 can do for a long time with very little food, and the mud itself is full of eat- 
 able (in the fish view) things even in the winter. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XLI 
 
 IT is matter of curious inquiry to trace out how those species 
 of soft-billed birds that continue with us the winter through, 
 subsist during the dead months. The imbecility of birds seems 
 not to be the only reason why they shun the rigor of our win- 
 ters ; for the robust wryneck (so much resembling the hardy 
 race of woodpeckers) migrates, while the feeble little golden- 
 crowned wren, that shadow of a bird, braves our severest frosts 
 without availing himself of houses or villages, to which most 
 of our winter birds crowd in distressful seasons, while this 
 keeps aloof in fields and woods ; but perhaps this may be the 
 reason why they may often perish, and why they are almost 
 as rare as any bird we know. 
 
 I have no reason to doubt but that the soft-billed birds, which 
 winter with us, subsist chiefly on insects in their aurelia state. 
 All the species of wagtails in severe weather haunt shallow 
 streams near the spring heads, where they never freeze ; and, 
 by wading, pick out the aurelias of the genus of Phryganece, etc. 
 
 Hedge-sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in hard weather, 
 where they pick up crumbs and other sweepings ; and in mild 
 weather they procure worms, which are stirring every month 
 in the year, as any one may see that will only be at the trouble 
 of taking a candle to a grass-plot on any mild winter's night. 
 Redbreasts and wrens in the winter haunt out-houses, stables, 
 and barns, where they find spiders and flies that have laid them- 
 selves up during the cold season. But the grand support of 
 the soft-billed birds in winter is that infinite profusion of au- 
 relia of the Lepidoptera ordo, which is fastened to the twigs of 
 trees and their trunks ; to the pales and walls of gardens and 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 89 
 
 buildings ; and is found in every cranny and cleft of rock or 
 rubbish, and even in the ground itself. 
 
 Every species of titmouse winters with us ; they have what 
 I call a kind of intermediate bill between the hard and the soft, 
 between the Linnaean genera of Fringilla and Motacilla. One 
 species alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields, 
 never retreating for succor in the severest seasons to houses 
 and neighborhoods; and that is the delicate long-tailed tit- 
 mouse, which is almost as minute as the golden-crowned wren ; 
 but the blue titmouse or nun (Panes ccendeus], the coal-mouse 
 (Parus ater), the great black-headed titmouse (Fringillago), 
 and the marsh titmouse (Parus palustris\ all resort at times 
 to buildings, and in hard weather particularly. The great 
 titmouse, driven by stress of weather, much frequents houses ; 
 and, in deep snows, I have seen this bird, while it hung with 
 its back downwards (to my no small delight and admiration), 
 draw straws lengthwise from out the eaves of thatched houses, 
 in order to pull out the flies that were concealed between them, 
 and that in such numbers that they quite defaced the thatch, 
 and gave it a ragged appearance. 
 
 The blue titmouse, or nun, is a great frequenter of houses, 
 and a general devourer. Besides insects, it is very fond of 
 flesh ; for it frequently picks bones on dunghills : it is a vast 
 admirer of suet, and haunts butchers' shops. When a boy, I 
 have known twenty in a morning caught with snap mouse- 
 traps, baited with tallow or suet. It will also pick holes in 
 apples left on the ground, and be well entertained with the 
 seeds on the head of a sunflower. The blue, marsh, and great 
 titmice will, in very severe weather, carry away barley and oat- 
 straws from the sides of ricks. 
 
 How the wheat-ear and whin-chat support themselves in 
 winter cannot be so easily ascertained, since they spend their 
 time on wild heaths and warrens ; the former especially, where 
 there are stone quarries : most probably it is that their main- 
 tenance arises from the aureliae of the Lepidoptera ordo, which 
 furnish them with a plentiful table in the wilderness. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
90 WHITE 
 
 LETTER XLII 
 
 SELBORNE, March gth, 1775. 
 
 PEAR SIR, Some future faunist, a man of fortune, will, I 
 hope, extend his visits to the kingdom of Ireland ; a new field 
 and a country little known to the naturalist. He will not, it 
 is to be wished, undertake that tour unaccompanied by a 
 botanist, because the mountains have scarcely been sufficiently 
 examined ; and the southerly counties of so mild an island 
 may possibly afford some plants little to be expected within 
 the British dominions. A person of a thinking turn of mind 
 will draw many just remarks from the modern improvements 
 of that country, both in arts and agriculture, where premiums 
 obtained long before they were heard of with us. The man- 
 ners of the wild natives, their superstitions, their prejudices, 
 their sordid way of life, will extort from him many useful re- 
 flections. He should also take with him an able draughtsman; 
 for he must by no means pass over the noble castles and seats, 
 the extensive and picturesque lakes and waterfalls, and the 
 lofty stupendous mountains, so little known, and so engaging 
 to the imagination when described and exhibited in a lively 
 manner ; such a work would be well received. 
 
 As I have seen no modern map of Scotland, I cannot pre- 
 tend to say how accurate or particular any such may be ; but 
 this I know, that the best old maps of that kingdom are very 
 defective. 
 
 The great obvious defect that I have remarked in all maps 
 of Scotland that have fallen in my way is a want of a colored 
 line, or stroke, that shall exactly define the just limits of that 
 district called the Highlands. Moreover, all the great avenues 
 to that mountainous and romantic country want to be well 
 distinguished. The military roads formed by General Wade 
 are so great and Roman-like an undertaking that they well 
 merit attention. My old map, Moll's Map, takes notice of 
 Fort William, but could not mention the other forts that have 
 been erected long since; therefore a good representation of 
 the chain of forts should not be omitted. 
 
 The celebrated zigzag up the Coryarich must not be passed 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 91 
 
 over. Moll takes notice of Hamilton and Drumlanrig, and 
 such capital houses; but a new survey, no doubt, should 
 represent every seat and castle remarkable for any great 
 event, or celebrated for its paintings, etc. Lord Breadalbane's 
 seat and beautiful policy are too curious and extraordinary to 
 be omitted. 
 
 The seat of the Earl of Eglingtoun, near Glasgow, is 
 worthy of notice. The pine plantations of that nobleman are 
 very grand and extensive indeed. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XLIII 
 
 A PAIR of honey-buzzards, Buteo opivorns, sive Vespivorus 
 Raii, built them a large shallow nest, composed of twigs and 
 lined with dead beechen leaves upon a tall slender beech near 
 the middle of Selborne Hanger, in the summer of 1780. In 
 the middle of the month of June a bold boy climbed this tree, 
 though standing on so steep and dizzy a situation, and brought 
 down an egg, the only one in the nest, which had been sat on 
 for some time, and contained the embryo of a young bird. 
 The egg was smaller, and not so round as those of the com- 
 mon buzzard ; was dotted at each end with small red spots, 
 and surrounded in the middle with a broad bloody zone. 
 
 The hen bird was shot, and answered exactly to Mr. Ray's 
 description of that species ; had a black cere, short thick legs, 
 and a long tail. When on the wing this species may be easily 
 distinguished from the common buzzard by its hawk-like ap- 
 pearance, small head, wings not so blunt, and longer tail. 
 This specimen contained in its craw some limbs of frogs and 
 many gray snails without shells. The irides of the eyes of this 
 bird were of a beautiful bright yellow color. 
 
 About the loth July in the same summer a pair of sparrow- 
 hawks bred in an old crow's nest on a low beech in the same 
 hanger ; and as their brood, which was numerous, began to 
 grow up, became so daring and ravenous, that they were a 
 terror to all the dames in the village that had chickens or 
 ducklings under their care. A boy climbed the tree, and found 
 
92 WHITE 
 
 the young so fledged that they all escaped from him ; but dis- 
 covered that a good house had been kept : the larder was well- 
 stored with provisions ; for he brought down a young blackbird, 
 jay, and house-martin, all clean picked, and some half devoured. 
 The old birds had been observed to make sad havoc for some 
 days among the new-flown swallows and martins, which, being 
 but lately out of their nests, had not acquired those powers 
 and command of wing that enable them, when more mature, 
 to set such enemies at defiance. 
 
 LETTER XLIV 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. 30^, 1780. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Every incident that occasions a renewal of our 
 correspondence will ever be pleasing and agreeable to me. 
 
 As to the wild wood-pigeon, the CEnas, or Vinago, of Ray, 
 I am much of your mind ; and see no reason for making it the 
 origin of the common house-dove : but suppose those that 
 have advanced that opinion may have been misled by another 
 appellation, often given to the CEnas, which is that of stock- 
 dove. 
 
 Unless the stock-dove in the winter varies greatly in manners 
 from itself in summer, no species seems more unlikely to be 
 domesticated, and to make a house-dove. We very rarely see 
 the latter settle on trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the 
 woods ; but the former as long as it stays with us, from No- 
 vember perhaps to February, lives the same wild life with the 
 ring-dove, Palumbus torquatus ; frequents coppices and groves, 
 supports itself chiefly by mast, and delights to roost in the 
 tallest beeches. Could it be known in what manner stock- 
 doves build, the doubt would be settled with me at once, pro- 
 vided they construct their nests on trees, like the ring-dove, as 
 I much suspect they do. 
 
 You received, you say, last spring a stock-dove from Sussex ; 
 and are informed that they sometimes breed in that county. 
 But why did not your correspondent determine the place of 
 its nidification, whether on rocks, cliffs, or trees ? If he was 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 93 
 
 not an adroit ornithologist I should doubt the fact, because 
 people with us perpetually confound the stock-dove with the 
 ring-dove. 
 
 For my own part, I readily concur with you in supposing 
 that house-doves are derived from the small blue rock-pigeon, 
 for many reasons. In the first place the wild stock-dove is 
 manifestly larger than the common house-dove, against the 
 usual rule of domestication, which generally enlarges the breed. 
 Again, those two remarkable black spots on the remiges of 
 each wing of the stock-dove, which are so characteristic of the 
 species, would not, one should think, be totally lost by its be- 
 ing reclaimed ; but would often break out among its descend- 
 ants. But what is worth a hundred arguments is, the instance 
 you give in Sir Roger Mostyn's house-doves in Caernarvon- 
 shire ; which, though tempted by plenty of food and gentle 
 treatment, can never be prevailed on to inhabit their cote for 
 any time ; but, as soon as they begin to breed, betake them- 
 selves to the fastnesses of Ormshead, and deposit their young 
 in safety amidst the inaccessible caverns and precipices of that 
 stupendous promontory. 
 
 " Naturam expellas furca . . . tamen usque recurret." 
 
 I have consulted a sportsman, now in his seventy-eighth year, 
 who tells me that fifty or sixty years back, when the beechen 
 woods were much more extensive than at present, the number 
 of wood-pigeons was astonishing ; that he has often killed near 
 twenty in a day : and that with a long wild-fowl piece he has 
 shot seven or eight at a time on the wing as they came wheel- 
 ing over his head : he moreover adds, which I was not aware 
 of, that often there were among them little parties of sma]l 
 blue doves, which he calls rockiers. The food of these num- 
 berless emigrants was beech-mast and some acorns ; and par- 
 ticularly barley, which they collected in the stubbles. But of 
 late years, since the vast increase of turnips, that vegetable 
 has furnished a great part of their support in hard weather ; 
 and the holes they pick in these roots greatly damage the crop. 
 From this food their flesh has contracted a rancidness which 
 occasions them to be rejected by nicer judges of eating, who 
 thought them before a delicate dish. They were shot not only 
 
94 WHITE 
 
 as they were feeding in the fields, and especially in snowy 
 weather, but also at the close of the evening, by men who lay 
 in ambush among the woods and groves to kill them as they 
 came in to roost. 1 These are the principal circumstances re- 
 lating to this wonderful internal migration, which with us takes 
 place towards the end of November, and ceases early in the 
 spring. Last winter we had in Selborne high wood about a 
 hundred of these doves ; but in former times the flocks were 
 so vast, not only with us but all the district round, that on 
 mornings and evenings they traversed the air, like rooks, in 
 strings, reaching for a mile together. When they thus ren- 
 dezvoused here by thousands, if they happened to be suddenly 
 roused from their roost-trees on an evening, 
 
 " Their rising all at once was like the sound 
 Of thunder heard remote." 
 
 It will by no means be foreign to the present purpose to add, 
 that I had a relation in this neighborhood who made it a prac- 
 tice, for a time, whenever he could procure the eggs of a ring- 
 dove, to place them under a pair of doves that were sitting in 
 his own pigeon-house ; hoping thereby, if he could bring about 
 a coalition, to enlarge his breed, and teach his own doves to 
 beat out into the woods, and to support themselves by mast ; 
 the plan was plausible, but something always interrupted the 
 success ; for though the birds were usually hatched, and some- 
 times grew to half their size, yet none ever arrived at maturity. 
 I myself have seen these foundlings in their nest displaying a 
 strange ferocity of nature, so as scarcely, to bear to be looked 
 at, and snapping with their bills by way of menace. In short, 
 they always died, perhaps for want of proper sustenance : but 
 the owner thought that by their fierce and wild demeanor they 
 frighted their foster mothers, and so were starved. 
 
 Virgil, as a familiar occurrence, by way of simile, describes 
 a dove haunting the cavern of a rock, in such engaging num- 
 bers, that I cannot refrain from quoting the passage : and John 
 Dryden has rendered it so happily in our language, that with- 
 out farther excuse I shall add his translation also : 
 
 " Qualis spelunca subit6 commota Columba, 
 Cui domus, et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 95 
 
 Fertur in arva volans, plausumque exterrita pennis, 
 Dat tecto ingentem mox acre lapsa quieto, 
 Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas." 
 
 " As when a dove her rocky hold forsakes, 
 Roused, in a fright her sounding wings she shakes ; 
 The cavern rings with clattering : out she flies, 
 And leaves her callow care, and cleaves the skies : 
 At first she flutters : but at length she springs 
 To smoother flight, and shoots upon her wings." 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 Some old sportsmen say that the main part of these flocks used to 
 withdraw as soon as the heavy Christmas frosts were over. G. W. 
 
 LETTERS TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON 
 LETTER I 
 
 SELBORNE, June y>th, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, When I was in town last month I partly en- 
 gaged that I would sometimes do myself the honor to write 
 to you on the subject of natural history ; and I am the more 
 ready to fulfil my promise, because I see you are a gentle- 
 man of great candor, and one that will make allowances ; 
 especially where the writer professes to be an outdoor natu- 
 ralist, one that takes his observations from the subject itself, 
 and not from the writings of others. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THE SUMMER BlRDS OF PAS- 
 SAGE WHICH I HAVE DISCOVERED IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD, 
 RANGED SOMEWHAT IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY AP- 
 PEAR I 
 
 RAII NOMINA USUALLY APPEARS ABOUT 
 
 1. Wryneck, Jynx, rive Torquilla. \ T1 ? e m u iddle of March : 
 
 ) harsh note. 
 
 2. Smallest willow- ) R &J ^ ^ < March 2 3 rd : chirps till 
 
 wren, ) ( September. 
 
 3. Swallow, Hirundo domestica. April 13. 
 
 4. Martin, Hirundo rustica. Ditto. 
 
WHITE 
 
 RAII NOMINA 
 
 5. Sand-martin, Hirundo riparia. 
 
 6. Blackcap, Atricapilla. 
 
 7. Nightingale, Luscinia. 
 
 8. Cuckoo, Cuculus. 
 
 9. Middle willow-wren, Regulus non cristatus. 
 
 10. Whitethroat, 
 ii. Redstart, 
 
 12. Stone-curlew, 
 13. Turtle-dove, 
 
 14. Grasshopper-lark, 
 15. Swift, 
 1 6. Less reed-sparrow, 
 
 17. Landrail, 
 1 8. Largest willow- 
 
 Ficedulce affinis. 
 Ruticitta. 
 
 CEdicnemus. 
 Turtur. 
 \ Alauda minima Ioci4stce 
 
 Hirundo apus. 
 
 \ Passer arundinaceus 
 ) minor. 
 
 Ortygometra. 
 
 C ^^/r^y/*yp -if/itf /"^'Vo/yr/'*/ f 
 
 wren, 
 
 20. Fly-catcher, 
 
 Stoparola. 
 
 USUALLY APPEARS ABOUT 
 
 April 13. 
 
 Ditto : a sweet wild note. 
 
 Beginning of April. 
 
 Middle of April. 
 ( Ditto : a sweet plaintive 
 \ note. 
 
 ( Ditto : mean note ; sings 
 \ on till September. 
 ( Ditto : a more agreeable 
 ( song. 
 
 ( End of March : loud, 
 \ nocturnal whistle. 
 
 ( Middle April: a small 
 -< sibilous note, till the 
 ( end of July. 
 
 About April 27th. 
 ( A sweet polyglot, but 
 < hurrying; it has the 
 ( notes of many birds. 
 ( A loud, harsh note, crex, 
 ( crex. 
 
 C Cantat voce striduld lo- 
 custa ; end of April, 
 on the tops of high 
 I beeches. 
 ( Beginning of May: chat- 
 4 ters by night with a 
 ( singular noise. 
 |" May 1 2th : a very mute 
 I bird ; this is the latest 
 I summer bird of pas- 
 l sage. 
 
 
 This assemblage of curious and amusing birds belongs to ten 
 several genera of the Linnaean system ; and are all of the 
 ordo of passeres save the Jynx and Cuculus, which are piece, 
 and the Charadrius (CEdicnemtis) and Rallus (Ortygometra), 
 which are grallce. 
 
 These birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the fol- 
 lowing Linnaean genera : 
 
 1, Jynx. 13. Columba. 
 
 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, n, 1 6, 1 8, Motacilla. 17. Rallus. 
 
 3? 4? 5> I S> Hirundo. 19. Caprimulgus. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 97 
 
 8, 
 12, 
 
 Cuculus. 
 Charadrius. 
 
 14. Alauda. 
 20. Muscicapa. 
 
 Most soft-billed birds live on insects, and not on grain and 
 seeds ; and therefore at the end of summer they retire : but 
 the following soft-billed birds, though insect eaters, stay with 
 us the year round : 
 
 Redbreast, 
 Wren, 
 
 Hedge-sparrow, 
 
 White- wagtail, 
 Yellow-wagtail, 
 Gray-wagtail, 
 
 Wheat-ear, 
 
 Whin-chat, 
 Stone-chatter, 
 
 RAII NOMINA 
 
 Rnbecula. 
 Passer troglodytes. 
 
 Curruca. 
 
 Motacilla alba. 
 Motacilla flava. 
 Motacilla cinerea. 
 
 CEnanthe. 
 
 CEnanthe secunda. 
 CEnanthe tertia. 
 
 Golden-crowned wren, Regulus cristatus. 
 
 f These frequent houses ; and 
 4 haunt out-buildings in the 
 ( winter: eat spiders. 
 j Haunt sinks for crumbs and 
 ( other sweepings. 
 r These frequent shallow 
 rivulets near the spring 
 heads, where they never 
 freeze : eat the aureliae of 
 Phryganea. The small- 
 est birds that walk. 
 Some of these are to be 
 seen with us the winter 
 through. 
 
 r This is the smallest British 
 bird : haunts the tops of 
 ] tall trees ; stays the win- 
 l ter through. 
 
 A LIST OF THE WINTER BIRDS OF PASSAGE ROUND THIS 
 
 NEIGHBORHOOD, RANGED SOMEWHAT IN THE ORDER IN 
 WHICH THEY APPEAR: 
 
 1 . Ring-ousel, 
 
 2. Redwing, 
 
 3. Fieldfare, 
 
 4. Royston-crow, 
 
 5. Woodcock, 
 
 RAII NOMINA 
 
 Merula torquata, 
 
 Turdus iliacus. 
 Turdus pilaris. 
 Cor nix cinerea. 
 Scolopax. 
 
 This is a new migration, 
 which I have lately dis- 
 covered about Michael- 
 mas week, and again 
 about the I4th March. 
 
 About old Michaelmas. 
 
 < Though a percher by day, 
 ( roosts on the ground. 
 
 Most frequent on downs. 
 
 < Appears about old Michael- 
 
 mas. 
 
98 WHITE 
 
 RAII NOMINA 
 
 6. Snipe, Gallinago minor. ( Some snipes constantly 
 
 \ breed with us. 
 
 7. Jack-snipe, Gallinago minima. 
 
 f Seldom appears till late ; 
 
 8. Wood-pigeon, (Enas. 3 not in such plenty as 
 
 ( formerly. 
 
 9. Wild-swan, Cygnus ferus. On some large waters. 
 
 10. Wild-goose, Anser ferus. 
 
 1 1 . Wild-duck, Anas torquata minor. 
 
 12. Pochard, Anas fera fusca. 
 
 13. Widgeon, Penelope. I 
 
 it Tealfbreeds with > ? On our lakes and streams ' 
 
 us in Wolmer > Querquedula. 
 Forest, ) 
 
 15. Grossbeak, Coccothraustes. f Th f e are 
 
 16. Crossbill, Loxia. \ that appear occasionally, 
 
 17. Silk-tail, Garrulusbohemicus. \ and are not observant of 
 
 v. any regular migration. 
 
 The birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the follow- 
 ing Linnaean genera : 
 
 I, 2, 3, Turdus. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, Anas. 
 
 4, Corvus. 15, 1 6, Loxia. 
 
 5, 6, 7, Scolopax. 17, Ampelis. 
 
 8, Columba. 
 
 Birds that sing in the night are but few : 
 
 RAII NOMINA 
 
 " In shadiest covert hid." 
 
 Nightingale, Luscinia, ] -MILTON. 
 
 Woodlark, Alauda arborea. Suspended in mid air. 
 
 Less reed-sparrow, | P^rarundmaceus | Among reeds and wiUows 
 
 I should now proceed to such birds as continue to sing 
 after midsummer, but, as they are rather numerous, they 
 would exceed the bounds of this paper: besides, as this is 
 now the season for remarking on that subject, I am willing to 
 repeat my observations on some birds concerning the con- 
 tinuation of whose song I seem at present to have some 
 doubt. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 99 
 
 LETTER II 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. 2*/, 1769. 
 
 DEAR SIR, When I did myself the honor to write to you 
 about the end of last June on the subject of natural history, 
 I sent you a list of the summer birds of passage which I have 
 observed in this neighborhood ; and also a list of the winter 
 birds of passage : I mentioned besides those soft-billed birds 
 that stay with us the winter through in the south of England, 
 and those that are remarkable for singing in the night. 
 
 According to my proposal, I shall now proceed to such 
 birds (singing birds strictly so called) as continue in full song 
 till after midsummer ; and shall range them somewhat in the 
 order in which they first begin to open as the spring advances : 
 
 1. Woodlark, 
 
 2. Song-thrush, 
 
 3. Wren, 
 
 4. Redbreast, 
 
 5. Hedge-sparrow, 
 
 RAII NOMINA 
 
 Alauda arborea 
 
 Turdus simpliciter 
 dictus. 
 
 Passer troglodytes. 
 
 Rubecula. 
 
 Curruca. 
 
 6. Yellow-hammer, Emberiza flava. 
 
 7. Skylark, 
 
 8. Swallow, 
 
 9. Blackcap, 
 
 10. Titlark, 
 
 11. Blackbird, 
 
 12. Whitethroat, 
 
 13. Goldfinch, 
 
 Alauda vulgaris. 
 Hirundo domestica. 
 Atricapilla. 
 
 Alauda prat or urn. 
 Merula vulgaris. 
 
 Ficedulce affinis. 
 Carduelis. 
 
 In January, and continues 
 to sing through all the 
 summer and autumn. 
 rln February and on to 
 3 August ; reassume their 
 ( song in autumn. 
 ( All the year, hard frost 
 \ excepted. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 ( Early in February to July 
 ( loth. 
 
 f Early in February, and on 
 < through July to August 
 
 ( 2ISt. 
 
 5 In February and on to 
 ( October. 
 
 From April to September. 
 ( Beginning of April to 
 ( July 1 3th. 
 
 ( From middle of April to 
 1 July 1 6th. 
 f Sometimes in February 
 J and March, and so on to 
 July 23rd ; reassumes 
 in autumn. 
 (In April, and on to July 
 1 23rd. 
 
 5 April, and through to Sep- 
 i tember i6th. 
 
100 WHITE 
 
 RAII NOMINA 
 
 14. Greenfinch, Chloris. Onto July and August 2nd. 
 
 15. Less reed-spar- > Passer arundinaceus (May, on to beginning of 
 
 row, \ minor. \ July. 
 
 r Breeds and whistles on till 
 August ; reassumes its 
 
 1 6. Common linnet, Linaria vulgaris. 
 
 note when they begin to 
 congregate in October, 
 and again early before 
 the flocks separate. 
 
 Birds that cease to be in full song, and are usually silent at 
 or before midsummer : 
 
 RAII NOMINA 
 
 17. Middle willow- \ Regulusnoncristatus , 5 Middle of June; begins 
 
 wren, > (in April. 
 
 1 8. Redstart, Rutidlla. Ditto: begins in May. 
 
 19. Chaffinch, Fringilla. \ Be in f n ? ng [ June ; sings 
 
 ( first m February. 
 
 20. Nightingale, Luscinia. j Middle of June ; sings 
 
 ( first m April. 
 
 Birds that sing for a short time, and very early in the spring : 
 
 RAII NOM!NA 
 
 ruary. Is called in 
 Hampshire and Sussex 
 
 the storm-cock, because 
 
 21. MBsel-bird, TurAuvixtoor*. -j its song is supposed 
 
 to forebode windy wet 
 weather ; it is the larg- 
 est singing bird we have. 
 . (In February, March, and 
 
 22. Great titmouse, \ Fringillago . \ April; ^assumes for a 
 
 r x -eye, ( short time in September. 
 
 Birds that have somewhat of a note or song, and yet are 
 hardly to be called singing birds : 
 
 RAII NOMINA Ti 
 
 rlts note as minute as its 
 *.^^l Reguluscristatu5 . ^^-J-jj 
 
 W1 *- n j . . il 11 t. "D-UJ^U 
 
 24. Marsh-titmouse, Parus palustris. 
 
 firs; the smallest British 
 bird. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE IOI 
 
 RAII NOMINA 
 
 25. Small willow-wren, Regulus non cristatus. \ 
 
 i Cantat wee stridula lo- 
 
 26. Largest ditto, Ditto. < custcz ; from end of 
 
 ( April to August. 
 
 . , I Alauda minima voce ( Chir Pf * U "j^t, * m *J C 
 
 27. Grasshopper-lark, j- i ocusta \ middle of Apnl to the 
 
 ( end of July. 
 
 28. Martin, Hirundo agrestis. \ A1 1 th -breeding time; 
 
 ( from May to September. 
 
 29. Bullfinch, Pyrrhula. 
 
 30. Bunting, Emberiza alba. j **%?$* *** f ^^^ 
 
 All singing birds, and those that have any pretensions to 
 song, not only in Britain, but perhaps the world through, 
 come under the Linnaean ordo of Passeres. 
 
 The above-mentioned birds, as they stand numerically, 
 belong to the following Linnaean genera : 
 
 1, 7, 10, 27, Alauda. 8, 28, Hirundo. 
 
 2, n, 21, Turdus. 13, 16, 19, Fringilla. 
 
 3,4,5,9, 12, 15,17, [^,7/*. 22,24, ' Parus. 
 
 18, 20, 23, 25, 26, > 14, 29, Loxta. 
 
 6, 30, Emberiza. 
 
 Birds that sing as they fly are but few : 
 
 RAII NOMINA 
 
 Skylark, Alauda vulgaris. { Ri ^ g SUSpended> and 
 
 f In its descent ; also sitting 
 Titlark, Alauda pratorum. < on trees, and walking on 
 
 ( the ground. 
 
 ( Suspended ; in hot sum- 
 Woodlark, Alauda arborea. < mer nights all night 
 
 ( long. 
 
 Blackbird, Merula. j Sometimes from bush to 
 
 ( bush. 
 
 f Uses when singing on the 
 Whitethroat, Ficedula affinis. \ wing odd jerks and ges- 
 
 ( ticulations. 
 Swallow, Hirundo domestica. In soft sunny weather. 
 
 Wren, Passer troglodytes. { S ^ meS fr m bush tO 
 
102 WHITE 
 
 Birds that breed most early in these parts : 
 
 RAII NOMINA 
 
 Raven, Corvus. \ Ha ' ches . in Februar y and 
 
 \ March. 
 
 Song-thrush, Turdus. In March. 
 
 Blackbird, Merula. In March. 
 
 Rook, Cornix frugilega. \ ^^ be S innin S of 
 
 Woodlark, Alauda arbor ea. Hatches in April. 
 
 Ring-dove, Palumbus torquatus. \ La f .J he beginning of 
 
 t April. 
 
 All birds that continue in full song till after midsummer 
 appear to me to breed more than once. 
 
 Most kinds of birds seem to me to be wild and shy some- 
 what in proportion to their bulk ; I mean in this island, where 
 they are much pursued and annoyed ; but in Ascension Island, 
 and many other desolate places, mariners have found fowls so 
 unacquainted with a human figure, that they would stand still 
 to be taken ; as is the case with boobies, etc. As an example 
 of what is advanced, I remark that the golden-crested wren 
 (the smallest British bird) will stand unconcerned till you 
 come within three or four yards of it, while the bustard (Otis), 
 the largest British land fowl, does not care to admit a person 
 within so many furlongs. 1 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTE 
 
 1 The bustard, once common in several parts of the country, is now almost 
 extinct. Its last abiding place was the fenny part of Norfolk, but the gun 
 and snare, indiscriminately used, have banished it. One way of destroying 
 it was by baiting a spot within range of a battery of shotguns, so laid that 
 a person at a distance could, by means of a long string, discharge them when 
 the bustards came sufficiently near. Two or three years ago a male bustard 
 was seen on the fens, and every effort was made by the landowners to keep 
 it safe. They even turned out two female birds in the hope that it would 
 pair with one and breed ; but after staying about for a few days it flew away, 
 and was not again seen. G. C. D. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 103 
 
 LETTER III 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. i$tA, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, It was no small matter of satisfaction to me 
 to find that you were not displeased with my little methodus 
 of birds. If there was any merit in the sketch, it must be 
 owing to its punctuality. For many months I carried a list 
 in my pocket of the birds that were to be remarked, and, as I 
 rode or walked about my business, I noted each day the con- 
 tinuance or omission of each bird's song ; so that I am as sure 
 of the certainty of my facts as a man can be of any transac- 
 tion whatsoever. 
 
 I shall now proceed to answer the several queries which 
 you put in your two obliging letters, in the best manner that 
 I am able. Perhaps Eastwick, and its environs, where you 
 heard so very few birds, is not a woodland country, and there- 
 fore not stocked with such songsters. If you will cast your 
 eye on my last letter, you will find that many species continued 
 to warble after the beginning of July. 
 
 The titlark and yellow-hammer breed late, the latter very 
 late ; and therefore it is no wonder that they protract their 
 song : for I lay it down as a maxim in ornithology, that as 
 long as there is any incubation going on there is music. As 
 to the redbreast and wren, it is well known to the most incuri- 
 ous observer that they whistle the year round, hard frost 
 excepted ; especially the latter. 
 
 It was not in my power to procure you a blackcap, or a less 
 reed-sparrow, or sedge-bird, alive. As the first is undoubtedly, 
 and the last, as far as I can yet see, a summer bird of pas- 
 sage, they would require more nice and curious management 
 in a cage than I should be able to give them : they are both 
 distinguished songsters. The note of the former has such a 
 wild sweetness that it always brings to my mind those lines 
 in a song in " As You Like It : " 
 
 " And tune his merry note 
 Unto the wild bird's throat." SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 The latter has a surprising variety of notes resembling the 
 song of several other birds ; but then it has also a hurrying 
 
104 WHITE 
 
 manner, not at all to its advantage : it is notwithstanding a 
 delicate polyglot. 
 
 It is new to me that titlarks in cages sing in the night ; per- 
 haps only caged birds do so. I once knew a tame redbreast 
 in a cage that always sang as long as candles were in the 
 room ; but in their wild state no one supposes they sing in the 
 night. 
 
 I should be almost ready to doubt the fact, that there are to 
 be seen much fewer birds in July than in any former month, 
 notwithstanding so many young are hatched daily. Sure I 
 am that it is far otherwise with respect to the swallow tribe, 
 which increases prodigiously as the summer advances : and I 
 saw at the time mentioned, many hundreds of young wagtails 
 on the banks of the Cherwell, which almost covered the 
 meadows. If the matter appears as you say in the other 
 species, may it not be owing to the dams being engaged in 
 incubation, while the young are concealed by the leaves ? 
 
 Many times have I had the curiosity to open the stomachs 
 of woodcocks and snipes; but nothing ever occurred that 
 helped to explain to me what their subsistence might be : all 
 that I could ever find was a soft mucus, among which lay 
 many pellucid small gravels. 1 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTE 
 
 1 Upon examining patches of mud on which I have flushed woodcocks 
 and snipes, I have found them riddled with small perforations, clearly made 
 by the bills of the birds, which must have been seeking some insects or 
 worms therein. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER IV 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. igth, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Your observation that " the cuckoo does not 
 deposit its egg indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird 
 that comes in its way, but probably looks out a nurse in some 
 degree congenerous, with whom to entrust its young," is per- 
 fectly new to me ; and struck me so forcibly, that I naturally 
 fell into a train of thought that led me to consider whether 
 the fact was so, and what reason there was for it. When I 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE IO5 
 
 came to recollect and inquire, I could not find that any cuckoo 
 had ever been seen in these parts, except in the nest of the 
 wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the titlark, the whitethroat, and 
 the redbreast, all soft-billed insectivorous birds. The excel- 
 lent Mr. Willughby mentions the nest of the Palwnbus (ring- 
 dove), and of the fringilla (chaffinch), birds that subsist on 
 acorns and grains, and such hard food : but then he does not 
 mention them as of his own knowledge ; but says afterwards 
 that he saw himself a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It appears 
 hardly possible that a soft-billed bird should subsist on the 
 same food with the hard-billed : for the former have thin 
 membranaceous stomachs suited to their soft food ; while the 
 latter, the granivorous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards, 
 which, like mills, grind, by the help of small gravels and peb- 
 bles, what is swallowed. This proceeding of the cuckoo, of 
 dropping its eggs as it were by chance, is such a monstrous 
 outrage on maternal affection, one of the first great dictates 
 of nature ; and such a violence on instinct ; that, had it only 
 been related of a bird in the Brazils, or Peru, it would never 
 have merited our belief. But yet, should it farther appear 
 that this simple bird, when divested of that natural C-TO/^T; 
 that seems to raise the kind in general above themselves, and 
 inspire them with extraordinary degrees of cunning and ad- 
 dress, may be still endued with a more enlarged faculty of 
 discerning what species are suitable and congenerous nursing- 
 mothers for its disregarded eggs and young, and may deposit 
 them only under their care, this would be adding wonder to 
 wonder, and instancing, in a fresh manner, that the methods 
 of Providence are not subjected to any mode or rule, but 
 astonish us in new lights, and in various and changeable 
 appearances. 
 
 What was said by a very ancient and sublime writer concern- 
 ing the defect of natural affection in the ostrich, may be well 
 applied to the bird we are talking of : 
 
 " She is hardened against her young ones, as though they 
 were not hers : 
 
 " Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath 
 He imparted to her understanding." 1 
 
 Query. Does each female cuckoo lay but one egg in a 
 
106 WHITE 
 
 season, or does she drop several in different nests according 
 as opportunity offers ? 2 
 
 NOTES I am, etc. 
 
 1 Job xxxix. 16, 17. G. W. 
 
 2 I have found so many cuckoos' eggs in a district where there were but 
 a limited number of cuckoos, that I am satisfied it lays several eggs. The 
 egg of the cuckoo is small for the size of the bird, yet it often looks a monster 
 in some of the nests in which it is deposited, such as sedge-warblers and 
 reed- wrens. Three times at least it has been found in a grasshopper- war- 
 bler's, where the foot or the beak must have been the agent in transferring 
 the egg after being laid into the nest. One July at Wroxham Broad in 
 Norfolk, there were thirty or forty cuckoos flying restlessly about from tree 
 to tree, and uttering frequently a treble cry ; thus : cuck-cuckoo cuck- 
 cuckoo. A week later they were all gone. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER V 
 
 SELBORNE, April 12^, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I heard many birds of several species sing 
 last year after midsummer; enough to prove that the summer 
 solstice is not the period that puts a stop to the music of the 
 woods. The yellow-hammer no doubt persists with more 
 steadiness than any other ; but the woodlark, the wren, the 
 redbreast, the swallow, the whitethroat, the goldfinch, the 
 common linnet, are all undoubted instances of the truth of 
 what I advanced. 
 
 If this severe season does not interrupt the regularity of the 
 summer migrations, the blackcap will be here in two or three 
 days. I wish it was in my power to procure you one of those 
 songsters ; but I am no birdcatcher ; and so little used to birds 
 in a cage, that I fear if I had one it would soon die for want 
 of skill in feeding. 
 
 Was your reed-sparrow, which you kept in a cage, the thick- 
 billed reed-sparrow of the " Zoology," p. 320 ; or was it the 
 less reed-sparrow of Ray, the sedge-bird of Mr. Pennant's last 
 publication, p. 16? 
 
 As to the matter of long-billed birds growing fatter in mod- 
 erate frosts, I have no doubt within myself what should be the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 107 
 
 reason. The thriving at those times appears to me to arise 
 altogether from the gentle check which the cold throws upon 
 insensible perspiration. The case is just the same with black- 
 birds, etc. ; and farmers and warreners observe, the first, 
 that their hogs fat more kindly at such times, and the latter 
 that their rabbits are never in such good case as in a gentle 
 frost. But when frosts are severe, and of long continuance, 
 the case is soon altered ; for then a want of food soon over- 
 balances the repletion occasioned by a checked perspiration. 
 I have observed, moreover, that some human constitutions are 
 more inclined to plumpness in winter than in summer. 
 
 When birds come to suffer by severe frost, I find that the 
 first that fail and die are the redwing-fieldfares, and then the 
 song-thrushes. 
 
 You wonder, with good reason, that the hedge-sparrows, etc., 
 can be induced at all to sit on the egg of the cuckoo without 
 being scandalized at the vast disproportionate size of the sup- 
 posititious egg ; but the brute creation, I suppose, have very 
 little idea of size, color, or number. For the common hen, I 
 know, when the fury of incubation is on her, will sit on a single 
 shapeless stone instead of a nest full of eggs that have been 
 withdrawn : and, moreover, a hen turkey, in the same circum- 
 stances, would sit on in the empty nest till she perished with 
 hunger. 
 
 I think the matter might easily be determined whether a 
 cuckoo lays one or two eggs, or more, in a season, by opening 
 a female during the laying time. If more than one was come 
 down out of the ovary and advanced to a good size, doubtless 
 then she would that spring lay more than one. 
 
 I will endeavor to get a hen, and to examine. 
 
 Your supposition that there may be some natural obstruc- 
 tion in singing birds while they are mute, and that when this 
 is removed the song recommences, is new and bold : I wish 
 you could discover some good grounds for this suspicion. 
 
 I was glad you were pleased with my specimen of the capri- 
 mulgus, or fern-owl ; you were, I find, acquainted with the bird 
 before. 
 
 When we meet I shall be glad to have some conversation 
 with you concerning the proposal you make of my drawing 
 
108 WHITE 
 
 up an account of the animals in this neighborhood. Your 
 partiality towards my small abilities persuades you, I fear, that 
 I am able to do more than is in my power : for it is no small 
 undertaking for a man unsupported and alone to begin a natu- 
 ral history from his own autopsia ! Though there is endless 
 room for observation in the field of nature, which is bound- 
 less, yet investigation (where a man endeavors to be sure of 
 his facts) can make but slow progress; and all that one 
 could collect in many years would go into a very narrow 
 compass. 
 
 Some extracts from your ingenious " Investigations of the 
 Difference between the Present Temperature of the Air in 
 Italy," etc., have fallen in my way, and gave me great satis- 
 faction : they have removed the objections that always arose 
 in my mind whenever I came to the passages which you quote. 
 Surely the judicious Virgil, when writing a didactic poem for 
 the region of Italy, could never think of describing freezing 
 rivers, unless such severity of weather pretty frequently oc- 
 curred ! 
 
 P.S. Swallows appear amidst snows and frost. 
 
 LETTER VI 
 
 SELBORNE, May 2ist, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The severity and turbulence of last month so 
 interrupted the regular process of summer migration, that some 
 of the birds do but just begin to show themselves, and others 
 are apparently thinner than usual; as the whitethroat, the 
 blackcap, the redstart, the fly-catcher. I well remember that 
 after the very severe spring in the year 1 739-40, summer birds 
 of passage were very scarce. They come probably hither with 
 a south-east wind, or when it blows between those points; 
 but in that unfavorable year the winds blew the whole spring 
 and summer through from the opposite quarters. And yet 
 amidst all these disadvantages two swallows, as I mentioned 
 in my last, appeared this year as early as the nth April amidst 
 frost and snow ; but they withdrew again for a time. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 109 
 
 I am not pleased to find that some people seem so little satis- 
 fied with Scopoli's new publication ; there is room to expect 
 great things from the hands of that man, who is a good natu- 
 ralist : and one would think that a history of the birds of so 
 distant and southern a region as Carniola would be new and 
 interesting. I could wish to see that work, and hope to get 
 it sent down. Dr. Scopoli is physician to the wretches that 
 work in the quicksilver mines of that district. 
 
 When you talked of keeping a reed-sparrow, and giving it 
 seeds, I could not help wondering ; because the reed-sparrow 
 which I mentioned to you (Passer arundinaceus minor Rait) 
 is a soft-billed bird ; and most probably migrates hence before 
 winter ; whereas the bird you kept (Passer torquatus Rail) 
 abides all the year, and is a thick-billed bird. I question 
 whether the latter be much of a songster ; but in this matter 
 I want to be better informed. The former has a variety of 
 hurrying notes, and sings all night. Some part of the song 
 of the former, I suspect, is attributed to the latter. We have 
 plenty of the soft-billed sort; which Mr. Pennant had entirely 
 left out of his " British Zoology," till I reminded him of his 
 omission. See " British Zoology " last published, p. 16. 
 
 I have somewhat to advance on the different manners in 
 which different birds fly and walk; but as this is a subject that 
 I have not enough considered, and is of such a nature as not 
 to be contained in a small space, I shall say nothing further 
 about it at present. 
 
 No doubt the reason why the sex of birds in their first plu- 
 mage is so difficult to be distinguished is, as you say, " because 
 they are not to pair and discharge their parental functions till 
 the ensuing spring." As colors seem to be the chief external 
 sexual distinction in many birds, these colors do not take place 
 till sexual attachments begin to obtain. And the case is the 
 same in quadrupeds ; among whom, in their younger days, the 
 sexes differ but little : but, as they advance to maturity, horns 
 and shaggy manes, beards and brawny necks, etc., etc., strongly 
 discriminate the male from the female. We may instance still 
 farther in our own species, where a beard and stronger features 
 are usually characteristic of the male sex : but this sexual diver- 
 sity does not take place in earlier life ; for a beautiful youth 
 
1 10 WHITE 
 
 shall be so like a beautiful girl that the difference shall not be 
 discernible : 
 
 " Quern si puellarum insereres choro, 
 Mire sagaces falieret hospites 
 Discrimen obscurum, solutis 
 Crinibus, ambiguoque vultu." 
 
 HOR. ODES, II. od. 5-21, p. 131, orig. edit. 
 
 LETTER VII 
 
 RINGMER, near LEWES, Oct. 8t/i, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I am glad to hear that Kuckalm is to furnish 
 you with the birds of Jamaica ; a sight of the kirundines of that 
 hot and distant island would be a great entertainment to me. 
 
 The "Anni" of Scopoli are now in my possession; and I 
 have read the "Annus Primus" with satisfaction; for though 
 some parts of this work are exceptionable, and he may advance 
 some mistaken observations, yet the ornithology of so distant 
 a country as Carniola is very curious. Men that undertake 
 only one district are much more likely to advance natural 
 knowledge than those that grasp at more than they can 
 possibly be acquainted with : every kingdom, every province, 
 should have its own monographer. 
 
 The reason perhaps why he mentions nothing of Ray's " Or- 
 nithology " may be the extreme poverty and distance of his 
 country, into which the works of our great naturalist may have 
 never yet found their way. You have doubts, I know, whether 
 this "Ornithology" is genuine, and really the work of Scopoli ; 
 as to myself, I think I discover strong tokens of authenticity ; 
 the style corresponds with that of his " Entomology" ; and his 
 characters of his Ordines and Genera are many of them new, 
 expressive, and masterly. He has ventured to alter some of 
 the Linnaean genera with sufficient show of reason. 
 
 It might perhaps be mere accident that you saw so many 
 swifts and no swallows at Staines ; because, in my long obser- 
 vation of those birds, I never could discover the least degree 
 of rivalry or hostility between the species. 
 
 Ray remarks that birds of the gallince order, as cocks and 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE III 
 
 hens, partridges and pheasants, etc., are pulveratrices, such as 
 dust themselves, using that method of cleansing their feathers, 
 and ridding themselves of their vermin. As far as I can ob- 
 serve, many birds that dust themselves never wash ; and I once 
 thought that those birds that wash themselves would never 
 dust; but here I find myself mistaken; for common house- 
 sparrows are great pulveratrices, being frequently seen grovel- 
 ling and wallowing in dusty roads ; and yet they are great 
 washers. Does not the skylark dust ? 
 
 Query. Might not Mahomet and his followers take one 
 method of purification from these pulveratrices? because I find 
 from travellers of credit, that if a strict Mussulman is journey- 
 ing in a sandy desert where no water is to be found, at stated 
 hours he strips off his clothes, and most scrupulously rubs his 
 body over with sand or dust. 
 
 A countryman told me he had found a young fern-owl in the 
 nest of a small bird on the ground ; and that it was fed by the 
 little bird. I went to see this extraordinary phenomenon, and 
 found that it was a young cuckoo hatched in the nest of a tit- 
 lark ; it was become vastly too big for its nest, appearing 
 
 " in tenui re 
 
 Majores pennas nido extendisse " . 
 
 and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my finger, as I 
 teased it, for many feet from the nest, and sparring and buffet- 
 ing with its wings like a game-cock. The dupe of a dam ap- 
 peared at a distance, hovering about with meat in its mouth, 
 and expressing the greatest solicitude. 
 
 In July I saw several cuckoos skimming over a large pond ; 
 and found, after some observation, that they were feeding on 
 the Libellulce, or dragon-flies ; some of which they caught as 
 they settled on the weeds, and some as they were on the wing. 
 Notwithstanding what Linnaeus says, I cannot be induced to 
 believe that they are birds of prey. 
 
 This district affords some birds that are hardly ever heard 
 of at Selborne. In the first place considerable flocks of cross- 
 beaks (Loxice curvirostrce) have appeared this summer in the 
 pine-groves belonging to this house ; the water-ousel is said to 
 haunt the mouth of the Lewes River, near Newhaven ; and the 
 
112 WHITE 
 
 Cornish chough builds, I know, all along the chalky cliffs of 
 the Sussex shore. 
 
 I was greatly pleased to see little parties of ring-ousels (my 
 newly discovered migrators) scattered, at intervals, all along 
 the Sussex Downs, from Chichester to Lewes. Let them come 
 from whence they will, it looks very suspicious that they are 
 cantoned along the coast in order to pass the Channel when 
 severe weather advances. They visit us again in April, as it 
 should seem, in their return ; and are not to be found in the 
 dead of winter. It is remarkable that they are very tame, and 
 seem to have no manner of apprehensions of danger from a 
 person with a gun. There are bustards on the wide downs 
 near Brighthelmstone. No doubt you are acquainted with the 
 Sussex Downs ; the prospects and rides round Lewes are most 
 lovely ! 
 
 As I rode along near the coast I kept a very sharp look- 
 out in the lanes and woods, hoping I might, at this time of 
 the year, have discovered some of the summer short-winged 
 birds of passage crowding towards the coast in order for their 
 departure : but it was very extraordinary that I never saw a red- 
 start, whitethroat, blackcap, uncrested wren, fly-catcher, etc. 
 And I remember to have made the same remark in former 
 years, as I usually come to this place annually about this time. 
 The birds most common along the coast, at present, are the 
 stone-chatters, whin-chats, buntings, linnets, some few wheat- 
 ears, titlarks, etc. Swallows and house-martins abound yet, in- 
 duced to prolong their stay by this soft, still, dry season. 
 
 A land tortoise, which has been kept for thirty years in a 
 little walled court belonging to the house where I now am 
 visiting, retires under ground about the middle of November, 
 and comes forth again about the middle of April. When it 
 first appears in the spring it discovers very little inclination 
 towards food ; but in the height of summer grows voracious ; 
 and then as the summer declines its appetite declines; so 
 that for the last six weeks in autumn it hardly eats at all. 
 Milky plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, sowthistles, are its 
 favorite dish. In a neighboring village one was kept till 
 by tradition it was supposed to be a hundred years old. An 
 instance of vast longevity in such a poor reptile ! 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE . 113 
 
 LETTER VIII 
 
 SELBORNE, Dec. 2otA, 1770. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The birds that I took for aberdavines were 
 reed-sparrows (Passeres torquati). 
 
 There are doubtless many home internal migrations within 
 this kingdom that want to be better understood : witness those 
 vast flocks of hen chaffinches that appear with us in the 
 winter with hardly any cocks among them. Now was there 
 a due proportion of each sex, it should seem very improbable 
 that any one district should produce such numbers of these 
 little birds ; and much more when only one-half of the spe- 
 cies appears ; therefore we may conclude that the Fringilfo 
 ccelebes, for some good purposes, have a peculiar migration of 
 their own in which the sexes part. Nor should it seem so 
 wonderful that the intercourse of sexes in this species of bird 
 should be interrupted in winter ; since in many animals, and 
 particularly in bucks and does, the sexes herd separately, ex- 
 cept at the season when commerce is necessary for the con- 
 tinuance of the breed. For this matter of the chaffinches see 
 " Fauna Suecica," p. 58, and "Systema Naturae," p. 318. I see 
 every winter vast flights of hen chaffinches, but none of cocks. 
 
 Your method of accounting for the periodical motions of 
 the British singing birds, or birds of flight, is a very probable 
 one ; since the matter of food is a great regulator of the 
 actions and proceedings of the brute creation ; there is but 
 one that can be set in competition with it, and that is love. 
 But I cannot quite acquiesce with you in one circumstance, 
 when you advance that, " when they have thus feasted, they 
 again separate into small parties of five or six, and get the 
 best fare they can within a certain district, having no induce- 
 ment to go in quest of fresh-turned earth." Now if you 
 mean that the business of congregating is quite at an end 
 from the conclusion of wheat sowing to the season of barley 
 and oats, it is not the case with us ; for larks and chaffinches, 
 and particularly linnets, flock and congregate as much in the 
 very dead of winter as when the husbandman is busy with 
 his ploughs and harrows. 
 9 
 
114 WHITE 
 
 Sure there can be no doubt but that woodcocks and field- 
 fares leave us in the spring, in order to cross the seas, and to 
 retire to some districts more suitable to the purpose of breed- 
 ing. That the former pair before they retire, and that the 
 hens are forward with egg, I myself, when I was a sports- 
 man, have often experienced. It cannot indeed be denied 
 but that now and then we hear of a woodcock's nest, or young 
 birds, discovered in some part or other of this island ; but 
 then they are all always mentioned as rarities, and somewhat 
 out of the common course of things : but as to redwings and 
 fieldfares, no sportsman or naturalist has ever yet, that I 
 could hear, pretended to have found the nest or young of 
 those species in any part of these kingdoms. And I the 
 more admire at this instance as extraordinary, since, to all 
 appearance, the same food in summer as well as in winter 
 might support them here which maintains their congeners, 
 the blackbirds and thrushes, did they choose to stay the 
 summer through. From hence it appears that it is not food 
 alone which determines some species of birds with regard to 
 their stay or departure. Fieldfares or redwings disappear 
 sooner or later according as the warm weather comes on 
 earlier or later. For I well remember, after that dreadful 
 winter 1739-40, that cold north-east winds continued to blow 
 on through April and May, and that these kind of birds 
 (what few remained of them) did not depart as usual, but 
 were seen lingering about till the beginning of June. 
 
 The best authority that we can have for the nidification of 
 the birds above-mentioned in any district, is the testimony 
 of faunists that have written professedly the natural history 
 of particular countries. Now as to the fieldfare, Linnaeus, in 
 his " Fauna Suecica," says of it, that " maximis in arboribus 
 nidificat /" and of the redwing he says, in the same place, 
 that " nidificat in mediis arbusculis, sive sepibus : ova sex 
 cceruleo-viridia maculis nigris variis." Hence we may be 
 assured that fieldfares and redwings build in Sweden. Sco- 
 poli says, in his " Annus Primus," of the woodcock, that 
 " nupta ad nos venit circa aquinoctium vernale ; " meaning in 
 the Tyrol, of which he is a native. And afterwards he adds 
 " nidificat in paludibus alpinis : ova ponit 3-5." It does not 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 1 15 
 
 appear from Kramer that woodcocks breed at all in Austria ; 
 but he says, "Avis hcec septentrionalium provinciarum cestivo 
 tempore incola est ; ubi plerumque nidificat. Appropinquante 
 hyeme australiores provincias petit ; hinc circa plenilunium 
 mensis Octobris plerumque Austriam transmigrat. Tune 
 rursus circa plenilunium p otis simum mensis Martii per Aus- 
 triam matrimonio juncta ad septentrionales provincias redit" 
 For the whole passage (which I have abridged) see " Elen- 
 chus," etc., p. 351. This seems to be a full proof of the 
 migration of woodcocks ; though little is proved concerning 
 the place of breeding. 
 
 P.S. There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks 
 of this present very wet weather, seven inches and a half of 
 rain, which is more than has fallen in any three weeks for 
 these thirty years past in that part of the world. A mean 
 quantity in that county for one year is twenty inches and a 
 half. 
 
 LETTER IX 
 
 FYFIELD, near ANDOVER, Feb. \2th, 1772. 
 
 DEAR SIR, You are, I know, no great friend to migration; 
 and the well-attested accounts from various parts of the king- 
 dom seem to justify you in your suspicions, that at least many 
 of the swallow kind do not leave us in the winter, but lay 
 themselves up like insects and bats in a torpid state, and 
 slumber away the more uncomfortable months till the return 
 of the sun and fine weather awakens them. 
 
 But then we must not, I think, deny migration in general ; 
 because migration certainly does subsist in some places, as my 
 brother in Andalusia has fully informed me. Of .the motions 
 of these birds he has ocular demonstration, for many weeks 
 together, both spring and fall ; during which periods myriads 
 of the swallow kind traverse the straits from north to south, 
 and from south to north, according to the season. And these 
 vast migrations consist not only of hirundines but of bee-birds, 
 hoopoes, Oro pendoloSj or golden thrushes, etc., etc., and also 
 of many of our soft-billed summer birds of passage ; and more- 
 
Il6 WHITE 
 
 over of birds which never leave us, such as all the various 
 sorts of hawks and kites. Old Belon, two hundred years ago, 
 gives a curious account of the incredible armies of hawks and 
 kites which he saw in the springtime traversing the Thracian 
 Bosphorus from Asia to Europe. Besides the above men- 
 tioned, he remarks that the procession is swelled by whole 
 troops of eagles and vultures. 
 
 Now it is no wonder that birds residing in Africa should re- 
 treat before the sun as it advances, and retire to milder regions, 
 and especially birds of prey, whose blood being heated with 
 hot animal food, are more impatient of a sultry climate ; but 
 then I cannot help wondering why kites and hawks, and such 
 hardy birds as are known to defy all the severity of England, 
 and even of Sweden and all north Europe, should want to mi- 
 grate from the south of Europe, and be dissatisfied with the 
 winters of Andalusia. 
 
 It does not appear to me that much stress may be laid on 
 the difficulty and hazard that birds must run in their migra- 
 tions, by reason of vast oceans, cross winds, etc. ; because, if 
 we reflect, a bird may travel from England to the equator 
 without launching out and exposing itself to boundless seas, 
 and that by crossing the water at Dover, and again at Gibral- 
 tar. And I with the more confidence advance this obvious re- 
 mark, because my brother has always found that some of his 
 birds, and particularly the swallow kind, are very sparing of 
 their pains in crossing the Mediterranean ; for when arrived 
 at Gibraltar they do not 
 
 . . . " Ranged in figure wedge their way, 
 
 And set forth 
 
 Their airy caravan high over seas 
 
 Flying, and over lands with mutual wing 
 
 Easing their flight :".... MILTON. 
 
 but scout and hurry along in little detached parties of six or 
 seven in a company ; and sweeping low, just over the surface 
 of the land and water, direct their course to the opposite con- 
 tinent at the narrowest passage they can find. They usually 
 slope across the bay to the south-west, and so pass over 
 opposite to Tangier, which, it seems, is the narrowest space. 
 In former letters we have considered whether it was prob- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 able that woodcocks in moonshiny nights cross the German 
 Ocean from Scandinavia. As a proof that birds of less speed 
 may pass that sea, considerable as it is, I shall relate the fol- 
 lowing incident, which, though mentioned to have happened 
 so many years ago, was strictly matter of fact : As some 
 people were shooting in the parish of Trotton, in the county 
 of Sussex, they killed a duck in that dreadful winter, 1708-9, 
 with a silver collar about its neck, 1 on which were engraven 
 the arms of the king of Denmark. This anecdote the rector 
 of Trotton at that time has often told to a near relation of 
 mine ; and, to the best of my remembrance, the collar was in 
 the possession of the rector. 
 
 At present I do not know anybody near the seaside that 
 will take the trouble to remark at what time of the moon 
 woodcocks first come; if I lived near the sea myself I would 
 soon tell you more of the matter. One thing I used to 
 observe when I was a sportsman, that there were times in 
 which woodcocks were so sluggish and sleepy that they 
 would drop again when flushed just before the spaniels, nay, 
 just at the muzzle of a gun that had been fired at them; 
 whether this strange laziness was the effect of a recent 
 fatiguing journey I shall not presume to say. 2 
 
 Nightingales not only never reach Northumberland and 
 Scotland, but also, as I have been always told, Devonshire 
 and Cornwall. In those two last counties we cannot attrib- 
 ute the failure of them to the want of warmth; the defect 
 in the west is rather a presumptive argument that these 
 birds come over to us from the continent at the narrowest 
 passage, and do not stroll so far westward. 
 
 Let me hear from your own observation whether sky- 
 larks do not dust. I think they do ; and if they do, whether 
 they wash also. 
 
 The Alauda pratcnsis of Ray was the poor dupe that was 
 educating the booby of a cuckoo mentioned in my letter of 
 October last. 
 
 Your letter came too late for me to procure a ring-ousel for 
 Mr. Tunstal during their autumnal visit ; but I will endeavor 
 to get him one when they call on us again in April. I am 
 glad that you and that gentleman saw my Andalusian birds ; 
 
IlS WHITE 
 
 I hope they answered your expectation. Royston, or gray 
 crows, are winter birds that come much about the same time 
 with the woodcock; they, like the fieldfare and redwing, 
 have no apparent reason for migration ; for as they fare in 
 the winter like their congeners, so might they in all appear- 
 ance in the summer. Was not Tenant, when a boy, mis- 
 taken ? did he not find a missel-thrush's nest, and take it for 
 the nest of a fieldfare? 
 
 The stock-dove, or wood-pigeon, (Enas Raii, is the last 
 winter bird of passage which appears with us ; it is not seen 
 till towards the end of November : about twenty years ago 
 they abounded in the district of Selborne ; and strings of 
 them were seen morning and evening that reached a mile or 
 more ; but since the beechen woods have been greatly thinned 
 they are much decreased in number. The ring-dove, Palum- 
 bus Raii, stays with us the whole year, and breeds several 
 times through the summer. 
 
 Before I received your letter of October last I had just 
 remarked in my journal that the trees were unusually green. 
 This uncommon verdure lasted on late into November; and 
 may be accounted for from a late spring, a cool and moist 
 summer ; but more particularly from vast armies of chafers, 
 or tree-beetles, which, in many places, reduced whole woods 
 to a leafless naked state. These trees shot again at midsum- 
 mer, and then retained their foliage till very late in the year. 3 
 
 My musical friend, at whose house I am now visiting, has 
 tried all the owls that are his near neighbors with a pitch-pipe 
 set at concert pitch, and finds they all hoot in B flat. He 
 will examine the nightingales next spring. 
 
 I am, etc., etc. 
 NOTES 
 
 1 1 have read a like anecdote of a swan. G. W. 
 
 2 I have observed woodcocks sluggish and owl-like in their movements 
 during a continuance of bright cool weather in the autumn, and have attrib- 
 uted it to fatigue after a long flight. G. C. D. 
 
 8 The leaves of a number of currant bushes in my garden were destroyed 
 this spring by a vast number of the caterpillars of the magpie moth, so that 
 the trees were black and apparently lifeless ; yet after midsummer, when the 
 caterpillars had turned into moths, the bushes budded again and were soon 
 in full leaf, but bore no fruit. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 1 19 
 
 LETTER X 
 
 SELBORNE, Aug. ist, 1771. 
 
 DEAR SIR, From what follows, it will appear that neither 
 owls nor cuckoos keep to one note. A friend remarks that 
 many (most) of his owls hoot in B flat ; but that one went 
 almost half a note below A. The pipe he tried their notes 
 by was a common half-crown pitch-pipe, such as masters 
 use for tuning of harpsichords ; it was the common London 
 pitch. 
 
 A neighbor of mine, who is said to have a nice ear, remarks 
 that the owls about this village hoot in three different keys, in 
 G flat or F sharp, in B flat, and A flat. He heard two hoot- 
 ing to each other, the one in A flat, and the other in B flat. 
 Query. Do these different notes proceed from different spe- 
 cies, or only from various individuals ? The same person finds 
 upon trial that the note of the cuckoo (of which we have but 
 one species) varies in different individuals ; for, about Selborne 
 wood, he found they were mostly in D : he heard two sing 
 together, the one in D, the other in D sharp, who made a dis- 
 agreeable concert : he afterwards heard one in D sharp, and 
 about Wolmer Forest some in C. As to nightingales, he says 
 that their notes are so short, and their transitions so rapid, that 
 he cannot well ascertain their key. Perhaps in a cage, and 
 in a room, their notes may be more distinguishable. This 
 person has tried to settle the notes of a swift, and of several 
 other small birds, but cannot bring them to any criterion. 
 
 As I have often remarked that redwings are some of the 
 first birds that suffer with us in severe weather, it is no wonder 
 at all that they retreat from Scandinavian winters : and much 
 more the ordo of grallce, who, all to a bird, forsake the north- 
 ern parts of Europe at the approach of winter. " Grallce tan- 
 quam conjuratce, unanimiter infugam se conjiciunt ; ne earum 
 unicam quidem internos habitantem invenire possimus ; utenim 
 (estate in australibus degere nequeunt ob defectum lumbricorum y 
 terramque siccam ; ita nee infrigidis ob eandem causam" says 
 Ekmarck the Swede, in his ingenious little treatise called 
 " Migrationes Avium," which by all means you ought to read 
 
120 WHITE 
 
 while your thoughts run on the subject of migration. See 
 " Amoenitates Academicae," Vol. IV., p. 565. 
 
 Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to migrate 
 in one country, and not in another : but the grallce (which 
 procure their food from marshes and boggy grounds) must in 
 winter forsake the more northerly parts of Europe, or perish 
 for want of food. 
 
 I am glad you are making inquiries from Linnaeus concern- 
 ing the woodcock : it is expected of him that he should be 
 able to account for the motions and manner of life of the 
 animals of his own " Fauna." 
 
 Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce in bare 
 descriptions, and a few synonyms : the reason is plain ; be- 
 cause all that may be done at home in a man's study, but the 
 investigation of the life and conversation of animals is a con- 
 cern of much more trouble and difficulty, and is not to be at- 
 tained but by the active and inquisitive, and by those that 
 reside much in the country. 
 
 Foreign systematics are, I observe, much too vague in their 
 specific differences ; which are almost universally constituted 
 by one or two particular marks, the rest of the description 
 running in general terms. But our countryman, the excellent 
 Mr. Ray, is the only describer that conveys some precise idea 
 in every term or word, maintaining his superiority over his 
 followers and imitators in spite of the advantage of fresh dis- 
 coveries and modern information. 
 
 At this distance of years it is not in my power to recollect 
 at what periods woodcocks used to be sluggish or alert when 
 I was a sportsman : but, upon my mentioning this circum- 
 stance to a friend, he thinks he has observed them to be 
 remarkably listless against snowy foul weather ; if this should 
 be the case, then the inaptitude for flying arises only from an 
 eagerness for food ; as sheep are observed to be very intent 
 on grazing against stormy wet evenings. 
 
 I am, etc., etc. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 121 
 
 LETTER XI 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. 8M, 1772. 
 
 DEAR SIR, When I ride about in the winter, and see 
 such prodigious flocks of various kinds of birds, I cannot help 
 admiring at these congregations, and wishing that it was in 
 my power to account for those appearances almost peculiar to 
 the season. The two great motives which regulate the pro- 
 ceedings of the brute creation are love and hunger ; the former 
 incites animals to perpetuate their kind; the latter induces 
 them to preserve individuals : whether either of these should 
 seem to be the ruling passion in the matter of congregating 
 is to be considered. As to love, that is out of the question at 
 a time of the year when that soft passion is not indulged : 
 besides, during the amorous season, such a jealousy prevails 
 between the male birds that they can hardly bear to be to- 
 gether in the same hedge or field. Most of the singing and 
 elation of spirits of that time seem to me to be the effect of 
 rivalry and emulation : and it is to this spirit of jealousy that 
 I chiefly attribute the equal dispersion of birds in the spring 
 over the face of the country. 
 
 Now as to the business of food : as these animals are actu- 
 ated by instinct to hunt for necessary food, they should not, 
 one would suppose, crowd together in pursuit of sustenance 
 at a time when it is most likely to fail ; yet such associations 
 do take place in hard weather chiefly, and thicken as the 
 severity increases. As some kind of self-interest and self- 
 defence is no doubt the motive for the proceeding, may it not 
 arise from the helplessness of their state in such rigorous 
 seasons ; as men crowd together, when under great calamities, 
 though they know not why ? Perhaps approximation may 
 dispel some degree of cold; and a crowd may make each 
 individual appear safer from the ravages of birds of prey 
 and other dangers. 
 
 If I admire when I see how much congenerous birds love 
 to congregate, I am the more struck when I see incongruous 
 ones in such strict amity. If we do not much wonder to see 
 a flock of rooks usually attended by a train of daws, yet it is 
 
122 WHITE 
 
 strange that the former should so frequently have a flight of 
 starlings for their satellites. Is it because rooks have a more 
 discerning scent than their attendants, and can lead them to 
 spots more productive of food ? Anatomists say that rooks, 
 by reason of two large nerves which run down between the 
 eyes into the upper mandible, have a more delicate feeling in 
 their beaks than other round-billed birds, and can grope for 
 their meat when out of sight. Perhaps, then, their associates 
 attend them on the motive of interest, as greyhounds wait on 
 the motions of their finders ; and as lions are said to do on 
 the yelpings of jackals. Lapwings and starlings sometimes 
 
 associate. 
 
 * 
 
 LETTER XII 
 
 March gw, 1772. 
 
 DEAR SIR, As a gentleman and myself were walking on 
 the 4th of last November round the sea-banks at Newhaven, 
 near the mouth of the Lewes River, in pursuit of natural 
 knowledge, we were surprised to see three house-swallows 
 gliding very swiftly by us. That morning was rather chilly, 
 with the wind at north-west ; but the tenor of the weather for 
 some time before had been delicate, and the noons remark- 
 ably warm. From this incident, and from repeated accounts 
 which I meet with, I am more and more induced to believe 
 that many of the swallow kind do not depart from this island, 
 but lay themselves up in holes and caverns ; and do, insect- 
 like and bat-like, come forth at mild times, and then retire 
 again to their latebrce. Nor make I the least doubt but that, 
 if I lived at Newhaven, Seaford, Brighthelmstone, or any of 
 those towns near the chalk-cliffs of the Sussex coast, by proper 
 observations I should see swallows stirring at periods of the 
 winter when the noons were soft and inviting and the sun 
 warm and invigorating. And I am the more of this opinion 
 from what I have remarked during some of our late springs, 
 that though some swallows did make their appearance about 
 the usual time, viz., the I3th or I4th April, yet meeting with 
 a harsh reception, and blustering cold north-east winds, they 
 immediately withdrew, absconding for several days, till the 
 weather gave them better encouragement. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 123 
 
 LETTER XIII 
 
 April iitft, 1772. 
 
 DEAR SIR, While I was in Sussex last autumn my resi- 
 dence was at the village near Lewes, from whence I had for- 
 merly the pleasure of writing to you. On the ist November 
 I remarked that the old tortoise, formerly mentioned, began 
 first to dig the ground in order to the forming its hybernacu- 
 lum, which it had fixed on just beside a great tuft of hepaticas. 
 It scrapes out the ground with its fore-feet, and throws it up 
 over its back with its hind ; but the motion of its legs is ridicu- 
 lously slow, little exceeding the hour-hand of a clock ; and 
 suitable to the composure of an animal said to be a whole month 
 in performing one feat of copulation. Nothing can be more 
 assiduous than this creature night and day in scooping the 
 earth, and forcing its great body into the cavity ; but, as the 
 noons of that season proved unusually warm and sunny, it 
 was continually interrupted, and called forth by the heat in 
 the middle of the day ; and though I continued there till the 
 1 3th November, yet the work remained unfinished. Harsher 
 weather, and frosty mornings, would have quickened its oper- 
 ations. No part of its behavior ever struck me more than the 
 extreme timidity it always expresses with regard to rain ; for 
 though it has a shell that would secure it against the wheel of 
 a loaded cart, yet does it discover as much solicitude about 
 rain as a lady dressed in all her best attire, shuffling away on 
 the first sprinklings, and running its head up in a corner. If 
 attended to, it becomes an excellent weather-glass ; for as sure 
 as it walks elate, and as it were on tiptoe, feeding with great 
 earnestness in a morning, so sure will it rain before night. It 
 is totally a diurnal animal, and never pretends to stir after it 
 becomes dark. The tortoise, like other reptiles, has an arbi- 
 trary stomach as well as lungs ; and can refrain from eating 
 as well as breathing for a great part of the year. When first 
 awakened it eats nothing ; nor again in the autumn before it 
 retires: through the height of the summer it feeds voraciously, 
 devouring all the food that comes in its way. I was much 
 taken with its sagacity in discerning those that do it kind 
 offices ; for, as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who 
 
124 WHITE 
 
 has waited on it for more than thirty years, it hobbles towards 
 its benefactress with awkward alacrity ; but remains inatten- 
 tive to strangers. Thus not only "the ox knoweth his owner, 
 and the ass his master's crib," 1 but the most abject reptile and 
 torpid of beings distinguishes the hand that feeds it, and is 
 touched with the feelings of gratitude ! 
 
 I am, etc., etc. 
 
 P.S. In about three days after I left Sussex the tortoise 
 retired into the ground under the hepatica. 
 
 NOTE 
 Msa. i. 3. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XIV 
 
 SELBORNE, March 26th, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The more I reflect on the o-ropyij of animals, the 
 more I am astonished at its effects. Nor is the violence of this 
 affection more wonderful than the shortness of its duration. 
 Thus every hen is in her turn the virago of the yard, in pro- 
 portion to the helplessness of her brood ; and will fly in the face 
 of a dog or a sow in defence of those chickens which in a few 
 weeks she will drive before her with relentless cruelty. 
 
 This affection sublimes the passions, quickens the invention, 
 and sharpens the sagacity of the brute creation. Thus a hen, 
 just become a mother, is no longer that placid bird she used 
 to be, but with feathers standing on end, wings hovering, and 
 clocking note, she runs about like one possessed. Dams will 
 throw themselves in the way of the greatest danger in order 
 to avert it from their progeny. Thus a partridge will tumble 
 along before a sportsman in order to draw away the dogs from 
 her helpless covey. In the time of nidification the most feeble 
 birds will assault the most rapacious. All the hirundines of a 
 village are up in arms at the sight of a hawk, whom they will 
 persecute till he leaves that district. A very exact observer 
 has often remarked that a pair of ravens nesting in the rock 
 of Gibraltar would suffer no vulture or eagle to rest near their 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 station, but would drive them from the hill with an amazing 
 fury ; even the blue thrush at the season of breeding would 
 dart out from the clefts of the rocks to chase away the kestril, 
 or the sparrow-hawk. If you stand near the nest of a bird 
 that has young, she will not be induced to betray them by an 
 inadvertent fondness, but will wait about at a distance with 
 meat in her mouth for an hour together. 
 
 Should I farther corroborate what I have advanced above 
 by some anecdotes which I probably may have mentioned 
 before in conversation, yet you will, I trust, pardon the repeti- 
 tion for the sake of the illustration. 
 
 The fly-catcher of the " Zoology " (the Stoparola of Ray) 
 builds every year in the vines that grow on the walls of my 
 house. A pair of these little birds had one year inadvertently 
 placed their nest on a naked bough, perhaps in a shady time, 
 not being aware of the inconvenience that followed. But a 
 hot sunny season coming on before the brood was half fledged, 
 the reflection of the wall became insupportable, and must in- 
 evitably have destroyed the tender young, had not affection 
 suggested an expedient, and prompted the parent birds to 
 hover over the nest all the hotter hours, while with wings ex- 
 panded, and mouths gaping for breath, they screened off the 
 heat from their suffering offspring. 
 
 A farther instance I once saw of notable sagacity in a 
 willow-wren, which had built in a bank in my fields. This bird 
 a friend and myself had observed as she sat in her nest ; but 
 were particularly careful not to disturb her, though we saw 
 she eyed us with some degree of jealousy. Some days after 
 as we passed that way we were desirous of remarking how this 
 brood went on ; but no nest could be found, till I happened to 
 take a large bundle of long green moss, as it were carelessly 
 thrown over the nest in order to dodge the eye of any im- 
 pertinent intruder. 
 
 A still more remarkable mixture of sagacity and instinct 
 occurred to me one day as my people were pulling off the 
 lining of a hotbed, in order to add some fresh dung. From 
 out of the side of this bed leaped an animal, with great agility, 
 that made a most grotesque figure ; nor was it without great 
 difficulty that it could be taken ; when it proved to be a large 
 
126 WHITE 
 
 white-bellied field-mouse with three or four young clinging to 
 her teats by their mouths and feet. It was amazing that the 
 desultory and rapid motions of this dam should not oblige her 
 litter to quit their hold, especially when it appeared that they 
 were so young as to be both naked and blind ! 
 
 To these instances of tender attachment, many more of 
 which might be daily discovered by those that are studious of 
 nature, may be opposed that rage of affection, that monstrous 
 perversion of the o-Topytf, which induces some females of the 
 brute creation to devour their young because their owners have 
 handled them too freely, or removed them from place to place! 
 Swine, and sometimes the more gentle race of dogs and cats, 
 are guilty of this horrid and preposterous murder. When I 
 hear now and then of an abandoned mother that destroys her 
 offspring, I am not so much amazed ; since reason perverted, 
 and the bad passions let loose, are capable of any enormity ; 
 but why the parental feelings of brutes, that usually flow in 
 one most uniform tenor, should sometimes be so extravagantly 
 diverted, I leave to abler philosophers than myself to deter- 
 mine. 
 
 + I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XV 
 
 SELBORNE, July 8//fc, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Some young men went down lately to a pond 
 on the verge of Wolmer Forest to hunt flappers, or young 
 wild-ducks, many of which they caught, and, among the rest, 
 some very minute yet well-fledged wild-fowls alive, which upon 
 examination I found to be teals. I did not know till then that 
 teals ever bred in the south of England, and was much pleased 
 with the discovery : this I look upon as a great stroke in natu- 
 ral history. 
 
 We have had, ever since I can remember, a pair of white 
 owls that constantly breed under the eaves of this church. As 
 I have paid good attention to the manner of life of these birds 
 during their season of breeding, which lasts the summer 
 through, the following remarks may not perhaps be unaccept- 
 able : About an hour before sunset (for then the mice begin 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE I2/ 
 
 to run) they sally forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round 
 the hedges of meadows and small enclosures for them, which 
 seem to be their only food. In this irregular country we can 
 stand on an eminence and see them beat the fields over like a 
 setting dog, and often drop down in the grass or corn. I have 
 minuted these birds with my watch for an hour together, and 
 have found that they return to their nest, the one or the other 
 of them, about once in five minutes ; reflecting at the same 
 time on the adroitness that every animal is possessed of as far 
 as regards the well-being of itself and offspring. But a piece 
 of address, which they show when they return loaded, should 
 not, I think, be passed over in silence. As they take their 
 prey with their claws, so they carry it in their claws to their 
 nest ; but, as the feet are necessary in their ascent under the 
 tiles, they constantly perch first on the roof of the chancel, 
 and shift the mouse from their claws to their bill, that their 
 feet may be at liberty to take hold of the plate on the wall as 
 they are rising under the eaves. 
 
 White owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to hoot 
 at all ; 1 all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come 
 from the wood kinds. The white owl does indeed snore and 
 hiss in a tremendous manner ; and these menaces well answer 
 the intention of intimidating ; for I have known a whole vil- 
 lage up in arms on such an occasion, imagining the church- 
 yard to be full of goblins and spectres. White owls also often 
 scream horribly as they fly along ; from this screaming proba- 
 bly arose the common people's imaginary species of screech- 
 owl, which they superstitiously think attends the windows of 
 dying persons. The plumage of the remiges of the wings of 
 every species of owl that I have yet examined is remarkably 
 soft and pliant. Perhaps it may be necessary that the wings 
 of these birds should not make much resistance or rushing, 
 that they may be enabled to steal through the air unheard 
 upon a nimble and watchful quarry. 
 
 While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to 
 mention what I was told by a gentleman of the county of Wilts. 
 As they were grubbing a vast hollow pollard-ash that had been 
 the mansion of owls for centuries, he discovered at the bottom 
 a mass of matter that at first he could not account for. After 
 
128 WHITE 
 
 some examination he found that it was a congeries of the bones 
 of mice (and perhaps of birds and bats) that had been heaping 
 together for ages, being cast up in pellets out of the crops of 
 many generations of inhabitants. For owls cast up the bones, 
 fur, and feathers of what they devour, after the manner of 
 hawks. He believes, he told me, that there were bushels of 
 this kind of substance. 
 
 When brown owls hoot, their throats swell as big as a hen's 
 egg. I have known an owl of this species live a full year 
 without any water. Perhaps the case may be the same with 
 all birds of prey. When owls fly they stretch out their legs 
 behind them as a balance to their large heavy heads, for as 
 most nocturnal birds have large eyes and ears they must have 
 large heads to contain them. Large eyes I presume are neces- 
 sary to collect every ray of light, and large concave ears to com- 
 mand the smallest degree of sound or noise. I am, etc. 
 
 [It will be proper to premise here that the sixteenth, eigh- 
 teenth, twentieth, and twenty-first letters have been published 
 already in the " Philosophical Transactions ; " but as nicer 
 observation has furnished several corrections and additions, it 
 is hoped that the republication of them will not give offence ; 
 especially as these sheets would be very imperfect without 
 them, and as they will be new to many readers who had 
 no opportunity of seeing them when they made their first 
 appearance.] 
 
 " The hirundines are a most inoffensive, harmless, entertain- 
 ing, social, and useful tribe of birds ; they touch no fruit in our 
 gardens; delight, all except one species, in attaching them- 
 selves to our houses ; amuse us with their migrations, songs, 
 and marvellous agility ; and clear our outlets from the annoy- 
 ances of gnats and other troublesome insects. Some districts 
 in the south seas, near Guayaquil, are desolated, it seems, by 
 the infinite swarms of venomous mosquitoes which fill the 
 air and render those coasts insupportable. It would be worth 
 inquiring whether any species of hirundines is found in those 
 regions. Whoever contemplates the myriads of insects that 
 sport in the sunbeams of a summer evening in this country, 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 1 29 
 
 will soon be convinced to what a degree our atmosphere would 
 be choked with them was it not for the friendly interposition 
 of the swallow tribe. 
 
 " Many species of birds have their peculiar lice ; but the 
 hirundines alone seem to be annoyed with dipterous insects, 
 which infest every species, and are so large, in proportion to 
 themselves, that they must be extremely irksome and injurious 
 to them. These are the hippobosccs hirundinis, with narrow 
 subulated wings, abounding in every nest ; and are hatched by 
 the warmth of the bird's own body during incubation, and crawl 
 about under its feathers. 
 
 " A species of them is familiar to horsemen in the south of 
 England under the name of forest-fly ; and to some of side-fly, 
 from its running sideways like a crab. It creeps under the 
 tails, and about the groins, of horses, which, at their first com- 
 ing out of the north, are rendered half frantic by the tickling 
 sensation ; while our own breed little regards them. 
 
 " The curious Reaumur discovered the large eggs, or rather 
 pup<z, of these flies as big as the flies themselves, which he 
 hatched in his own bosom. Any person that will take the 
 trouble to examine the old nests of either species of swallows 
 may find in them the black, shining cases or skins of the//^ 
 of these insects ; but for other particulars, too long for this 
 place, we refer the reader to ' L'Histoire d'Insectes' of that 
 admirable entomologist. Tom. iv., pi. ii." 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 The white owl does hoot, although it is not its most frequent cry. 
 G. C. D. 
 
 2 See Ulloa's "Travels." G. W. 
 
 LETTER XVI 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. zM, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, In obedience to your injunctions I sit down to 
 
 give you some account of the house-martin, or martlet ; and if 
 
 my monography of this little domestic and familiar bird should 
 
 happen to meet with your approbation, I may probably soon 
 
 10 
 
130 WHITE 
 
 extend my inquiries to the rest of the British hirundines the 
 swallow, the swift, and the bank-martin. 
 
 A few house-martins begin to appear about the i6th April; 
 usually some few days later than the swallow. For some time 
 after they appear the hirundines in general pay no attention 
 to the business of nidification, but play and sport about, either 
 to recruit from the fatigue of their journey, if they do migrate 
 at all, or else that their blood may recover its true tone and 
 texture after it has been so long benumbed by the severities of 
 winter. About the middle of May, if the weather be fine, the 
 martin begins to think in earnest of providing a mansion for 
 its family. The crust or shell of this nest seems to be formed 
 of such dirt or loam as comes most readily to hand, and is tem- 
 pered and wrought together with little bits of broken straws 
 to render it tough and tenacious. As this bird often builds 
 against a perpendicular wall without any projecting ledge 
 under, it requires its utmost efforts to get the first foundation 
 firmly fixed, so that it may safely carry the superstructure. On 
 this occasion the bird not only clings with its claws, but partly 
 supports itself by strongly inclining its tail against the wall, 
 making that a fulcrum ; and thus steadied, it works and plas- 
 ters the materials into the face of the brick or stone. But then, 
 that this work may not, while it is soft and green, pull itself 
 down by its own weight, the provident architect has prudence 
 and forbearance enough not to advance her work too fast ; but 
 by building only in the morning, and by dedicating the rest of 
 the day to food and amusement, gives it sufficient time to dry 
 and harden. About half an inch seems to be a sufficient layer 
 for a day. Thus careful workmen, when they build mud-walls 
 (informed at first perhaps by this little bird), raise but a mod- 
 erate layer at a time, and then desist, lest the work should be- 
 come top-heavy, and so be ruined by its own weight. By this 
 method in about ten or twelve days is formed a hemispheric 
 nest with a small aperture towards the top, strong, compact, 
 and warm ; and perfectly fitted for all the purposes for which 
 it was intended. But then nothing is more common than for 
 the house-sparrow, as soon as the shell is finished, to seize on 
 it as its own, to eject the owner, and to line it after its own 
 manner. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 131 
 
 After so much labor is bestowed in erecting a mansion, as 
 nature seldom works in vain, martins will breed on for several 
 years together in the same nest, where it happens to be well 
 sheltered and secure from the injuries of weather. The shell 
 or crust of the nest is a sort of rustic work, full of knobs and 
 protuberances on the outside ; nor is the inside of those that 
 I have examined smoothed with any exactness at all ; but is 
 rendered soft and warm, and fit for incubation, by a lining of 
 small straws, grasses, and feathers, and sometimes by a bed 
 of moss interwoven with wool. In this nest they tread, or 
 engender, frequently during the time of building ; and the hen 
 lays from three to five white eggs. 
 
 At first, when the young are hatched and are in a naked 
 and helpless condition, the parent birds, with tender assiduity, 
 carry out what comes away from their young. Was it not for 
 this affectionate cleanliness the nestlings would soon be burnt 
 up and destroyed, in so deep and hollow a nest, by their own 
 caustic excrement. In the quadruped creation the same neat 
 precaution is made use of ; particularly among dogs and cats, 
 where the dams lick away what proceeds from their young. 
 But in birds there seems to be a particular provision, that the 
 dung of nestlings is enveloped in a tough kind of jelly, and 
 therefore is the easier conveyed off without soiling or daubing. 
 Yet, as nature is cleanly in all her ways, the young perform 
 this office for themselves in a little time by thrusting their 
 tails out at the aperture of their nest. As the young of small 
 birds presently arrive at their fai/cia, or full growth, they soon 
 become impatient of confinement, and sit all day with their 
 heads out at the orifice, where the dams, by clinging to the 
 nest, supply them with food from morning to night. For a 
 time the young are fed on the wing by their parents ; but the 
 feat is done by so quick and almost imperceptible a flight that 
 a person must have attended very exactly to their motions 
 before he would be able to perceive it. As soon as the young 
 are able to shift for themselves, the dams immediately turn 
 their thoughts to the business of a second brood ; while the 
 first flight, shaken off and rejected by their nurses, congregate 
 in great flocks, and are the birds that are seen clustering and 
 hovering on sunny mornings and evenings round towers and 
 
132 WHITE 
 
 steeples, and on the roofs of churches and houses. These 
 congregatings usually begin to take place about the first week 
 in August ; and therefore we may conclude that by that time 
 the first flight is pretty well over. The young of this species 
 do not quit their abodes altogether ; but the more forward birds 
 get abroad some days before the rest. These approaching 
 the eaves of buildings, and playing about before them, make 
 people think that several old ones attend one nest. They are 
 often capricious in fixing on a nesting-place, beginning many 
 edifices, and leaving them unfinished ; but when once a nest 
 is completed in a sheltered place, it serves for several seasons. 
 Those which breed in a ready finished house get the start in 
 hatching of those that build new by ten days or a fortnight. 
 These industrious artificers are at their labors in the long days 
 before four in the morning. When they fix their materials 
 they plaster them on with their chins, moving their heads with 
 a quick vibratory motion. They dip and wash as they fly 
 sometimes in very hot weather ; but not so frequently as swal- 
 lows. It has been observed that martins usually build to a 
 north-east or north-west aspect, that the heat of the sun may 
 not crack and destroy their nests ; but instances are also remem- 
 bered where they bred for many years in vast abundance in a 
 hot stifled inn-yard against a wall facing to the south. 
 
 Birds in general are wise in their choice of situation ; but in 
 this neighborhood every summer is seen a strong proof to the 
 contrary at a house without eaves in an exposed district, where 
 some martins build year by year in the corners of the windows. 
 But, as the corners of these windows (which face to the south- 
 east and south-west) are too shallow, the nests are washed down 
 every hard rain ; and yet these birds drudge on to no purpose 
 from summer to summer, without changing their aspect or 
 house. It is a piteous sight to see them laboring when half 
 their nest is washed away and bringing dirt . . . "generis lapsi 
 sarcire ruinas" Thus is instinct a most wonderful unequal 
 faculty ; in some instances so much above reason, in other 
 respects so far below it ! Martins love to frequent towns, 
 especially if there are great lakes and rivers at hand ; nay, 
 they even affect the close air of London. And I have not 
 only seen them nesting in the Borough, but even in the Strand 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 133 
 
 and Fleet Street ; but then it was obvious from the dinginess 
 of their aspect that their feathers partook of the filth of that 
 sooty atmosphere. Martins are by far the least agile of the 
 four species ; their wings and tails are short, and therefore 
 they are not capable of such surprising turns and quick and 
 glancing evolutions as the swallow. Accordingly they make 
 use of a placid easy motion in a middle region of the air, sel- 
 dom mounting to any great height, and never sweeping long 
 together over the surface of the ground or water. They do 
 not wander far for food, but affect sheltered districts, over 
 some lake, or under some hanging wood, or in some hollow 
 vale, especially in windy weather. They breed the latest of 
 all the swallow kind : in 1772 they had nestlings on to Octo- 
 ber 2 ist, and are never without unfledged young as late as 
 Michaelmas. 
 
 As the summer declines the congregating flocks increase in 
 numbers daily by the constant accession of the second broods ; 
 till at last they swarm in myriads upon myriads round the vil- 
 lages on the Thames, darkening the face of the sky as they 
 frequent the aits of that river, where they roost. They retire, 
 the bulk of them I mean, in vast flocks together about the begin- 
 ning of October ; but have appeared of late years in a consid- 
 erable flight in this neighborhood, for one day or two, as late 
 as November 3rd and 6th, after they were supposed to have 
 been gone for more than a fortnight. They therefore with- 
 draw with us the latest of any species. Unless these birds 
 are very short-lived indeed, or unless they do not return to 
 the districts where they are bred, they must undergo vast 
 devastations somehow, and somewhere; for the birds that 
 return yearly bear no manner of proportion to the birds that 
 retire. 
 
 House-martins are distinguished from their congeners by 
 having their legs covered with soft downy feathers down to 
 their toes. They are no songsters ; but twitter in a pretty 
 inward soft manner in their nests. During the time of breed- 
 ing they are often greatly molested with fleas. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
134 WHITE 
 
 LETTER XVII 
 
 RINGMER, near LEWES, Dec. gth, 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I received your last favor just as I was setting 
 out for this place ; and am pleased to find that my monog- 
 raphy met with your approbation. My remarks are the re- 
 sult of many years' observation ; and are I trust true in the 
 whole, though I do not pretend to say that they are perfectly 
 void of mistake, or that a more nice observer might not make 
 many additions, since subjects of this kind are inexhaustible. 
 
 If you think my letter worthy the notice of your respectable 
 society, you are at liberty to lay it before them ; and they will 
 consider it, I hope, as it was intended, as a humble attempt to 
 promote a more minute inquiry into natural history ; into the 
 life and conversation of animals. Perhaps, hereafter, I may 
 be induced to take the house-swallow under consideration ; and 
 from that proceed to the rest of the British hirundines. 
 
 Though I have now travelled the Sussex Downs upwards 
 of thirty years, yet I still investigate that chain of majestic 
 mountains with fresh admiration year by year ; and I think I 
 see new beauties every time I traverse it. This range, which 
 runs from Chichester eastward as far as East Bourn, is about 
 sixty miles in length, and is called the South Downs, properly 
 speaking, only round Lewes. As you pass along you command 
 a noble view of the wild, or weald, on one hand, and the broad 
 downs and sea on the other. Mr. Ray used to visit a family 
 just at the foot of these hills, and was so ravished with the 
 prospect from Plumpton Plain, near Lewes, that he mentions 
 those scapes in his " Wisdom of God in the Works of the Crea- 
 tion " with the utmost satisfaction, and thinks them equal to 
 anything he has seen in the finest parts of Europe. 
 
 For my own part, I think there is somewhat peculiarly sweet 
 and amusing in the shapely-figured aspect of chalk-hills in 
 preference to those of stone, which are rugged, broken, abrupt, 
 and shapeless. 
 
 Perhaps I may be singular in my opinion, and not so happy 
 as to convey to you the same idea ; but I never contemplate 
 these mountains without thinking I perceive somewhat analo- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 135 
 
 gous to growth in their gentle swellings and smooth fungus- 
 like protuberances, their fluted sides, and regular hollows and 
 slopes, that carry at once the air of vegetative dilation and 
 expansion. . . . 
 
 ... Or was there ever a time when these immense masses 
 of calcareous matter were thrown into fermentation by some 
 adventitious moisture ; were raised and leavened into such 
 shapes by some plastic power; and so made to swell and 
 heave their broad backs into the sky so much above the less 
 animated clay of the wild below ? 
 
 By what I can guess from the admeasurements of the hills 
 that have been taken round my house, I should suppose that 
 these hills surmount the wild at an average at about the rate 
 of five hundred feet. 
 
 One thing is very remarkable as to the sheep : from the 
 westward till you get to the river Adur all the flocks have 
 horns, and smooth white faces, and white legs, and a hornless 
 sheep is rarely to be seen ; but as soon as you pass that river 
 eastward, and mount Beeding Hill, all the flocks at once be- 
 come hornless, or as they call them, poll-sheep; and have, 
 moreover, black faces with a white tuft of wool on their fore- 
 heads, and speckled and spotted legs, so that you would think 
 that the flocks of Laban were pasturing on one side of the 
 stream, and the variegated breed of his son-in-law Jacob were 
 cantoned along on the other. And this diversity holds good re- 
 spectively on each side from the valley of Bramber and Beed- 
 ing to the eastward, and westward all the whole length of the 
 downs. If you talk with the shepherds on this subject, they 
 tell you that the case has been so from time immemorial ; and 
 smile at your simplicity if you ask them whether the situation 
 of these two different breeds might not be reversed. How- 
 ever, an intelligent friend of mine near Chichester is deter- 
 mined to try the experiment; and has this autumn, at the 
 hazard of being laughed at, introduced a parcel of black-faced 
 hornless rams among his horned western ewes. The black- 
 faced poll-sheep have the shortest legs and the finest wool. 
 
 As I had hardly ever before travelled these downs at so late 
 a season of the year, I was determined to keep as sharp a look- 
 out as possible so near the southern coast, with respect to the 
 
136 WHITE 
 
 summer short-winged birds of passage. We make great in- 
 quiries concerning the withdrawing of the swallow kind, with- 
 out examining enough into the causes why this tribe is never 
 to be seen in winter ; for, entre nous, the disappearing of the 
 latter is more marvellous than that of the former, and much 
 more unaccountable. The hirundines, if they please, are cer- 
 tainly capable of migration, and yet no doubt are often found 
 in a torpid state; but redstarts, nightingales, whitethroats, 
 blackcaps, etc., etc., are very ill provided for long flights; 
 have never been once found, as I ever heard of, in a torpid 
 state, and yet can never be supposed, in such troops, from 
 year to year to dodge and elude the eyes of the curious and 
 inquisitive, which from day to day discern the other small 
 birds that are known to abide our winters. But, notwithstand- 
 ing all my care, I saw nothing like a summer bird of passage ; 
 and what is more strange not one wheat-ear, though they abound 
 so in the autumn as to be a considerable perquisite to the shep- 
 herds that take them ; and though many are to be seen to my 
 knowledge all the winter through in many parts of the south 
 of England. The most intelligent shepherds tell me that some 
 few of these birds appear on the downs in March, and then 
 withdraw to breed probably in warrens and stone-quarries : 
 now and then a nest is ploughed up in a fallow on the downs 
 under a furrow, but it is thought a rarity. At the time of 
 wheat-harvest they begin to be taken in great numbers ; are 
 sent for sale in vast quantities to Brighthelm stone and Tun- 
 bridge ; and appear at the tables of all the gentry that enter- 
 tain with any degree of elegance. About Michaelmas they 
 retire and are seen no more till March. Though these birds 
 are, when in season, in great plenty on the South Downs round 
 Lewes, yet at East Bourn, which is the eastern extremity of 
 those downs, they abound much more. One thing is very 
 remarkable, that though in the height of the season so many 
 hundreds of dozens are taken, yet they never are seen to 
 flock ; and it is a rare thing to see more than three or four at 
 a time ; so that there must be a perpetual flitting and constant 
 progressive succession. It does not appear that any wheat- 
 ears are taken to the westward of Houghton Bridge, which 
 stands on the river Arun. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 137 
 
 I did not fail to look particularly after my new migration of 
 ring-ousels ; and to take notice whether they continued on the 
 downs to this season of the year ; as I had formerly remarked 
 them in the month of October all the way from Chichester to 
 Lewes wherever there were any shrubs and covert : but not 
 one bird of this sort came within my observation. I only saw 
 a few larks and whin-chats, some rooks, and several kites and 
 buzzards. 
 
 About midsummer a flight of crossbills comes to the pine 
 groves about this house, but never makes any long stay. 
 
 The old tortoise, that I have mentioned in a former letter, 
 still continues in this garden ; and retired under ground about 
 the 2oth November, and came out again for one day on the 
 3Oth : it lies now buried in a wet swampy border under a wall 
 facing to the south, and is enveloped at present in mud and 
 mire! 
 
 Here is a large rookery round this house, the inhabitants of 
 which seem to get their livelihood very easily ; for they spend 
 the greatest part of the day on their nest-trees when the weather 
 is mild. These rooks retire every evening all the winter from 
 this rookery, where they only call by the way, as they are 
 going to roost in deep woods : at the dawn of day they always 
 revisit their nest-trees, and are preceded a few minutes by a 
 flight of daws, that act, as it were, as their harbingers. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XVIII 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. 29^, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The house-swallow, or chimney-swallow, is un- 
 doubtedly the first comer of all the British hirundines ; and 
 appears in general on or about 1 3th April, as I have remarked 
 from many years' observation. Not but now and then a strag- 
 gler is seen much earlier; and, in particular, when I was a 
 boy I observed a swallow for a whole day together on a sunny 
 warm Shrove Tuesday ; which day could not fall out later than 
 the middle of March, and often happened early in February. 
 
 It is worth remarking that these birds are seen first about 
 
138 WHITE 
 
 lakes and mill-ponds ; and it is also very particular, that if 
 these early visitors happen to find frost and snow, as was the 
 case of the two dreadful springs of 1770 and 1771, they im- 
 mediately withdraw for a time. A circumstance this much 
 more in favor of hiding than migration ; since it is much more 
 probable that a bird should retire to its hybernaculum just at 
 hand, than return for a week or two to warmer latitudes. 
 
 The swallow, though called the chimney-swallow, by no 
 means builds altogether in chimneys, but often within barns 
 and out-houses against the rafters ; and so she did in Virgil's 
 time : * 
 
 .... "Ante 
 
 Garrula quam tignis nidum suspendit hirundo." 
 
 In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called ladu swala, the 
 barn-swallow. Besides, in the warmer parts of Europe there 
 are no chimneys to houses, except they are English-built : in 
 these countries she constructs her nest in porches, and gate- 
 ways, and galleries, and open halls. 
 
 Here and there a bird may affect some odd, peculiar place ; 
 as we have known a swallow build down the shaft of an old 
 well, through which chalk had been formerly drawn up for 
 the purpose of manure : but in general with us this hirundo 
 breeds in chimneys ; and loves to haunt those stacks where 
 there is a constant fire, no doubt for the sake of warmth. Not 
 that it can subsist in the immediate shaft where there is a fire ; 
 but prefers one adjoining to that of the kitchen, and disregards 
 the perpetual smoke of that funnel, as I have often observed 
 with some degree of wonder. 
 
 Five or six or more feet down the chimney does this little bird 
 begin to form her nest about the middle of May, which consists, 
 like that of the house-martin, of a crust or shell composed of 
 dirt or mud, mixed with short pieces of straw to render it tough 
 and permanent ; with this difference, that whereas the shell of 
 the martin is nearly hemispheric, that of the swallow is open at 
 the top, and like half a deep dish : this nest is lined with fine 
 grasses and feathers, which are often collected as they float 
 in the air. 
 
 Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird shows all 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 139 
 
 day long in ascending and descending with security through 
 so narrow a pass. When hovering over the mouth of the 
 funnel, the vibrations of her wings acting on the confined air 
 occasion a rumbling like thunder. It is not improbable that 
 the dam submits to this inconvenient situation so low in the 
 shaft, in order to secure her broods from rapacious birds, and 
 particularly from owls, which frequently fall down chimneys, 
 perhaps in attempting to get at these nestlings. 
 
 The swallow lays from four to six white eggs, dotted with 
 red specks ; and brings out her first brood about the last week 
 in June, or the first week in July. The progressive method 
 by which the young are introduced into life is very amusing : 
 first, they emerge from the shaft with difficulty enough, and 
 often fall down into the rooms below : for a day or so they are 
 fed on the chimney-top, and then are conducted to the dead 
 leafless bough of some tree, where, sitting in a row, they are 
 attended with great assiduity, and may then be called perchers. 
 In a day or two more they become flyers, but are still unable 
 to take their own food ; therefore they play about near the 
 place where the dams are hawking for flies; and, when a 
 mouthful is collected, at a certain signal given, the dam and 
 the nestling advance, rising towards each other, and meeting 
 at an angle ; the young one all the while uttering such a little 
 quick note of gratitude and complacency, that a person must 
 have paid very little regard to the wonders of nature that has 
 not often remarked this feat. 
 
 The dam betakes herself immediately to the business of a 
 second brood as soon as she is disengaged from her first ; which 
 at once associates with the first broods of house-martins ; and 
 with them congregates, clustering on sunny roofs, towers, and 
 trees. This hirundo brings out her second brood towards the 
 middle and end of August. 
 
 All the summer long is the swallow a most instructive pattern 
 of unwearied industry and affection ; for, from morning to 
 night, while there is a family to be supported, she spends the 
 whole day in skimming close to the ground, and executing the 
 most sudden turns and quick evolutions. Avenues, and long 
 walks under hedges, and pasture-fields, and mown meadows 
 where cattle graze, are her delight, especially if there are trees 
 
140 WHITE 
 
 interspersed; because in such spots insects most abound. 
 When a fly is taken a smart snap from her bill is heard, 
 resembling the noise at the shutting of a watch-case; but 
 the motion of the mandibles is too quick for the eye. 
 
 The swallow, probably the male bird, is the excubitorto house- 
 martins, and other little birds, announcing the approach of 
 birds of prey. For as soon as a hawk appears, with a shrill 
 alarming note he calls all the swallows and martins about him ; 
 who pursue in a body, and buffet and strike their enemy till 
 they have driven him from the village, darting down from above 
 on his back, and rising in a perpendicular line in perfect secur- 
 ity. This bird also will sound the alarm, and strike at cats 
 when they climb on the roofs of houses, or otherwise approach 
 the nests. Each species of hirundo drinks as it flies along, 
 sipping the surface of the water; but the swallow alone in 
 general washes on the wing, by dropping into a pool for many 
 times together: in very hot weather house-martins and bank- 
 martins dip and wash a little. 
 
 The swallow is a delicate songster, and in soft sunny weather 
 sings both perching and flying; on trees in a kind of concert, 
 and on chimney-tops : is also a bold flyer, ranging to distant 
 downs and commons even in windy weather, which the other 
 species seem much to dislike ; nay, even frequenting exposed 
 seaport towns, and making little excursions over the salt 
 water. Horsemen on wide downs are often closely attended 
 by a little party of swallows for miles together, which plays 
 before and behind them, sweeping around them, and collect- 
 ing all the skulking insects that are roused by the trampling 
 of the horses' feet : when the wind blows hard, without this 
 expedient, they are often forced to settle to pick up their lurk- 
 ing prey. 
 
 This species feeds much on little Coleoptera, as well as on 
 gnats and flies ; and often settles on dug ground, or paths, for 
 gravels to grind and digest its food. Before they depart, for 
 some weeks, to a bird they forsake houses and chimneys and 
 roost in trees ; and usually withdraw about the beginning of 
 October ; though some few stragglers may appear on at times 
 till the first week in November. 
 
 Some few pairs haunt the new and open streets of London 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 141 
 
 next the fields, but do not enter, like the house-martin, the 
 close and crowded parts of the city. 
 
 Both male and female are distinguished from their conge- 
 ners by the length and forkedness of their tails. They are 
 undoubtedly the most nimble of all the species : and when 
 the male pursues the female in amorous chase, they then go 
 beyond their usual speed, and exert a rapidity almost too 
 quick for the eye to follow. 
 
 After this circumstantial detail of the life and discerning 
 crropyij of the swallow, I shall add, for your farther amuse- 
 ment, an anecdote or two not much in favor of her sagacity : 
 
 A certain swallow built for two years together on the 
 handles of a pair of garden-shears that were stuck up against 
 the boards in an out-house, and therefore must have her nest 
 spoiled whenever that implement was wanted : and, what is 
 stranger still, another bird of the same species built its nest 
 on the wings and body of an owl that happened by accident 
 to hang dead and dry from the rafter of a barn. This owl, 
 with the nest on its wings, and the eggs in the nest, was brought 
 as a curiosity worthy the most elegant private museum in Great 
 Britain. The owner, struck with the oddity of the sight, fur- 
 nished the bringer with a large shell, or conch, desiring him 
 to fix it just where the owl hung : the person did as he was 
 ordered, and the following year a pair, probably the same pair, 
 built their nests in the conch, and laid their eggs. 
 
 The owl and the conch make a strange, grotesque appear- 
 ance, and not the least curious specimens in that wonderful 
 collection of art and nature. 
 
 Thus is instinct in animals, taken the least out of its way, 
 an undistinguishing, limited faculty; and blind to every cir- 
 cumstance that does not immediately respect self-preservation, 
 or lead at once to the propagation or support of their species. 
 
 I am, with all respect, etc., etc. 
 
142 WHITE 
 
 LETTER XIX 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. i^th, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I received your favor of the 8th, and am pleased 
 to find that you read my little history of the swallow with your 
 usual candor : nor was I the less pleased to find that you made 
 objections where you saw reason. 
 
 As to the quotations, it is difficult to say precisely what 
 species of hirundo Virgil might intend in the lines in question, 
 since the ancients did not attend to specific differences like 
 modern naturalists : yet somewhat may be gathered, enough 
 to incline me to suppose that in the two passages quoted the 
 poet had his eye on the swallow. 
 
 In the first place the epithet garrula suits the swallow well, 
 who is a great songster, and not the martin, which is rather a 
 mute bird ; and when it sings is so inward as scarce to be heard. 
 Besides, if tignum in that place signifies a rafter rather than 
 a beam, as it seems to me to do, then I think it must be the 
 swallow that is alluded to, and not the martin, since the former 
 does frequently build within the roof against the rafters ; while 
 the latter always, as far as I have been able to observe, builds 
 without the roof against eaves and cornices. 
 
 As to the simile, too much stress must not be laid on it; 
 yet the epithet nigra speaks plainly in favor of the swallow, 
 whose back and wings are very black ; while the rump of the 
 martin is milk-white, its back and wings blue, and all its under 
 part white as snow. Nor can the clumsy motions (compara- 
 tively clumsy) of the martin well represent the sudden and 
 artful evolutions and quick turns which Juturna gave to her 
 brother's chariot, so as to elude the eager pursuit of the en- 
 raged ^Eneas. The verb sonat also seems to imply a bird 
 that is somewhat loquacious. 1 
 
 We have had a very wet autumn and winter, so as to raise 
 the springs to a pitch beyond anything since 1764 ; which was 
 a remarkable year for floods and high waters. The land-springs 
 which we call lavants, break out much on the downs of Sus- 
 sex, Hampshire, and Wiltshire. The country-people say when 
 the lavants rise corn will always be dear ; meaning that when 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 143 
 
 the earth is so glutted with water as to send forth springs on the 
 downs and uplands, that the corn-vales must be drowned ; and 
 so it has proved for these ten or eleven years past. For land- 
 springs have never obtained more since the memory of man 
 than during that period ; nor has there been known a greater 
 scarcity of all sorts of grain, considering the great improve- 
 ments of modern husbandry. Such a run of wet seasons a 
 century or two ago would, I am persuaded, have occasioned 
 a famine. Therefore pamphlets and newspaper letters, that 
 talk of combinations, tend to inflame and mislead ; since we 
 must not expect plenty till Providence sends us more favor- 
 able seasons. 
 
 The wheat of last year, all round this district, and in the 
 county of Rutland, and elsewhere, yields remarkably bad ; and 
 our wheat on the ground, by the continual late sudden vicissi- 
 tudes from fierce frost to pouring rains, looks poorly ; and the 
 turnips rot very fast. 
 
 NOTE l am > etc - 
 
 i " Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis aedes 
 Pervolat, et pennis alta atria lustrat hirundo, 
 Pabula parva legens, nidisque loquacibus escas : 
 Et nunc porticibus vacuis, nunc humida circum 
 Stagna sonat" 
 
 u As the black swallow near the palace plies : 
 O'er empty courts, and under arches flies ; 
 Now hawks aloft, now skims along the flood, 
 To furnish her loquacious nests with food." 
 
 DRYD. VIRG. ^n. xii. 1. 691. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XX 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. 26th, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The sand-martin, or bank-martin, is by much 
 the least of any of the British hirundines ; and as far as we have 
 ever seen, the smallest known hirundo ; though Brisson asserts 
 that there is one much smaller, and that is the hirundo esculenta. 
 
 But it is much to be regretted that it is scarce possible for any 
 observer to be so full and exact as he could wish in reciting the 
 
144 WHITE 
 
 circumstances attending the life and conversation of this little 
 bird, since it is / 'era naturA, at least in this part of the kingdom, 
 disclaiming all domestic attachments, and haunting wild heaths 
 and commons where there are large lakes ; while the other spe- 
 cies, especially the swallow and house-martin, are remarkably 
 gentle and domesticated, and never seem to think themselves 
 safe but under the protection of man. 
 
 Here are in this parish, in the sand-pits and banks of the 
 lakes of Wolmer Forest, several colonies of these birds ; and 
 yet they are never seen in the village ; nor do they at all fre- 
 quent the cottages that are scattered about in that wild district. 
 The only instance I ever remember where this species haunts 
 any building is at the town of Bishop's Waltham, in this county, 
 where many sand-martins nestle and breed in the scaffold holes 
 of the back-wall of William of Wykeham's stables ; but then 
 this wall stands in a very sequestered and retired enclosure, 
 and faces upon a large and beautiful lake. And indeed this 
 species seems so to delight in large waters, that no instance 
 occurs of their abounding, but near vast pools or rivers ; and 
 in particular it has been remarked that they swarm in the 
 banks of the Thames in some places below London bridge. 
 
 It is curious to observe with what different degrees of archi- 
 tectonic skill Providence has endowed birds of the same genus, 
 and so nearly correspondent in their general mode of life ! For 
 while the swallow and the house-martin discover the greatest 
 address in raising and securely fixing crusts or shells of loam as 
 cunabula for their young, the bank-martin terebrates a round 
 and regular hole in the sand or earth, which is serpentine, 
 horizontal, and about two feet deep. At the inner end of this 
 burrow does this bird deposit, in a good degree of safety, her 
 rude nest, consisting of fine grasses and feathers, usually goose- 
 feathers, very inartificially laid together. 
 
 Perseverance will accomplish anything ; though at first one 
 would be disinclined to believe that this weak bird, with her 
 soft and tender bill and claws, should ever be able to bore the 
 stubborn sand-bank without entirely disabling herself ; yet with 
 these feeble instruments have I seen a pair of them make great 
 despatch, and could remark how much they had scooped that 
 day by the fresh sand which ran down the bank, and was of 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 145 
 
 a different color from that which lay loose and bleached in 
 the sun. 
 
 In what space of time these little artists are able to mine and 
 finish these cavities I have not been able to discover, for rea- 
 sons given above ; but it would be a matter worthy of obser- 
 vation, where it falls in the way of any naturalist to make his 
 remarks. This I have often taken notice of, that several holes 
 of different depths are left unfinished at the end of summer. 
 To imagine that these beginnings were intentionally made in 
 order to be in the greater forwardness for next spring is allow- 
 ing perhaps too much foresight and rerum prudentia to a 
 simple bird. May not the cause of these latebra being left 
 unfinished arise from their meeting in those places with strata 
 too harsh, hard, and solid for their purpose, which they re- 
 linquish, and go to a fresh spot that works more freely ? Or 
 may they not in other places fall in with a soil as much too 
 loose and mouldering, liable to flounder, and threatening to 
 overwhelm them and their labors ? 
 
 One thing is remarkable that, after some years, the old 
 holes are forsaken and new ones bored ; perhaps because the 
 old habitations grow foul and fetid from long use, or because 
 they may so abound with fleas as to become untenantable. 
 This species of swallow moreover is strangely annoyed with 
 fleas ; and we have seen fleas, bed-fleas (pulex irritans\ swarm- 
 ing at the mouths of these holes, like bees on the stools of their 
 hives. 1 
 
 The following circumstance should by no means be omitted 
 that these birds do not make use of their caverns by way of 
 hybernacula, as might be expected ; since banks so perforated 
 have been dug out with care in the winter, when nothing was 
 found but empty nests. 
 
 The sand-martin arrives much about the same time with the 
 swallow, and lays, as she does, from four to six white eggs. 
 But as this species is cryptogame, carrying on the business of 
 nidification, incubation, and the support of its young in the 
 dark, it would not be so easy to ascertain the time of breeding, 
 were it not for the coming forth of the broods, which appear 
 much about the time, or rather somewhat earlier than those of 
 the swallow. The nestlings are supported in common like 
 ii 
 
146 WHITE 
 
 those of their congeners, with gnats and other small insects ; 
 and sometimes they are fed with libellulce (dragon-flies) almost 
 as long as themselves. In the last week in June we have seen 
 a row of these sitting on a rail near a great pool as perchers, 
 and so young and helpless, as easily to be taken by hand ; but 
 whether the dams ever feed them on the wing, as swallows and 
 house-martins do, we have never yet been able to determine ; 
 nor do we know whether they pursue and attack birds of prey. 
 
 When they happen to breed near hedges and enclosures, they 
 are dispossessed of their breeding holes by the house-sparrow, 
 which is on the same account a fell adversary to house-martins. 
 
 These hirundines are no songsters, but rather mute, making 
 only a little harsh noise when a person approaches their nests. 
 They seem not to be of a sociable turn, never with us con- 
 gregating with their congeners in the autumn. Undoubtedly 
 they breed a second time, like the house-martin and swallow ; 
 and withdraw about Michaelmas. 
 
 Though in some particular districts they may happen to 
 abound, yet in the whole, in the south of England at least, is 
 this much the rarest species. For there are few towns or large 
 villages but what abound with house-martins ; few churches, 
 towers, or steeples, but what are haunted by some swifts; 
 scarce a hamlet or single cottage-chimney that has not its 
 swallow; while the bank-martins, scattered here and there, 
 live a sequestered life among some abrupt sand-hills, and in 
 the banks of some few rivers. 
 
 These birds have a peculiar manner of flying; flitting about 
 with odd jerks and vacillations, not unlike the motions of a 
 butterfly. Doubtless the flight of all hirundines is influenced 
 by, and adapted to, the peculiar sort of insects which furnish 
 their food. Hence it would be worth inquiry to examine what 
 particular genus of insects affords the principal food of each 
 respective species of swallow. 
 
 Notwithstanding what has been advanced above, some few 
 sand-martins, I see, haunt the skirts of London, frequenting 
 the dirty pools in Saint George's Fields, and about White- 
 chapel. The question is where these build, since there are 
 no banks or bold shores in that neighborhood : perhaps they 
 nestle in the scaffold holes of some old or new deserted build- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 147 
 
 ing. They dip and wash as they fly sometimes, like the house- 
 martin and swallow. 
 
 Sand-martins differ from their congeners in the diminutive- 
 ness of their size, and in their color, which is what is usually 
 called a mouse-color. Near Valencia, in Spain, they are taken, 
 says Willughby, and sold in the markets for the table ; and 
 are called by the country-people, probably from their desul- 
 tory jerking manner of flight, Papilion de Montagna. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 This insect is not the bed-flea, but another, distinct also from those 
 which trouble the swallow and the swift. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XXI 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. 28^, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, As the swift or black-martin is the largest of 
 the British hirundines, so it is undoubtedly the latest comer. 
 For I remember but one instance of its appearing before the 
 last week in April; and in some of our late frosty, harsh 
 springs, it has not been seen till the beginning of May. This 
 species usually arrives in pairs. 
 
 The swift, like the sand-martin, is very defective in archi- 
 tecture, making no crust, or shell, for its nest ; but forming it 
 of dry grasses and feathers, very rudely and inartificially put 
 together. With all my attention to these birds, I have never 
 been able once to discover one in the act of collecting or carry- 
 ing in materials ; so that I have suspected (since their nests 
 are exactly the same) that they sometimes usurp upon the 
 house-sparrows, and expel them, as sparrows do the house and 
 sand martin ; well remembering that I have seen them squab- 
 bling together at the entrance of their holes, and the sparrows 
 up in arms, and much disconcerted at these intruders. And 
 yet I am assured, by a nice observer in such matters, that 
 they do collect feathers for their nests in Andalusia, and that 
 he has shot them with such materials in their mouths. 
 
 Swifts, like sand-martins, carry on the business of nidifica- 
 
148 WHITE 
 
 < 
 
 tion quite in the dark, in crannies of castles, and towers, and 
 steeples, and upon the tops of the walls of churches under the 
 roof ; and therefore cannot be so narrowly watched as those 
 species that build more openly ; but, from what I could ever 
 observe, they begin nesting about the middle of May ; and I 
 have remarked, from eggs taken, that they have sat hard by 
 the Qth June. In general they haunt tall buildings, churches, 
 and steeples, and breed only in such ; yet in this village some 
 pairs frequent the lowest and meanest cottages, and educate 
 their young under those thatched roofs. We remember but 
 one instance where they breed out of buildings, and that is in 
 the sides of a deep chalk-pit near the town of Odiham, in this 
 county, where we have seen many pairs entering the crevices, 
 and skimming and squeaking round the precipices. 
 
 As I have regarded these amusive birds with no small atten- 
 tion, if I should advance something new and peculiar with 
 respect to them, and different from all other birds, I might 
 perhaps be credited ; especially as my assertion is the result 
 of many years' exact observation. The fact that I would ad- 
 vance is, that swifts tread, or copulate, on the wing ; and I 
 would wish any nice observer, that is startled at this supposi- 
 tion, to use his own eyes, and I think he will soon be con- 
 vinced. In another class of animals, viz., the insect, nothing 
 is so common as to see the different species of many genera 
 in conjunction as they fly. The swift is almost continually on 
 the wing ; and as it never settles on the ground, on trees, or 
 roofs, would seldom find opportunity for amorous rites, was it 
 not enabled to indulge them in the air. If any person would 
 watch these birds of a fine morning in May, as they are sailing 
 round at a great height from the ground, he would see, every 
 now and then, one drop on the back of another, and both of 
 them sink down together for many fathoms with a loud pierc- 
 ing shriek. This I take to be the juncture when the business 
 of generation is carrying on. 
 
 As the swift eats, drinks, collects materials for its nest, and, 
 as it seems, propagates on the wing, it appears to live more 
 in the air than any other bird, and to perform all functions 
 there save those of sleeping and incubation. 
 
 This hirundo differs widely from its congeners in laying in- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 149 
 
 variably but two eggs at a time, which are milk-white, long, and 
 peaked at the small end ; whereas the other species lay at each 
 brood from four to six. It is a most alert bird, rising very early, 
 and retiring to roost very late ; and is on the wing in the height 
 of summer at least sixteen hours. In the longest days it does 
 not withdraw to rest till a quarter before nine in the evening, 
 being the latest of all day birds. Just before they retire whole 
 groups of them assemble high in the air, and squeak, and shoot 
 about with wonderful rapidity. But this bird is never so much 
 alive as in sultry thundery weather, when it expresses great 
 alacrity, and calls forth all its powers. In hot mornings sev- 
 eral, getting together in little parties, dash round the steeples 
 and churches, squeaking as they go in a very clamorous man- 
 ner ; these, by nice observers, are supposed to be males sere- 
 nading their sitting hens ; and not without reason, since they 
 seldom squeak till they come close to the walls or eaves, and 
 since those within utter at the same time a little inward note 
 of complacency. 
 
 When the hen has sat hard all day, she rushes forth just as 
 it is almost dark, and stretches and relieves her weary limbs, 
 and snatches a scanty meal for a few minutes, and then re- 
 turns to her duty of incubation. Swifts, when wantonly and 
 cruelly shot while they have young, discover a little lump of 
 insects in their mouths, which they pouch and hold under 
 their tongue. In general they feed in a much higher district 
 than the other species ; a proof that gnats and other insects 
 do also abound to a considerable height in the air ; they also 
 range to vast distances, since locomotion is no labor to them 
 who are endowed with such wonderful powers of wing. Their 
 powers seem to be in proportion to their levers; and their 
 wings are longer in proportion than those of almost any other 
 bird. When they mute, or ease themselves in flight, they 
 raise their wings and make them meet over their backs. 
 
 At some certain times in the summer I had remarked that 
 swifts were hawking very low for hours together over pools 
 and streams; and could not help inquiring into the object 
 of their pursuit that induced them to descend so much below 
 their usual range. After some trouble, I found that they were 
 taking phryganea, ephemera, and libellula (cadew-flies, may- 
 
ISO WHITE 
 
 flies, and dragon-flies), that were just emerged out of their 
 aurelia state. I then no longer wondered that they should be 
 so willing to stoop for a prey that afforded them such plentiful 
 and succulent nourishment. 
 
 They bring out their young about the middle or latter end of 
 July ; but as these never become perchers, nor, that ever I could 
 discern, are fed on the wing by their dams, the coming forth 
 of the young is not so notorious as in the other species. 
 
 On the 3Oth of last June, I untiled the eaves of a house 
 where many pairs build, and found in each nest only two 
 squab, naked pulli ; on the 8th July I repeated the same 
 inquiry, and found that they had made very little progress 
 towards a fledged state, but were still naked and helpless. 
 From whence we may conclude that birds whose way of life 
 keeps them perpetually on the wing would not be able to quit 
 their nest till the end of the month. Swallows and martins, 
 that have numerous families, are continually feeding them 
 every two or three minutes ; while swifts, that have but two 
 young to maintain, are much at their leisure and do not attend 
 on their nest for hours together. 
 
 Sometimes they pursue and strike at hawks that come in 
 their way ; but not with that vehemence and fury that swal- 
 lows express on the same occasion. They are out all day long 
 in wet days, feeding about, and disregarding still rain : from 
 whence two things may be gathered : first, that many insects 
 abide high in the air, even in rain ; and next, that the feath- 
 ers of these birds must be well preened to resist so much wet. 
 Windy weather, and particularly windy weather with heavy 
 showers, they dislike ; and on such days withdraw, and are 
 scarce ever seen. 
 
 There is a circumstance respecting the color of swifts, which 
 seems not to be unworthy of our attention. When they arrive 
 in the spring, they are all over of a glossy, dark soot-color, 
 except their chins, which are white ; but, by being all day long 
 in the sun and air, they become quite weather-beaten and 
 bleached before they depart, and yet they return glossy again 
 in the spring. Now, if they pursue the sun into lower lati- 
 tudes, as some suppose, in order to enjoy a perpetual summer, 
 why do they not return bleached ? Do they not rather per- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 151 
 
 haps retire to rest for a season, and at that juncture moult 
 and change their feathers, since all other birds are known to 
 moult soon after the season of breeding ? 
 
 Swifts are very anomalous in many particulars, dissenting 
 from all their congeners not only in the number of their young, 
 but in breeding but once in a summer ; whereas all the other 
 British hirundines breed invariably twice. It is past all doubt 
 that swifts can breed but once, since they withdraw in a short 
 time after the flight of their young, and some time before their 
 congeners bring out their second broods. We may here re- 
 mark, that, as swifts breed but once in a summer, and only 
 two at a time, and the other hirundines twice, the latter, who 
 lay from four to six eggs, increase at an average five times as 
 fast as the former. 
 
 But in nothing are swifts more singular than in their early 
 retreat. They retire, as to the main body of them, by the roth 
 August, and sometimes a few days sooner ; and every strag- 
 gler invariably withdraws by the 2Oth, while their congeners, 
 all of them, stay till the beginning of October ; many of them 
 all through that month, and some occasionally to the begin- 
 ning of November. This early retreat is mysterious and won- 
 derful, since that time is often the sweetest season in the year. 
 But what is more extraordinary, they begin to retire still earlier 
 in the most southerly parts of Andalusia, where they can be 
 in no ways influenced by any defect of heat ; or, as one might 
 suppose, failure of food. Are they regulated in their motions 
 with us by a defect of food, or by a propensity to moulting, or 
 by a disposition to rest after so rapid a life, or by what ? This 
 is one of those incidents in natural history that not only baffles 
 our searches, but almost eludes our guesses ! 
 
 These hirundines never perch on trees or roofs, and so never 
 congregate with their congeners. They are fearless while 
 haunting their nesting-places, and are not to be scared with 
 a gun ; and are often beaten down with poles and cudgels as 
 they stoop to go under the eaves. Swifts are much infested 
 with those pests to the genus called hippoboscce hirundinis ; 
 and often wriggle and scratch themselves in their flight to get 
 rid of that clinging annoyance. 
 
 Swifts are no songsters, and have only one harsh screaming 
 
152 WHITE 
 
 note ; yet there are ears to which it is not displeasing, from 
 an agreeable association of ideas, since that note never occurs 
 but in the most lovely summer weather. 
 
 They never can settle on the ground but through accident ; 
 and when down, can hardly rise, on account of the shortness 
 of their legs and the length of their wings ; neither can they 
 walk, but only crawl ; but they have a strong grasp with their 
 feet, by which they cling to walls. Their bodies being flat 
 they can enter a very narrow crevice ; and where they cannot 
 pass on their bellies they will turn up edgewise. 
 
 The particular formation of the foot discriminates the swift 
 from all the British hirundines; and indeed from all other 
 known birds, the hintndo melba, or great white-bellied swift 
 of Gibraltar, excepted; for it is so disposed as to carry "omnes 
 qnatuor digitos anticos " all its four toes forward ; besides, the 
 least toe, which should be the back toe, consists of one bone 
 alone, and the other three only of two apiece, a construction 
 most rare and peculiar, but nicely adapted to the purposes in 
 which their feet are employed. This and some peculiarities 
 attending the nostrils and under mandible have induced a dis- 
 cerning 1 naturalist to suppose that this species might constitute 
 a genus per se. 
 
 In London a party of swifts frequents the Tower, playing 
 and feeding over the river just below the bridge ; others haunt 
 some of the churches of the Borough, next the fields, but do 
 not venture, like the house-martin, into the close-crowded part 
 of the town. 
 
 The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name on this 
 swallow, calling it " ring swala," from the perpetual rings or 
 circles that it takes round the scene of its nidification. 
 
 Swifts feed on coleoptera, or small beetles with hard cases 
 over their wings, as well as on the softer insects ; but it does 
 not appear how they can procure gravel to grind their food, 
 as swallows do, since they never settle on the ground. Young 
 ones, overrun with hippobosc(Z> are sometimes found, under 
 their nests, fallen to the ground ; the number of vermin ren- 
 dering their abode insupportable any longer. They frequent 
 in this village several abject cottages ; yet a succession still 
 haunts the same unlikely roofs, a good proof this that the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 153 
 
 same birds return to the same spots. As they must stoop 
 very low to get up under these humble eaves, cats lie in wait, 
 and sometimes catch them on the wing. 
 
 On July 5th, 1775, I again untiled part of a roof over the 
 nest of a swift. The dam sat in the nest ; but so strongly was 
 she affected by natural a-ropjij for her brood, which she sup- 
 posed to be in danger, that, regardless of her own safety, she 
 would not stir, but lay sullenly by them, permitting herself to 
 be taken in hand. The squab young we brought down and 
 placed on the grass-plot, where they tumbled about, and were 
 as helpless as a new-born child. While we contemplated their 
 naked bodies, their unwieldy disproportioned abdomina, and 
 their heads, too heavy for their necks to support, we could not 
 but wonder when we reflected that these shiftless beings in a 
 little more than a fortnight would be able to dash through the 
 air almost with the inconceivable swiftness of a meteor ; and 
 perhaps in their emigration must traverse vast continents and 
 oceans as distant as the equator. So soon does nature advance 
 small birds to their fi\iica t or state of perfection; while the 
 progressive growth of men and large quadrupeds is slow and 
 
 tedious ! I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 John Antony Scopoli, M.D., of Carniola. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XXII 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. lyh, 1774. 
 
 DEAR SIR, By means of a straight cottage chimney I had 
 an opportunity this summer of remarking, at my leisure, how 
 swallows ascend and descend through the shaft; but my 
 pleasure in contemplating the address with which this feat 
 was performed to a considerable depth in the chimney was 
 somewhat interrupted by apprehensions lest my eyes might 
 undergo the same fate with those of Tobit. 1 
 
 Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to hear at what 
 times the different species of hirundines arrived this spring 
 in three very distant counties of this kingdom. With us the 
 
154 WHITE 
 
 swallow was seen first on April 4th, the swift on April 24th, 
 the bank-martin on April I2th, and the house-martin not till 
 April soth. At South Zele, Devonshire, swallows did not 
 arrive till April 25th, swifts in plenty on May ist, and house- 
 martins not till the middle of May. At Blackburn, in Lanca- 
 shire, swifts were seen April 28th, swallows April 29th, house- 
 martins May i st. Do these different dates, in such distant 
 districts, prove anything for or against migration ? 
 
 A farmer, near Weyhill, fallows his land with two teams of 
 asses ; one of which works till noon, and the other in the after- 
 noon. When these animals have done their work, they are 
 penned all night, like sheep, on the fallow. In the winter they 
 are confined and foddered in a yard, and make plenty of dung. 
 
 Linnaeus says that hawks " paciscuntur inducias cum avibus, 
 quamdiu cuculus cuculat ; " but it appears to me, that during 
 that period, many little birds are taken and destroyed by birds 
 of prey, as may be seen by their feathers left in lanes and 
 under hedges. 
 
 The missel-thrush is, while breeding, fierce and pugnacious, 
 driving such birds as approach its nest with great fury to a 
 distance. The Welsh call it " pen y llwyn," the head or mas- 
 ter of the coppice. He suffers no magpie, jay, or blackbird 
 to enter the garden where he haunts ; and is, for the time, a 
 good guard to the new-sown legumens. In general, he is very 
 successful in the defence of his family ; but once I observed 
 in my garden, that several magpies came determined to storm 
 the nest of a missel-thrush : the dams defended their mansion 
 with great vigor, and fought resolutely pro arts et focis ; but 
 numbers at last prevailed, they tore the nest to pieces, and 
 swallowed the young alive. 
 
 In the season of nidification the wildest birds are compara- 
 tively tame. 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 in- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 155 
 
 jured the more necessary fruits of the earth, and discolored 
 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." 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 " The same night also I returned from the burial and slept by the wall 
 of my court-yard, being polluted, and my face was uncovered. 
 
 " And I knew not that there were sparrows (swallows ?) in the wall, and 
 mine eyes being open, the sparrows muted warm dung into mine eyes, and a 
 whiteness came in mine eyes ; and I went to the physicians, but they helped 
 me not." TOBIT ii. 10. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XXIII 
 
 SELBORNE, June 8t 
 DEAR SIR, On September 21 st, 1741, being then on a visit, 
 and intent on field-diversions, I rose before daybreak : when I 
 came into the enclosures, I found the stubbles and clover- 
 grounds matted all over with a thick coat of cobweb, in the 
 meshes of which a copious and heavy dew hung so plentifully 
 that the whole face of the country seemed, as it were, covered 
 with two or three setting-nets drawn one over another. When 
 the dogs attempted to hunt, their eyes were so blinded and hood- 
 winked that they could not proceed, but were obliged to lie 
 down and scrape the encumbrances from their faces with their 
 fore-feet, so that, finding my sport interrupted, I returned home 
 musing in my mind on the oddness of the occurrence. 
 
 As the morning advanced the sun became bright and warm, 
 and the day turned out one of those most lovely ones which no 
 season but the autumn produces, cloudless, calm, serene, 
 and worthy of the south of France itself. 
 
156 WHITE 
 
 About nine an appearance very unusual began to demand 
 our attention, a shower of cobwebs falling from very elevated 
 regions, and continuing, without any interruption, till the close 
 of the day. These webs were not single filmy threads, floating 
 in the air in all directions, but perfect flakes or rags ; some 
 near an inch broad, and five or six long, which fell with a degree 
 of velocity that showed they were considerably heavier than the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 On every side as the observer turned his eyes might he 
 behold a continual succession of fresh flakes falling into his 
 sight, and twinkling like stars as they turned their sides tow- 
 ards the sun. 
 
 How far this wonderful shower extended would be difficult 
 to say ; but we know that it reached Bradley, Selborne, and 
 Alresford, three places which lie in a sort of a triangle, the 
 shortest of whose sides is about eight miles in extent. 
 
 At the second of those places there was a gentleman (for 
 whose veracity and intelligent turn we have the greatest venera- 
 tion) who observed it the moment he got abroad ; but concluded 
 that, as soon as he came upon the hill above his house, where 
 he took his morning rides, he should be higher than this meteor, 
 which he imagined might have been blown, like thistle-down, 
 from the common above ; but, to his great astonishment, when 
 he rode to the most elevated part of the down, three hundred 
 feet above his fields, he found the webs in appearance still as 
 much above him as before; still descending into sight in a con- 
 stant succession, and twinkling in the sun, so as to draw the 
 attention of the most incurious. 
 
 Neither before nor after was any such fall observed ; but on 
 this day the flakes hung in the trees and hedges so thick that 
 a diligent person sent out might have gathered baskets full. 
 
 The remark that I shall make on these cobweb-like appear- 
 ances, called gossamer, is, that, strange and superstitious as 
 the notions about them were formerly, nobody in these days 
 doubts but that they are the real production of small spiders, 
 which swarm in the fields in fine weather in autumn, and have 
 a power of shooting out webs from their tails, so as to render 
 themselves buoyant, and lighter than air. But why these apte- 
 rous insects should that day take such a wonderful aerial excur- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 157 
 
 sion, and why their webs should at once become so gross and 
 material as to be considerably more weighty than air, and to 
 descend with precipitation, is a matter beyond my skill. If I 
 might be allowed to hazard a supposition, I should imagine 
 that those filmy threads, when first shot, might be entangled 
 in the rising dew, and so drawn up, spiders and all, by a brisk 
 evaporation, into the regions where clouds are formed : and if 
 the spiders have a power of coiling and thickening their webs 
 in the air, as Dr. Lister says they have [see his Letters to Mr. 
 Ray], then, when they were become heavier than the air, they 
 must fall. 
 
 Every day in fine weather, in autumn chiefly, do I see those 
 spiders shooting out their webs and mounting aloft : they will 
 go off from your finger if you will take them into your hand. 
 Last summer one alighted on my book as I was reading in the 
 parlor ; and, running to the top of the page, and shooting out 
 a web, took its departure from thence. But what I most won- 
 dered at was, that it went off with considerable velocity in a 
 place where no air was stirring ; and I am sure that I did not 
 assist it with my breath. So that these little crawlers seem to 
 have, while mounting, some locomotive power without the use 
 of wings, and to move in the air faster than the air itself. 1 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 The appearance of the gossamer-covered fields will be familiar to all 
 who live in the country. It seems clear that the "locomotive power" of 
 the tiny spiders is due solely to the movement of the atmosphere. On the 
 quietest days, if you will wet your finger and hold it up, you will find it grow 
 sensibly cooler on one side than the other, and on that side is there a faint 
 wind blowing. If you will then watch the spiders, you will see them shoot 
 out long silvery threads, which will incline to leeward, and presently the 
 spiders will let go their hold of the grass, and launch themselves into the 
 air, floating away on the slightest movement of it. 
 
158 WHITE 
 
 LETTER XXIV 
 
 SELBORNE, Aug. i$th, 1775. 
 
 DEAR SIR, There is a wonderful spirit of sociality in the 
 brute creation, independent of sexual attachment : the con- 
 gregating of gregarious birds in the winter is a remarkable 
 instance. 
 
 Many horses, though quiet with company, will not stay one 
 minute in a field by themselves : the strongest fences cannot 
 restrain them. My neighbor's horse will not only not stay by 
 himself abroad, but he will not bear to be left alone in a strange 
 stable without discovering the utmost impatience, and endeav- 
 oring to break the rack and manger with his fore-feet. He 
 has been known to leap out at a stable-window, through which 
 dung was thrown, after company ; and yet in other respects 
 is remarkably quiet. Oxen and cows will not fatten by them- 
 selves ; but will neglect the finest pasture that is not recom- 
 mended by society. It would be needless to instance in sheep, 
 which constantly flock together. 
 
 But this propensity seems not to be confined to animals of 
 the same species ; for we know a doe, still alive, that was 
 brought up from a little fawn with a dairy of cows ; with them 
 it goes afield, and with them it returns to the yard. The dogs 
 of the house take no notice of this deer, being used to her ; but, 
 if strange dogs come by, a chase ensues ; while the master 
 smiles to see his favorite securely leading her pursuers over 
 hedge, or gate, or stile, till she returns to the cows, who, with 
 fierce lowings and menacing horns, drive the assailants quite 
 out of the pasture. 
 
 Even great disparity of kind and size does not always prevent 
 social advances and mutual fellowship. For a very intelligent 
 and observant person has assured me that, in the former part 
 of his life, keeping but one horse, he happened also on a time 
 to have but one solitary hen. These two incongruous animals 
 spent much of their time together in a lonely orchard, where 
 they saw no creature but each other. By degrees an apparent 
 regard began to take place between these two sequestered indi- 
 viduals. The fowl would approach the quadruped with notes 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 159 
 
 of complacency, rubbing herself gently against his legs : while 
 the horse would look down with satisfaction, and move with the 
 greatest caution and circumspection, lest he should trample on 
 his diminutive companion. Thus, by mutual good offices, each 
 seemed to console the vacant hours of the other : so that Mil- 
 ton, when he puts the following sentiment in the mouth of 
 Adam, seems to be somewhat mistaken : 
 
 " Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl, 
 So well converse, nor with the ox the ape." 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXV 
 
 SELBORNE, Oct. 2nd, 1775. 
 
 DEAR SIR, We have two gangs or hordes of gypsies which 
 infest the south and west of England, and come round in their 
 circuit two or three times in the year. One of these tribes 
 calls itself by the noble name of Stanley, of which I have 
 nothing particular to say ; but the other is distinguished by an 
 appellative somewhat remarkable. As far as their harsh gib- 
 berish can be understood, they seem to say that the name of 
 their clan is Curleople ; now the termination of this word is 
 apparently Grecian, and as Mezeray and the gravest histori- 
 ans all agree that these vagrants did certainly migrate from 
 Egypt and the East, two or three centuries ago, and so spread 
 by degrees over Europe, may not this family name, a little 
 corrupted, be the very name they brought with them from 
 the Levant? It would be matter of some curiosity, could 
 one meet with an intelligent person among them, to inquire 
 whether, in their jargon, they still retain any Greek words ; 
 the Greek radicals will appear in hand, foot, head, water, earth, 
 etc. It is possible that amidst their cant and corrupted dialect 
 many mutilated remains of their native language might still 
 be discovered. 
 
 With regard to those peculiar people, the gypsies, one thing 
 is very remarkable, and especially as they came from warmer 
 climates ; and that is, that while other beggars lodge in barns, 
 stables, and cow-houses, these sturdy savages seem to pride 
 
160 WHITE 
 
 themselves in braving the severities of winter, and in living 
 sub dio the whole year round. Last September was as wet a 
 month as ever was known ; and yet during those deluges did 
 a young gypsy girl lie in the midst of one of our hop-gardens, 
 on the cold ground, with nothing over her but a piece of a 
 blanket extended on a few hazel-rods bent hoop-fashion, and 
 stuck into the earth at each end, in circumstances too trying 
 for a cow in the same condition ; yet within this garden there 
 was a large hop-kiln, into the chambers of which she might 
 have retired, had she thought shelter an object worthy her 
 attention. 
 
 Europe itself, it seems, cannot set bounds to the rovings of 
 these vagabonds ; for Mr. Bell, in his return from Peking, met 
 a gang of those people on the confines of Tartary, who were 
 endeavoring to penetrate those deserts, and try their fortune 
 in China. 
 
 Gypsies are called in French, Bohemians; in Italian and 
 modern Greek, Zingari. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXVI 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. ist, 1775. 
 " Hie .... taedae pingues, hie plurimus ignis 
 Semper, et assidua postes fuligine nigri." 
 
 DEAR SIR, I shall make no apology for troubling you with 
 the detail of a very simple piece of domestic economy, being 
 satisfied that you think nothing beneath your attention that 
 tends to utility; the matter alluded to is the use of rushes 
 instead of candles, which I am well aware prevails in many dis- 
 tricts besides this ; but as I know there are countries also where 
 it does not obtain, and as I have considered the subject with 
 some degree of exactness, I shall proceed in my humble story, 
 and leave you to judge of the expediency. 
 
 The proper species of rush for this purpose seems to be the 
 juncus effusus, or common soft rush, which is to be found in 
 most moist pastures, by the sides of streams, and under hedges. 
 These rushes are in best condition in the height of summer ; 
 but may be gathered, so as to serve the purpose well, quite on 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE l6l 
 
 to autumn. It would be needless to add that the largest and 
 longest are best. Decayed laborers, women, and children make 
 it their business to procure and prepare them. As soon as 
 they are cut, they must be flung into water, and kept there, 
 for otherwise they will dry and shrink, and the peel will not 
 run. At first a person would find it no easy matter to divest 
 a rush of its peel or rind, so as to leave one regular, narrow, 
 even rib from top to bottom that may support the pith ; but 
 this, like other feats, soon becomes familiar even to children ; 
 and we have seen an old woman, stone blind, performing this 
 business with great despatch, and seldom failing to strip them 
 with the nicest regularity. When these junci are thus far 
 prepared, they must lie out on the grass to be bleached, and 
 take the dew for some nights, and afterwards be dried in the 
 sun. 
 
 Some address is required in dipping these rushes in the 
 scalding fat or grease ; but this knack also is to be attained 
 by practice. The careful wife of an industrious Hampshire 
 laborer obtains all her fat for nothing ; for she saves the scum- 
 mings of her bacon-pot for this use ; and, if the grease abounds 
 with salt, she causes the salt to precipitate to the bottom, by 
 setting the scummings in a warm oven. Where hogs are not 
 much in use, and especially by the sea-side, the coarser animal- 
 oils will come very cheap. A pound of common grease may 
 be procured for f ourpence, and about six pounds of grease will 
 dip a pound of rushes, and one pound of rushes may be bought 
 for one shilling ; so that a pound of rushes, medicated and 
 ready for use, will cost three shillings. If men that keep bees 
 will mix a little wax with the grease, it will give it a consist- 
 ency, and render it more cleanly, and make the rushes burn 
 longer ; mutton-suet would have the same effect. 
 
 A good rush, which measured in length two feet four inches 
 and a half, being minuted, burnt only three minutes short of 
 an hour ; and a rush of still greater length has been known to 
 burn one hour and a quarter. 
 
 These rushes give a good clear light. Watch lights (coated 
 with tallow), it is true, shed a dismal one, " darkness visible ; " 
 but then the wick of those have two ribs of the rind, or peel, 
 to support the pith, while the wick of the dipped rush has but 
 
 12 
 
16,2 WHITE 
 
 one. The two ribs are intended to impede the progress of the 
 flame and make the candle last. 
 
 In a pound of dry rushes, avoirdupois, which I caused to 
 be weighed and numbered, we found upwards of one thou- 
 sand six hundred individuals. Now suppose each of these 
 burns, one with another, only half an hour, then a poor man 
 will purchase eight hundred hours of light, a time exceeding 
 thirty-three entire days, for three shillings. According to 
 this account each rush, before dipping, costs of a farthing, 
 and -^j afterwards. Thus a poor family will enjoy five and 
 a half hours of comfortable light for a farthing. An expe- 
 rienced old housekeeper assures me that one pound and a 
 half of rushes completely supplies his family the year round, 
 since working people burn no candles in the long days, 
 because they rise and go to bed by daylight. 
 
 Little farmers use rushes much in the short days both morn- 
 ing and evening, in the dairy and kitchen ; but the very poor, 
 who are always the worst economists, and therefore must con- 
 tinue very poor, buy a halfpenny candle every evening, which 
 in their blowing open rooms, does not burn much more than 
 two hours. Thus have they only two hours' light for their 
 money instead of eleven. 
 
 While on the subject of rural economy, it may not be im- 
 proper to mention a pretty implement of housewifery that we 
 have seen nowhere else ; that is, little neat besoms which our 
 foresters make from the stalks of Vh&polytricum commune, or 
 great golden maidenhair, which they call silk-wood, and find 
 plenty in the bogs. When this moss is well combed and 
 dressed, and divested of its outer skin, it becomes of a beau- 
 tiful, bright chestnut color ; and, being soft and pliant, is very 
 proper for the dusting of beds, curtains, carpets, hangings, 
 etc. If these besoms were known to the brush-makers in town, 
 it is probable they might come much in use for the purpose 
 above-mentioned. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 163 
 
 LETTER XXVII 
 
 SELBORNE, Dec. i2t/t, 1775. 
 
 DEAR SIR, We had in this village more than twenty years 
 ago an idiot boy, whom I well remember, who, from a child, 
 showed a strong propensity to bees ; they were his food, his 
 amusement, his sole object. And as people of this caste have 
 seldom more than one point in view, so this lad exerted all his 
 few faculties on this one pursuit. In the winter he dozed 
 away his time, within his father's house, by the fireside, in a 
 kind of torpid state, seldom departing from the chimney-cor- 
 ner ; but in the summer he was all alert, and in quest of his 
 game in the fields, and on sunny banks. Honey-bees, bumble- 
 bees, and wasps were his prey wherever he found them ; he 
 had no apprehensions from their stings, but would seize them 
 nudis manibus, and at once disarm them of their weapons, 
 and suck their bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Some- 
 times he would fill his bosom between his shirt and his skin 
 with a number of these captives, and sometimes would confine 
 them in bottles. He was a very merops apiaster, or bee-bird, 
 and very injurious to men that kept bees; for he would slide 
 into their bee-gardens, and, sitting down before the stools, 
 would rap with his finger on the hives, and so take the bees 
 as they came out. He has been known to overturn hives for 
 the sake of honey, of which he was passionately fond. Where 
 metheglin was making, he would linger round the tubs and 
 vessels, begging a draught of what he called bee-wine. As 
 he ran about he used to make a humming noise with his lips, 
 resembling the buzzing of bees. This lad was lean and sal- 
 low, and of a cadaverous complexion ; and, except in his fa- 
 vorite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered 
 no manner of understanding. Had his capacity been better, 
 and directed to the same object, he had perhaps abated much 
 of our wonder at the feats of a more modern exhibitor of bees ; 
 and we may justly say of him now : 
 
 . . . "Thou, 
 
 Had thy presiding star propitious shone, 
 ShouldstWildmanibe." 
 
1 64 WHITE 
 
 When a tall youth he was removed from hence to a distant 
 village, where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at 
 
 manhood. T 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE 
 1 Wildman was a writer on bees and their management. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XXVIII 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. Stti, 1776. 
 
 DEAR SIR, It is the hardest thing in the world to shake 
 off superstitious prejudices : they are sucked in, as it were, 
 with our mother's milk ; and, growing up with us at a time 
 when they take the fastest hold and make the most lasting 
 impressions, become so interwoven into our very constitutions, 
 that the strongest good sense is required to disengage our- 
 selves from them. No wonder, therefore, that the lower people 
 retain them their whole lives through, since their minds are 
 not invigorated by a liberal education, and therefore not en- 
 abled to make any efforts adequate to the occasion. 
 
 Such a preamble seems to be necessary before we enter on 
 the superstitions of this district, lest we should be suspected 
 of exaggeration in a recital of practices too gross for this 
 enlightened age. 
 
 But the people of Tring, in Hertfordshire, would do well 
 to remember, that no longer ago than the year 1751, and 
 within twenty miles of the capital, they seized on two super- 
 annuated wretches, crazed with age, and overwhelmed with 
 infirmities, on a suspicion of witchcraft ; and, by trying experi- 
 ments, drowned them in a horse-pond. 
 
 In a farm-yard near the middle of this village stands, at 
 this day, a row of pollard-ashes, which, by the seams and long 
 cicatrices down their sides, manifestly show that, in former 
 times, they have been cleft asunder. These trees, when young 
 and flexible, were severed and held open by wedges, while 
 ruptured children, stripped naked, were pushed through the 
 apertures, under a persuasion that, by such a process, the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 165 
 
 poor babes would be cured of their infirmity. As soon as 
 the operation was over, the tree, in the suffering part, was 
 plastered with loam, and carefully swathed up. If the parts 
 coalesced and soldered together, as usually fell out, where the 
 feat was performed with any adroitness at all, the party was 
 cured ; but, where the cleft continued to gape, the operation, 
 it was supposed, would prove ineffectual. Having occasion 
 to enlarge my garden not long since, I cut down two or three 
 such trees, one of which did not grow together. 
 
 We have several persons now living in the village, who, in 
 their childhood, were supposed to be healed by this super- 
 stitious ceremony, derived down perhaps from our Saxon 
 ancestors, who practised it before their conversion to Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 At the fourth corner of the Plestor, or area, near the church, 
 there stood, about twenty years ago, a very old grotesque 
 hollow pollard-ash, which for ages had been looked on with 
 no small veneration as a shrew-ash. Now a shrew-ash is an 
 ash whose twigs or branches, when gently applied to the 
 limbs of cattle, will immediately relieve the pains which a 
 beast suffers from the running of a shrew-mouse over the part 
 affected ; for it is supposed that a shrew-mouse is of so bane- 
 ful and deleterious a nature, that wherever it creeps over a 
 beast, be it horse, cow, or sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted 
 with cruel anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of 
 the limb. 1 Against this accident, to which they were continu- 
 ally liable, our provident forefathers always kept a shrew-ash 
 at hand, which, when once medicated, would maintain its 
 virtue forever. A shrew-ash was made thus : Into the body 
 of the tree a deep hole was bored with an auger, and a poor 
 devoted shrew-mouse was thrust in alive, and plugged in, no 
 doubt, with several quaint incantations long since forgotten. 
 As the ceremonies necessary for such a consecration are no 
 longer understood, all succession is at an end, and no such tree 
 is known to subsist in the manor, or hundred. 
 
 As to that on the Plestor 
 
 " The late Vicar stubbed and burnt it," 
 when he was way-warden, regardless of the remonstrances of 
 
166 WHITE 
 
 the bystanders, who interceded in vain for its preservation, 
 urging its power and efficacy, and alleging that it had been 
 
 u Religione patrum multos servata per annos." 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTE 
 
 1 " When a horse in the fields happened to be suddenly seized with any- 
 thing like a numbness in his legs, he was immediately judged by the old 
 persons to be either planet-struck, or shrew-struck. The mode of cure 
 which they prescribed, and which they considered in all cases infallible, 
 was to drag the animal through a piece of bramble that grew at both ends." 
 
 BlNGLEY. 
 
 LETTER XXIX 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. jth, 1776. 
 
 DEAR SIR, In heavy fogs, on elevated situations especially, 
 trees are perfect alembics ; and no one that has not attended to 
 such matters can imagine how much water one tree will distil in 
 a night's time, by condensing the vapor, which trickles down 
 the twigs and boughs, so as to make the ground below quite in 
 a float. In Newton Lane, in October 1775, on a misty day, a 
 particular oak in leaf dropped so fast that the cart-way stood in 
 puddles and the ruts ran with water, though the ground in 
 general was dusty. 
 
 In some of our smaller islands in the West Indies, if I mis- 
 take not, there are no springs or rivers ; but the people are 
 supplied with that necessary element, water, merely by the 
 dripping of some large teak-trees, which, standing in the bosom 
 of a mountain, keep their heads constantly enveloped with fogs 
 and clouds, from which they dispense their kindly, never-ceas- 
 ing moisture ; and so render those districts habitable by con- 
 densation alone. 
 
 Trees in leaf have such a vast proportion more of surface 
 than those that are naked, that, in theory, their condensations 
 should greatly exceed those that are stripped of their leaves ; 
 but, as the former imbibe also a great quantity of moisture, it 
 is difficult to say which drip most ; but this I know, that decid- 
 uous trees that are entwined with much ivy seem to distil the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 167 
 
 greatest quantity. Ivy leaves are smooth, and thick, and cold, 
 and therefore condense very fast ; and besides, evergreens im- 
 bibe very little. These facts may furnish the intelligent with 
 hints concerning what sorts of trees they should plant round 
 small ponds that they would wish to be perennial ; and show 
 them how advantageous some trees are in preference to others. 
 
 Trees perspire profusely, condense largely, and check evap- 
 oration so much, that woods are always moist; no wonder, 
 therefore, that they contribute much to pools and streams. 
 
 That trees are great promoters of lakes and rivers appears 
 from a well-known fact in North America ; for, since the woods 
 and forests have been grubbed and cleared, all bodies of water 
 are much diminished ; so that some streams, that were very 
 considerable a century ago, will not now drive a common mill. 
 Besides, most wood-lands, forests, and chases with us abound 
 with pools and morasses ; no doubt for the reason given above. 
 
 To a thinking mind few phenomena are more strange than 
 the state of little ponds on the summits of chalk-hills, many of 
 which are never dry in the most trying droughts of summer. 
 On chalk-hills I say, because in many rocky and gravelly soils 
 springs usually break out pretty high on the sides of elevated 
 grounds and mountains ; but no person acquainted with chalky 
 districts will allow that they ever saw springs in such a soil 
 but in valleys and bottoms, since the waters of so pervious a 
 stratum as chalk all lie on one dead level, as well-diggers have 
 assured me again and again. 
 
 Now we have many such little round ponds in this district ; 
 and one in particular on our sheep-down, three hundred feet 
 above my house ; which, though never above three feet deep 
 in the middle, and not more than thirty feet in diameter, and 
 containing perhaps not more than two or three hundred hogs- 
 heads of water, yet never is known to fail, though it affords 
 drink for three hundred or four hundred sheep, and for at least 
 twenty head of large cattle beside. This pond, it is true, is 
 overhung with two moderate beeches, that, doubtless, at times 
 afford it much supply : but then we have others as small, that, 
 without the aid of trees, and in spite of evaporation from sun 
 and wind, and perpetual consumption by cattle, yet constantly 
 maintain a moderate share of water, without overflowing in 
 
168 WHITE 
 
 the wettest seasons, as they would do if supplied by springs. 
 By my journal of May 1/75, it appears that "the small and 
 even considerable ponds in the vales are now dried up, while 
 ' the small ponds on the very tops of hills are but little affected." 
 Can this difference be accounted for from evaporation alone, 
 which certainly is more prevalent in bottoms ? or rather have 
 not those elevated pools some unnoticed recruits, which in the 
 night-time counterbalance the waste of the day ; without which 
 the cattle alone must soon exhaust them ? And here it will be 
 necessary to enter more minutely into the cause. Dr. Hales, in 
 his "Vegetable Statics," advances, from experiment, that "the 
 moister the earth is the more dew falls on it in a night ; and 
 more than a double quantity of dew falls on a surface of water 
 than there does on an equal surface of moist earth." Hence 
 we see that water, by its coolness, is enabled to assimilate to 
 itself a large quantity of moisture nightly by condensation ; 
 and that the air, when loaded with fogs and vapors, and even 
 with copious dews, can alone advance a considerable and never- 
 failing resource. Persons that are much abroad, and travel 
 early and late, such as shepherds, fishermen, etc., can tell what 
 prodigious fogs prevail in the night on elevated downs, even 
 in the hottest parts of summer ; and how much the surfaces of 
 things are drenched by those swimming vapors, though, to the 
 senses, all the while, little moisture seems to fall. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXX 
 
 SELBORNE, April yd, 1776. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Monsieur Herissant, a French anatomist, seems 
 persuaded that he has discovered the reason why cuckoos do 
 not hatch their own eggs ; the impediment, he supposes, arises 
 from the internal structure of their parts, which incapacitates 
 them for incubation. According to this gentleman, the crop, 
 or craw, of a cuckoo does not lie before the sternum at the 
 bottom of the neck, as in the gaUma, cohimba, etc., but 
 immediately behind it, on and over the bowels, so as to make 
 a large protuberance in the belly. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 169 
 
 Induced by this assertion, we procured a cuckoo ; and, cut- 
 ting open the breastbone, and exposing the intestines to sight, 
 found the crop lying as mentioned above. This stomach was 
 large and round, and stuffed hard, like a pincushion, with food, 
 which, upon nice examination, we found to consist of various 
 insects ; such as small scarabs, spiders, and dragon-flies ; the 
 last of which we have seen cuckoos catching on the wing as 
 they were just emerging out of the aurelia state. Among this 
 farrago also were to be seen maggots, and many seeds, which 
 belonged either to gooseberries, currants, cranberries, or some 
 such fruit ; so that these birds apparently subsist on insects 
 and fruits; nor was there the least appearance of bones, 
 feathers, or fur, to support the idle notion of their being birds 
 of prey. 
 
 The sternum in this bird seemed to us to be remarkably short, 
 between which and the anus lay the crop, or craw, and im- 
 mediately behind that the bowels against the backbone. 
 
 It must be allowed, as this anatomist observes, that the crop 
 placed just upon the bowels must, especially when full, be in 
 a very uneasy situation during the business of incubation ; yet 
 the test will be to examine whether birds that are actually 
 known to sit for certain are not formed in a similar manner. 
 This inquiry I proposed to myself to make with a fern-owl, or 
 goat-sucker, as soon as opportunity offered : because, if their 
 formation proves the same, the reason for incapacity in the 
 cuckoo will be allowed to have been taken up somewhat hastily. 
 
 Not long after a fern-owl was procured, which, from its habit 
 and shape, we suspected might resemble the cuckoo in its inter- 
 nal construction. Nor were our suspicions ill-grounded ; for, 
 upon the dissection, the crop, or craw, also lay behind the ster- 
 num, immediately on the viscera, between them and the skin of 
 the belly. It was bulky, and stuffed hard with large phalcence, 
 moths of several sorts, and their eggs, which no doubt had been 
 forced out of those insects by the action of swallowing. 
 
 Now as it appears that this bird, which is so well known to 
 practise incubation, is formed in a similar manner with cuckoos, 
 Monsieur Herissant's conjecture, that cuckoos are incapable of 
 incubation from the disposition of their intestines, seems to fall 
 to the ground ; and we are still at a loss for the cause of that 
 
I/O WHITE 
 
 strange and singular peculiarity in the instance of the cuculus 
 canorus. 
 
 We found the case to be the same with the ring-tail hawk, in 
 respect to formation ; and, as far as I can recollect, with the 
 swift ; and probably it is so with many more sorts of birds that 
 are not granivorous. I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXXI 
 
 SELBORNE, April 29^, 1776. 
 
 DEAR SIR, On August 4^1,1775, we surprised a large 
 viper, which seemed very heavy and bloated, as it lay in the 
 grass basking in the sun. When we came to cut it up, we 
 found that the abdomen was crowded with young, fifteen in 
 number ; the shortest of which measured full seven inches, and 
 were about the size of full-grown earthworms. This little fry 
 issued into the world with the true viper-spirit about them, 
 showing great alertness as soon as disengaged from the belly 
 or the dam : they twisted and wriggled about, and set them- 
 selves up, and gaped very wide when touched with a stick, 
 showing manifest tokens of menace and defiance, though as yet 
 they had no manner of fangs that we could find, even with the 
 help of our glasses. 
 
 To a thinking mind nothing is more wonderful than that early 
 instinct which impresses young animals with a notion of the 
 situation of their natural weapons, and of using them properly 
 in their own defence, even before those weapons subsist or are 
 formed. Thus a young cock will spar at his adversary before 
 his spurs are grown ; and a calf or a lamb will push with their 
 heads before their horns are sprouted. In the same manner 
 did these young adders attempt to bite before their fangs were 
 in being. The dam however was furnished with very formi- 
 dable ones, which we lifted up (for they fold down when not 
 used) and cut them off with the point of our scissors. 
 
 There was little room to suppose that this brood had ever 
 been in the open air before ; and that they were taken in for 
 refuge, at the mouth of the dam, when she perceived that dan- 
 ger was approaching ; because then probably we should have 
 found them somewhere in the neck, and not in the abdomen. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE I/I 
 
 LETTER XXXII 
 
 CASTRATION has a strange effect : it emasculates both man, 
 beast, and bird, and brings them to a near resemblance of the 
 other sex. Thus eunuchs have smooth, unmuscular arms, 
 thighs, and legs ; and broad hips, and beardless chins, and 
 squeaking voices. Gelt stags and bucks have hornless heads, 
 like hinds and does. Thus wethers have small horns, like ewes ; 
 and oxen large bent horns, and hoarse voices when they low, 
 like cows : for bulls have short straight horns ; and though they 
 mutter and grumble in a deep tremendous tone, yet they low 
 in a shrill high key. Capons have small combs and gills, and 
 look pallid about the head, like pullets ; they also walk with- 
 out any parade, and hover chickens like hens. Barrow-hogs 
 have also small tusks like sows. 
 
 Thus far it is plain that the deprivation of masculine vigor 
 puts a stop to the growth of those parts or appendages that 
 are looked upon as its insignia. But the ingenious Mr. Lisle, 
 in his book on husbandry, carries it much farther ; for he says 
 that the loss of those insignia alone has sometimes a strange 
 effect on the ability itself : he had a boar so fierce and venere- 
 ous, that, to prevent mischief, orders were given for his tusks 
 to be broken off. No sooner had the beast suffered this injury 
 than his powers forsook him, and he neglected those females 
 to whom before he was passionately attached, and from whom 
 no fences would restrain him. 
 
 LETTER XXXIII 
 
 THE natural term of a hog's life is little known, and the 
 reason is plain because it is neither profitable nor conven- 
 ient to keep that turbulent animal to the full extent of its 
 time : however, my neighbor, a man of substance, who had 
 no occasion to study every little advantage to a nicety, kept 
 a half-bred bantam -sow, who was as thick as she was long 
 and whose belly swept on the ground, till she was advanced 
 
172 WHITE 
 
 to her seventeenth year, at which period she showed some 
 tokens of age by the decay of her teeth and the decline of 
 her fertility. 
 
 For about ten years this prolific mother produced two litters 
 in the year of about ten at a time, and once above twenty at a 
 litter ; but, as there were near double the number of pigs to 
 that of teats, many died. From long experience in the world 
 this female was grown very sagacious and artful. When she 
 found occasion to converse with a boar she used to open all 
 the intervening gates, and march, by herself, up to a distant 
 farm where one was kept ; and when her purpose was served 
 would return by the same means. At the age of about fifteen 
 her litters began to be reduced to four or five ; and such a 
 litter she exhibited when in her f atting-pen. She proved, when 
 fat, good bacon, juicy and tender ; the rind, or sward, was re- 
 markably thin. At a moderate computation she was allowed 
 to have been the fruitful parent of three hundred pigs : a pro- 
 digious instance of fecundity in so large a quadruped ! She 
 was killed in spring 1775. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV 
 
 SELBORNE, May gth, 1776. 
 . . . "adm6runt ubera tigres." 
 
 DEAR SIR, We have remarked in a former letter 1 how 
 much incongruous animals, in a lonely state, may be attached 
 to each other from a spirit of sociality ; in this it may not be 
 amiss to recount a different motive which has been known to 
 create as strange a fondness. 
 
 My friend had a little helpless leveret brought to him, which 
 the servants fed with milk in a spoon, and about the same 
 time his cat kittened and the young were despatched and 
 buried. The hare was soon lost, and supposed to be gone the 
 way of most fondlings, to be killed by some dog or cat. How- 
 ever, in about a fortnight, as the master was sitting in his 
 garden in the dusk of the evening, he observed his cat, with 
 tail erect, trotting towards him, and calling with little short 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 173 
 
 inward notes of complacency, such as they use towards their 
 kittens, and something gambolling after, which proved to be the 
 leveret that the cat had supported with her milk, and con- 
 tinued to support with great affection. 2 
 
 Thus was the graminivorous animal nurtured by a carnivo- 
 rous and predaceous one ! 
 
 Why so cruel and sanguinary a beast as a cat, of the fero- 
 cious genus of Felis, the murium leo, as Linnaeus calls it, 
 should be affected with any tenderness towards an animal 
 which is its natural prey, is not so easy to determine. 
 
 This strange affection probably was occasioned by that desi- 
 derium, those tender, maternal feelings, which the loss of her 
 kittens had awakened in her breast ; and by the complacency 
 and ease she derived to herself from the procuring her teats 
 to be drawn, which were too much distended with milk, till, 
 from habit, she became as much delighted with this foundling 
 as if it had been her real offspring. 
 
 This incident is no bad solution of that strange circumstance 
 which grave historians as well as the poets assert of exposed 
 children being sometimes nurtured by female wild beasts that 
 probably had lost their young. For it is not one whit more 
 marvellous that Romulus and Remus, in their infant state, 
 should be nursed by a she-wolf, than that a poor little suck- 
 ing leveret should be fostered and cherished by a bloody 
 grimalkin. 
 
 . . . " viridi foetam Mavortis in antro 
 Procubuisse lupam : geminos huic ubera circum 
 Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem 
 Impavidos : illam tereti cervice reflexam 
 Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua." 8 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Letter XXI V. G. W. 
 
 2 An incident told me by Mr. Harrett, of Kirkwhelpington, may welhoe 
 told here. He has a fine collie bitch which had young ones. She was 
 annoyed by a cat prowling about them, and killed it. This cat had one 
 small kitten, which the maids tried to rear by hand in the kitchen. The 
 bitch hearing its cries fetched it away and laid it among her own pups, suck- 
 ling it until they were all weaned together, thus atoning as far as she could 
 for the murder of its mother. 
 
 8 " The cave of Mars was dressed with mossy greens : 
 There by the wolf were laid the martial twins, 
 
1/4 WHITE 
 
 Intrepid on her swelling dugs they hung ; 
 
 The foster dam lolled out her fawning tongue : 
 
 They sucked secure, while bending back her head, 
 
 She licked their tender limbs ; and formed them as they fed." 
 
 DRYD. VIRG. &n. viii. 1. 840. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XXXV 
 
 SELBORNE, May 2oth, 1777. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Lands that are subject to frequent inunda- 
 tions are always poor ; and probably the reason may be be- 
 cause the worms are drowned. The most insignificant insects 
 and reptiles are of much more consequence, and have much 
 more influence in the economy of nature, than the incurious 
 are aware of ; and are mighty in their effect, from their mi- 
 nuteness, which renders them less an object of attention ; and 
 from their numbers and fecundity. Earthworms, though in 
 appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of nature, 
 yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm. For to say noth- 
 ing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds, which are almost 
 entirely supported by them, worms seem to be the great pro- 
 moters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely with- 
 out them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and 
 rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by draw- 
 ing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it ; and, most of 
 all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth 
 called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine ma- 
 nure for grain and grass. Worms probably provide new soil 
 for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth away ; 
 and they affect slopes, probably to avoid being flooded. Gar- 
 deners and farmers express their detestation of worms ; the 
 former because they render their walks unsightly, and make 
 them much work ; and the latter because, as they think, worms 
 eat their green corn. But these men would find that the earth 
 without worms would soon become cold, hard-bound, and void 
 of fermentation, and consequently sterile; and besides, in 
 favor of worms, it should be hinted that green corn, plants, 
 and flowers are not so much injured by them as by many spe- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 cies of coleoptera (scarabs) and tipulce (long-legs) in their larva, 
 or grub-state; and by unnoticed myriads of small shell-less 
 snails, called slugs, which silently and imperceptibly make 
 amazing havoc in the field and garden. 1 
 
 These hints we think proper to throw out in order to set the 
 inquisitive and discerning to work. 
 
 A good monography of worms would afford much entertain- 
 ment and information at the same time, and would open a large 
 and new field in natural history. Worms work most in the 
 spring ; but by no means lie torpid in the dead months : are 
 out every mild night in the winter, as any person may be con- 
 vinced that will take the pains to examine his grass-plots with 
 a candle ; are hermaphrodites, and much addicted to venery, 
 and consequently very prolific. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTE 
 
 1 Farmer Young, of Norton Farm, says, that this spring (1777) about four 
 acres of his wheat in one field were entirely destroyed by slugs, which swarmed 
 on the blades of corn and devoured it as fast as it sprang. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XXXVI 
 
 SELBORNE, Nov. 22nd, 1777. 
 
 DEAR SIR, You cannot but remember that the 26th and 
 27th of last March were very hot days, so sultry that every- 
 body complained and were restless under those sensations to 
 which they had not become reconciled by gradual approaches. 
 
 This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many sum- 
 mer coincidences ; for on those two days the thermometer rose 
 to 66 in the shade ; many species of insects revived and came 
 forth ; some bees swarmed in this neighborhood ; the old tor- 
 toise, near Lewes, in Sussex, awakened and came forth out 
 of its dormitory ; and, what is most to my present purpose, 
 many house-swallows appeared and were very alert in many 
 places, and particularly at Cobham, in Surrey. 
 
 But as that short warm period was succeeded as well as pre- 
 ceded by harsh severe weather, with frequent frosts and ice, 
 
176 WHITE 
 
 and cutting winds, the insects withdrew, the tortoise retired 
 again into the ground, and the swallows were seen no more 
 until the loth April, when, the rigor of the spring abating, a 
 softer season began to prevail. 
 
 Again ; it appears by my journals for many years past that 
 house-martins retire, to a bird, about the beginning of October; 
 so that a person not very observant of such matters would con- 
 clude that they had taken their last farewell; but then it may 
 be seen in my diaries also that considerable flocks have dis- 
 covered themselves again in the first week of November, and 
 often on the fourth day of that month only for one day ; and 
 that not as if they were in actual migration, but playing about 
 at their leisure and feeding calmly, as if no enterprise of 
 moment at all agitated their spirits. And this was the case in 
 the beginning of this very month ; for on the 4th November, 
 more than twenty house-martins, which, in appearance, had 
 all departed about the /th October, were seen again for that 
 one morning only sporting between my fields and the Hanger, 
 and feasting on insects which swarmed in that sheltered district. 
 The preceding day was wet and blustering, but the 4th was 
 dark, and mild, and soft, the wind at south-west, and the ther- 
 mometer at 58^ ; a pitch not common at that season of the 
 year. Moreover, it may not be amiss to add in this place that 
 whenever the thermometer is above 50, the bat comes flitting 
 out in every autumnal and winter month. 
 
 From all these circumstances laid together, it is obvious that 
 torpid insects, reptiles, and quadrupeds are awakened from 
 their profoundest slumbers by a little untimely warmth ; and 
 therefore that nothing so much promotes its death-like stupor 
 as a defect of heat. And farther, it is reasonable to suppose 
 that two whole species, or at least many individuals of those 
 two species of British hirundines do never leave this island at 
 all, but partake of the same benumbed state ; for we cannot 
 suppose, that after a month's absence, house-martins can return 
 from southern regions to appear for one morning in Novem- 
 ber, or that house-swallows should leave the districts of Asia 
 to enjoy in March the transient summer of a couple of days. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 LETTER XXXVII 
 
 SELBORNE, Jan. %th, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, There was in this village several years ago a 
 miserable pauper, who from his birth was afflicted with a lep- 
 rosy, as far as we are aware, of a singular kind, since it 
 affected only the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. 
 This scaly eruption usually broke out twice in the year, at the 
 spring and fall ; and, by peeling away, left the skin so thin 
 and tender that neither his hands nor feet were able to per- 
 form their functions ; so that the poor object was half his 
 time on crutches, incapable of employ, and languishing in a 
 tiresome state of indolence and inactivity. His habit was 
 lean, lank, and cadaverous. In this sad plight he dragged on 
 a miserable existence, a burden to himself and his parish, 
 which was obliged to support him till he was relieved by death 
 at more than thirty years of age. 
 
 The good women, who love to account for every defect in 
 children by the doctrine of longing, said that his mother felt 
 a violent propensity for oysters, which she was unable to 
 gratify ; and that the black rough scurf on his hands and 
 feet were the shells of that fish. We knew his parents, nei- 
 ther of which were lepers ; his father in particular lived to 
 be far advanced in years. 
 
 In all ages the leprosy has made dreadful havoc among 
 mankind. The Israelites seem to have been greatly afflicted 
 with it from the most remote times, as appears from the pecul- 
 iar and repeated injunctions given them in the Levitical law. 1 
 Nor was the rancor of this foul disorder much abated in the 
 last period of their commonwealth, as may be seen in many 
 passages of the New Testament. 
 
 Some centuries ago this horrible distemper prevailed all 
 Europe over : and our forefathers were by no means exempt, 
 as appears by the large provision made for objects laboring 
 under this calamity. There was an hospital for female lepers 
 in the diocese of Lincoln ; a noble one near Durham ; three 
 in London and Southwark ; and perhaps many more in or near 
 our great towns and cities. Moreover, some crowned heads, 
 13 
 
178 WHITE 
 
 and other wealthy and charitable personages, bequeathed 
 large legacies to such poor people as languished under this 
 hopeless infirmity. 
 
 It must, therefore, in these days be to a humane and think- 
 ing person a matter of equal wonder and satisfaction, when 
 he contemplates how nearly this pest is eradicated, and ob- 
 serves that a leper now is a rare sight. He will, moreover, 
 when engaged in such a train of thought naturally inquire 
 for the reason. This happy change, perhaps, may have 
 originated and been continued from the much smaller quan- 
 tity of salted meat and fish now eaten in these kingdoms ; 
 from the use of linen next the skin ; from the plenty of better 
 bread ; and from the profusion of fruits, roots, legumes, and 
 greens, so common in every family. Three or four centuries 
 ago, before there were any enclosures, sown-grasses, field- 
 turnips, or field-carrots, or hay, all the cattle which had grown 
 fat in summer, and were not killed for winter use, were turned 
 out soon after Michaelmas to shift as they could through the 
 dead months ; so that no fresh meat could be had in winter 
 or spring. Hence the marvellous account of the vast stores 
 of salted flesh found in the larder of the eldest Spencer 2 in 
 the days of Edward II., even so late in the spring as the 3rd 
 May. It was from magazines like these that the turbulent 
 barons supported in idleness their riotous swarms of retainers 
 ready for any disorder or mischief. But agriculture is now 
 arrived at such a pitch of perfection that our best and fattest 
 meats are killed in the winter ; and no man need eat salted 
 flesh unless he prefers it, that has money to buy fresh. 
 
 One cause of this distemper might be, no doubt, the quan- 
 tity of wretched fresh and salt fish consumed by the common- 
 alty at all seasons as well as in Lent ; which our poor now 
 would hardly be persuaded to touch. 
 
 The use of linen changes, shirts or shifts, in the room of 
 sordid and filthy woollen, long worn next the skin, is a matter 
 of neatness comparatively modern ; but must prove a great 
 means of preventing cutaneous ails. At this very time woollen, 
 instead of linen, prevails among the poorer Welsh, who are 
 subject to foul eruptions. 
 
 The plenty of good wheaten bread that now is found among 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 all ranks of people in the south, instead of that miserable sort 
 which used in old days to be made of barley or beans, may con- 
 tribute not a little to the sweetening their blood and correcting 
 their juices ; for the inhabitants of mountainous districts to 
 this day are still liable to the itch and other cutaneous dis- 
 orders, from a wretchedness and poverty of diet. 
 
 As to the produce of a garden, every middle-aged person 
 of observation may perceive, within his own memory, both in 
 town and country, how vastly the consumption of vegetables 
 is increased. Green-stalls in cities now support multitudes in 
 a comfortable state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every 
 decent laborer also has his garden, which is half his support, 
 as well as his delight ; and common farmers provide plenty 
 of beans, peas, and greens for their hinds to eat with their 
 bacon ; and those few that do not are despised for their sor- 
 did parsimony, and looked upon as regardless of the welfare 
 of their dependants. Potatoes have prevailed in this little dis- 
 trict by means of premiums within these twenty years only ; 
 and are much esteemed here now by the poor, who would 
 scarce have ventured to taste them in the last reign. 
 
 Our Saxon ancestors certainly had some sort of cabbage, 
 because they call the month of February " sprout-cale ; " but 
 long after their days the cultivation of gardens was little 
 attended to. The religious, being men of leisure, and keeping 
 up a constant correspondence with Italy, were the first people 
 among us that had gardens and fruit-trees in any perfection 
 within the wall of their abbeys 3 and priories. The barons 
 neglected every pursuit that did not lead to war or tend to 
 the pleasure of the chase. 
 
 It was not till gentlemen took up the study of horticulture 
 themselves that the knowledge of gardening made such hasty 
 advances. Lord Cobham, Lord Ila, and Mr. Waller, of Bea- 
 consfield, were some of the first people of rank that promoted 
 the elegant science of ornamenting without despising the 
 superintendence of the kitchen quarters and fruit walls. 
 
 A remark made by the excellent Mr. Ray, in his " Tour of 
 Europe," at once surprises us, and corroborates what has been 
 advanced above ; for we find him observing so late as his days 
 that " the Italians use several herbs for sallets, which are not 
 
180 WHITE 
 
 yet, or have not been but lately, used in England, viz., selleri 
 (celery), which is nothing else but the sweet smallage; the 
 young shoots whereof, with a little of the head of the root cut 
 off, they eat raw with oil and pepper ; " and further adds : 
 " curled endive blanched is much used beyond seas ; and for 
 a raw sallet, seemed to excell lettuce itself." Now this jour- 
 ney was undertaken no longer ago than in the year 1663. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTES 
 
 1 See Lev. xiii., xiv. G. W. 
 
 2 Viz., six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef, and six hundred mut- 
 tons. G. W. 
 
 8 " In monasteries the lamp of knowledge continued to burn, however 
 dimly. In them men of business were formed for the state : the art of 
 writing was cultivated by the monks; they were the only proficients in 
 mechanics, gardening, and architecture." DALRYMPLE'S Annals of Scot- 
 land. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII 
 
 SELBORNE, Feb. 12th, 1778. 
 
 " Forte puer, comitum seductus ab agmine fido, 
 Dixerat, ecquis adest ? et, adest, responderat echo, 
 Hie stupet ; utque aciem partes divisit in omnes ; 
 Voce, veni, clamat magna. Vocat ilia vocantem." 1 
 
 DEAR SIR, In a district so diversified as this, so full of 
 hollow vales and hanging woods, it is no wonder that echoes 
 should abound. Many we have discovered that return the cry 
 of a pack of dogs, the notes of a hunting-horn, a tunable ring 
 of bells, or the melody of birds very agreeably ; but we were 
 still at a loss for a polysyllabical articulate echo, till a young 
 gentleman, who had parted from his company in a summer 
 evening walk, and was calling after them, stumbled upon a 
 very curious one in a spot where it might least be expected. 
 At first he was much surprised, and could not be persuaded 
 but that he was mocked by some boy; but repeating his trials 
 in several languages, and finding his respondent to be a very 
 adroit polyglot, he then discerned the deception. 
 
 This echo in an evening, before rural noises cease, would 
 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE l8l 
 
 repeat ten syllables most articulately and distinctly, especially 
 if quick dactyls were chosen. The last syllables of 
 
 " Tityre, tu patulae recubans "... 
 
 were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the first ; and there 
 is no doubt, could trial have been made, but that at midnight, 
 when the air is very elastic, and a dead stillness prevails, one 
 or two syllables more might have been obtained ; but the dis- 
 tance rendered so late an experiment very inconvenient. 
 
 Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best ; for when we 
 came to try its powers in slow, heavy, embarrassed spondees 
 of the same number of syllables, 
 
 " Monstrum horrendutn, informe, ingens," . . . 
 
 we could perceive a return but of four or five. 
 
 All echoes have some one place to which they are returned 
 stronger and more distinct than to any other; and that is always 
 the place that lies at right angles with the object of repercus- 
 sion, and is not too near, nor too far off. Buildings, or naked 
 rocks, re-echo much more articulately than hanging woods or 
 vales ; because in the latter the voice is as it were entangled 
 and embarrassed in the covert, and weakened in the rebound. 
 
 The true object of this echo, as we found by various experi- 
 ments, is the stone-built, tiled hop-kiln in Gaily Lane, which 
 measures in front forty feet, and from the ground to the eaves 
 twelve feet. The true centrum phonicum, or just distance, is 
 one particular spot in the King's Field, in the path to Nore Hill 
 on the very brink of the steep balk above the hollow cart-way. 
 In this case there is no choice of distance ; but the path, by 
 mere contingency, happens to be the lucky, the identical spot, 
 because the ground rises or falls so immediately, if the speaker 
 either retires or advances, that his mouth would at once be above 
 or below the object. 
 
 We measured this polysyllabical echo with great exactness, 
 and found the distance to fall very short of Dr. Plot's rule for 
 distinct articulation ; for the Doctor, in his history of Oxford- 
 shire, allows a hundred and twenty feet for the return of each 
 syllable distinctly ; hence this echo, which gives ten distinct 
 syllables, ought to measure four hundred yards, or one hun- 
 
1 82 WHITE 
 
 dred and twenty feet to each syllable ; whereas our distance 
 is only two hundred and fifty-eight yards, or near seventy-five 
 feet, to each syllable. Thus our measure falls short of the 
 Doctor's, as five to eight ; but then it must be acknowledged 
 that this candid philosopher was convinced afterwards that 
 some latitude must be admitted of in the distance of echoes 
 according to time and place. 
 
 When experiments of this sort are making, it should always 
 be remembered that weather and the time of day have a vast 
 influence on an echo ; for a dull, heavy, moist air deadens and 
 clogs the sound ; and hot sunshine renders the air thin and 
 weak, and deprives it of all its springiness, and a ruffling wind 
 quite defeats the whole. In a still, clear, dewy evening the 
 air is most elastic ; and perhaps the later the hour the more so. 
 
 Echo has always been so amusing to the imagination, that 
 the poets have personified her ; and in their hands she has 
 been the occasion of many a beautiful fiction. Nor need the 
 gravest man be ashamed to appear taken with such a phe- 
 nomenon, since it may become the subject of philosophical or 
 mathematical inquiries. 
 
 One should have imagined that echoes, if not entertaining, 
 must at least have been harmless and inoffensive ; yet Virgil 
 advances a strange notion that they are injurious to bees. 
 After enumerating some probable and reasonable annoyances, 
 such as prudent owners would wish far removed from their 
 bee-gardens, he adds : 
 
 . . . " aut ubi concava pulsu 
 Saxa sonant, vocisque offensa resultat imago." 
 
 This wild and fanciful assertion will hardly be admitted by 
 the philosophers of these days, especially as they all now seem 
 agreed that insects are not furnished with any organs of hear- 
 ing at all. But if it should be urged, that though they cannot 
 hear yet perhaps they may feel the repercussions of sounds, 
 I grant it is possible they may. Yet that these impressions 
 are distasteful or hurtful, I deny, because bees, in good sum- 
 mers, thrive well in my outlet, where the echoes are very strong; 
 for this village is another Anathoth, a place of responses and 
 echoes. Besides, it does not appear from experiment that bees 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 183 
 
 are in any way capable of being affected by sounds ; for I have 
 often tried my own with a large speaking-trumpet held close 
 to their hives, and with such an exertion of voice as would 
 have hailed a ship at the distance of a mile, and still these 
 insects pursued their various employments undisturbed, and 
 without showing the least sensibility or resentment. 
 
 Sometime since its discovery this echo is become totally 
 silent, though the object, or hop-kiln, remains; nor is there any 
 mystery in this defect ; for the field between is planted as a 
 hop-garden, and the voice of the speaker is totally absorbed 
 and lost among the poles and entangled foliage of the hops. 
 And when the poles are removed in autumn the disappoint- 
 ment is the same ; because a tall quick-set hedge, nurtured up 
 for the purpose of shelter to the hop ground, entirely inter- 
 rupts the impulse and repercussion of the voice ; so that till 
 those obstructions are removed no more of its garrulity can be 
 expected. 
 
 Should any gentleman of fortune think an echo in his park 
 or outlet a pleasing incident, he might build one at little or no 
 expense. For whenever he had occasion for a new barn, 
 stable, dog-kennel, or the like structure, it would be only need- 
 ful to erect this building on the gentle declivity of a hill, with 
 a like rising opposite to it, at a few hundred yards' distance ; 
 and perhaps success might be the easier insured could some 
 canal, lake, or stream intervene. From a seat at the centrum 
 phonicum he and his friends might amuse themselves some- 
 times of an evening with the prattle of this loquacious nymph ; 
 of whose complacency and decent reserve more may be said 
 than can with truth of every individual of her sex ; since she 
 is 
 
 . "quae nee reticere loquenti, 
 Nee prior ipsa loqui didicit resonabilis echo." 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 P.S. The classic reader will, I trust, pardon the following 
 lovely quotation, so finely describing echoes, and so poetically 
 accounting for their causes from popular superstition : 
 
 " Quae bene quom videas, rationem reddere possis 
 Tute tibi atque aliis, quo pacto per loca sola 
 
1 84 WHITE 
 
 Saxa paries formas verborum ex ordine reddant, 
 Palanteis comites quom monteis inter opacos 
 Quaerimus, et magna disperses voce ciemus. 
 Sex etiam, aut septem loca vidi reddere voces 
 Unam quom jaceres : ita colles collibus ipsis 
 Verba repulsantes iterabant dicta referre. 
 Haec loca capripedes Satyros, Nymphasque tenere 
 Finitimi fingunt, et Faunos esse loquuntur ; 
 Quorum noctivago strepitu, ludoque jocanti 
 Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, 
 Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, 
 Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum : 
 Et genus agricolum late sentiscere, quom Pan 
 Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, 
 Unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 
 Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam." 2 
 
 LUCRETIUS, Lib. iv. 1. 576. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 " Chance parts the youth from his companions dear, 
 He cries * Who's here ? ' and Echo answers ' Here ; ' 
 He stares around, and for a while stands dumb, 
 Then shouts out 'Come,' and Echo answers 'Come.'" G. W. 
 
 2 " Whence may'st thou solve, ingenuous ! to the world 
 The rise of echoes, formed in desert scenes, 
 Mid rocks, and mountains, mocking every sound, 
 When late we wander through their solemn glooms, 
 And, with loud voice, some lost companion call. 
 And oft re-echoes echo till the peal 
 Rings seven times round ; so rock to rock repels 
 The mimic shout, reiterated close. 
 
 " Here haunt the goat-foot satyrs, and the nymphs, 
 As rustics tell, and fauns whose frolic dance, 
 And midnight revels oft, they say, are heard 
 Breaking the noiseless silence ; while soft strains 
 Melodious issue, and the vocal band 
 Strike to their madrigals the plaintive lyre, 
 Such, feign they, sees the shepherd obvious oft, 
 Led on by Pan, with pine-leaved garland crowned 
 And seven-mouthed reed his laboring lip beneath, 
 Waking the woodland muse with ceaseless song." 
 
 J. MASON GOOD. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 185 
 
 LETTER XXXIX 
 
 SELBORNE, May i^th, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Among the many singularities attending those 
 amusing birds the swifts, I am now confirmed in the opinion 
 that we have every year the same number of pairs invariably ; 
 at least the result of my inquiry has been exactly the same for 
 a long time past. The swallows and martins are so numerous, 
 and so widely distributed over the village, that it is hardly pos- 
 sible to recount them ; while the swifts, though they do not 
 build in the church, yet so frequently haunt it, and play and 
 rendezvous round it, that they are easily enumerated. The 
 number that I constantly find are eight pairs ; about half of 
 which reside in the church, and the rest build in some of the 
 lowest and meanest thatched cottages. Now as these eight 
 pairs, allowance being made for accidents, breed yearly eight 
 pairs more, what becomes annually of this increase, and what 
 determines every spring which pairs shall visit us and reoc- 
 cupy their ancient haunts ? 
 
 Ever since I have attended to the subject of ornithology, I 
 have always supposed that that sudden reverse of affection, 
 that strange avrio-Topyrj, which immediately succeeds in the 
 feathered kind to the most passionate fondness, is the occa- 
 sion of an equal dispersion of birds over the face of the earth. 
 Without this provision one favorite district would be crowded 
 with inhabitants, while others would be destitute and forsaken. 
 But the parent birds seem to maintain a jealous superiority, and 
 to oblige the young to seek for new abodes ; and the rivalry 
 of the males in many kinds prevents their crowding the one on 
 the other. Whether the swallows and house-martins return in 
 the same exact number annually is not easy to say, for reasons 
 given above ; but it is apparent, as I have remarked before in 
 my monographies, that the numbers returning bear no man- 
 ner of proportion to the numbers retiring. 
 
1 86 WHITE 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 SELBORNE, June 2nd, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The standing objection to botany has always 
 been that it is a pursuit that amuses the fancy and exercises 
 the memory, without improving the mind or advancing any 
 real knowledge ; and, where the science is carried no farther 
 than a mere systematic classification, the charge is but too true. 
 But the botanist that is desirous of wiping off this aspersion 
 should be by no means content with a list of names ; he should 
 study plants philosophically, should investigate the laws of 
 vegetation, should examine the powers and virtues of effica- 
 cious herbs, should promote their cultivation, and graft the 
 gardener, the planter, and the husbandman, on the phytolo- 
 gist. Not that system is by any means to be thrown aside ; 
 without system the field of nature would be a pathless wil- 
 derness ; but system should be subservient to, not the main 
 object of, pursuit. 
 
 Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention ; and in itself 
 is of the utmost consequence to mankind, and productive of 
 many of the greatest comforts and elegances of life. To 
 plants we owe timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, 
 cotton, etc., what not only strengthens our hearts, and exhila- 
 rates our spirits, but what secures us from inclemencies of 
 weather and adorns our persons. Man, in his true state of 
 nature, seems to be subsisted by spontaneous vegetation ; in 
 middle climes, where grasses prevail, he mixes some animal 
 food with the produce of the field and garden ; and it is tow- 
 ards the polar extremes only that, like his kindred bears and 
 wolves, he gorges himself with flesh alone, and is driven to 
 what hunger has never been known to compel the very beasts, 
 to prey on his own species. 1 
 
 The productions of vegetation have had a vast influence on 
 the commerce of nations, and have been the great promoters 
 of navigation, as may be seen in the articles of sugar, tea, 
 tobacco, opium, ginseng, betel, paper, etc. As every climate 
 has its peculiar produce, our natural wants bring on a mutual 
 intercourse ; so that by means of trade each distinct part is 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 187 
 
 supplied with the growth of every latitude. But, without the 
 knowledge of plants and their culture, we must have been 
 content with our hips and haws, without enjoying the delicate 
 fruits of India and the salutiferous drugs of Peru. 
 
 Instead of examining the minute distinctions of every vari- 
 ous species of each obscure genus, the botanist should en- 
 deavor to make himself acquainted with those that are useful. 
 You shall see a man readily ascertain every herb of the field, 
 yet hardly know wheat from barley, or at least one sort of 
 wheat or barley from another. 
 
 But of all sorts of vegetation the grasses seem to be most neg- 
 lected ; neither the farmer nor the grazier seems to distinguish 
 the annual from the perennial, the hardy from the tender, nor 
 the succulent and nutritive from the dry and juiceless. 
 
 The study of grasses would be of great consequence to a 
 northerly and grazing kingdom. The botanist that could im- 
 prove the sward of the district where he lived would be a 
 useful member of society : to raise a thick turf on a naked soil 
 would be worth volumes of systematic knowledge; and he 
 would be the best commonwealth's man that could occasion 
 the growth of " two blades of grass where one alone was seen 
 before." I am, etc. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 Man seems to have a natural craving for fresh meat, and in some parts 
 of Africa where vegetable food is in plenty and even luxuriance, but animal 
 food is not so easily obtained, the desire to eat flesh causes cannibalism. 
 It is not hunger, because hunger could be satisfied by vegetable food, but 
 an irresistible craving for meat. The same cause may first have given rise 
 to the odious custom in some of the South Sea Islands. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XLI 
 
 SELBORNE, July yd, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, In a district so diversified with such a variety 
 of hill and dale, aspects, and soils, it is no wonder that great 
 choice of plants should be found. Chalks, clays, sands, sheep- 
 walks and downs, bogs, heaths, wood-lands, and champaign 
 fields cannot but furnish an ample Flora. The deep rocky 
 
1 88 WHITE 
 
 lanes abound with filices, and the pastures and moist woods 
 with /7Z7. If in any branch of botany we may seem to be 
 wanting, it must be in the large aquatic plants, which are not 
 to be expected on a spot far removed from rivers, and lying 
 up amidst the hill country at the spring heads. To enumer- 
 ate all the plants that have been discovered within our limits 
 would be a needless work ; but a short list of the more rare, 
 and the spots where they are to be found, may be neither un- 
 acceptable nor unentertaining : 
 
 Helleborus fcetiduS) stinking hellebore, bear's foot, or setter- 
 worth, all over the High Wood and Coneycroft Hanger : this 
 continues a great branching plant the winter through, blossom- 
 ing about January, and is very ornamental in shady walks and 
 shrubberies. The good women give the leaves powdered to 
 children troubled with worms ; but it is a violent remedy, and 
 ought to be administered with caution. 
 
 Helleborus viridis, green hellebore, in the deep stony lane 
 on the left hand just before the turning to Norton Farm, and 
 at the top of Middle Dorton under the hedge : this plant dies 
 down to the ground early in autumn, and springs again about 
 February, flowering almost as soon as it appears above the 
 ground. 
 
 Vaccinium oxycoccos, creeping bilberries, or cranberries, in 
 the bogs of Bin's Pond. 
 
 Vaccinium myrtillus, whortle, or bleaberries, on the dry 
 hillocks of Wolmer Forest. 
 
 Drosera rotundifolia, round-leaved sundew, in the bogs of 
 Bin's Pond. 
 
 Drosera longifolia, long-leaved sundew, in the bogs of Bin's 
 Pond. 
 
 Comarum palustre> purple comarum, or marsh cinquefoil, 
 in the bogs of Bin's Pond. 
 
 Hypericum androscemum, Tutsan, St. John's-wort, in the 
 stony, hollow lanes. 
 
 Vinca minor, less periwinkle, in Selborne Hanger and 
 Shrub Wood. 
 
 Monotropa hypopithys, yellow monotropa, or bird's-nest, 
 in Selborne Hanger under the shady beeches, to whose roots it 
 seems to be parasitical, at the north-west end of the Hanger. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 189 
 
 Chlora perfoliata, Blackstonia perfoliata, Hudsoni, perf oliated 
 yellowwort, on the banks in the King's Field. 
 
 Paris quadrifolia, herb of Paris, true-love, or one-berry, 
 in the Church-litten coppice. 
 
 Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, opposite golden saxifrage, 
 in the dark and rocky hollow lanes. 
 
 Gentiana amarella, autumnal gentian, or fellwort, on the 
 Zigzag and Hanger. 
 
 Lathraa squamaria, tooth-wort, in the church litten 
 coppice under some hazels near the foot-bridge, in Trimming's 
 garden hedge, and on the dry wall opposite Grange-yard. 
 
 Dipsacus pilosus, small teasel, in the Short and Long Lith. 
 
 Lathyrus sylvestris, narrow-leaved, or wild lathyrus, in the 
 bushes at the foot of the Short Lith, near the path. 
 
 Ophrys spiralis, ladies' traces, in the Long Lith, and 
 towards the south corner of the common. 
 
 Ophrys nidus avis, bird's-nest ophrys, in the Long Lith 
 under the shady beeches among the dead leaves ; in Great 
 Dorton among the bushes, and on the Hanger plentifully. 
 
 Serapias latifolia, helleborine, in the High Wood under the 
 shady beeches. 
 
 Daphne laureola, spurge laurel, in Selborne Hanger and 
 the High Wood. 
 
 Daphne mezereum, the mezereon, in Selborne Hanger 
 among the shrubs, at the south-east end above the cottages. 
 
 Lycoperdon tuber, truffles, in the Hanger and High Wood. 
 
 Sambuctis ebulus, dwarf elder, walwort, or danewort, 
 among the rubbish and ruined foundations of the Priory. 
 
 Of all the propensities of plants, none seem more strange 
 than their different periods of blossoming. Some produce 
 their flowers in the winter, or very first dawnings of spring ; 
 many when the spring is established ; some at midsummer, and 
 some not till autumn. When we see the helleborus fcetidus and 
 helleborus niger blowing at Christmas, the helleborus hyemalis 
 in January, and the helleborus viridis as soon as ever it emerges 
 out of the ground, we do not wonder, because they are kindred 
 plants that we expect should keep pace the one with the other ; 
 but other congenerous vegetables differ so widely in their time 
 of flowering, that we cannot but admire. I shall only instance 
 
190 WHITE 
 
 at present in the crocus sativus, the vernal and the autumnal 
 crocus, which have such an affinity, that the best botanists 
 only make them varieties of the same genus, of which there is 
 only one species, not being able to discern any difference in the 
 corolla, or in the internal structure. Yet the vernal crocus 
 expands its flowers by the beginning of March at farthest, and 
 often in very rigorous weather ; and cannot be retarded but by 
 some violence offered ; while the autumnal (the saffron) defies 
 the influence of the spring and summer, and will not blow till 
 most plants begin to fade and run to seed. This circumstance 
 is one of the wonders of the creation, little noticed because a 
 common occurrence ; yet ought not to be overlooked on account 
 of its being familiar, since it would be as difficult to be explained 
 as the most stupendous phenomenon in nature. 
 
 " Say, what impels, amidst surrounding snow 
 Congealed, the crocus, flamy bud to grow? 
 Say, what retards, amidst the summer's blaze, 
 Th' autumnal bulb, till pale, declining days ? 
 The GOD OF SEASONS, whose pervading power 
 Controls the sun, or sheds the fleecy shower : 
 He bids each flower His quickening word obey, 
 Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay." 
 
 LETTER XLII 
 
 " Omnibus animalibus reliquis certus et uniusmodi, et in suo cuique genere 
 incessus est : aves solae vario meatu feruntur, et in terra, et in acre." 
 
 SELBORNE, Aug. fth, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, A good ornithologist should be able to distin- 
 guish birds by their air as well as by their colors and shape ; 
 on the ground as well as on the wing : and in the bush as well 
 as in the hand. For, though it must not be said that every 
 species of birds has a manner peculiar to itself, yet there is 
 somewhat in most genera at least that at first sight discrimi- 
 nates them and enables a judicious observer to pronounce upon 
 them with some certainty. Put a bird in motion 
 
 . . . " Et vera incessu patuit." . . . 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE IQI 
 
 Thus kites and buzzards sail round in circles with wings 
 expanded and motionless ; and it is from their gliding manner 
 that the former are still called in the north of England gleads, 
 from the Saxon verb glidan, to glide. The kestrel, or wind- 
 hover, has a peculiar mode of hanging in the air in one place, 
 his wings all the while being briskly agitated. Hen harriers 
 fly low over heaths or fields of corn, and beat the ground regu- 
 larly like a pointer or setting-dog. Owls move in a buoyant 
 manner, as if lighter than the air ; they seem to want ballast. 
 There is a peculiarity belonging to ravens that must draw the 
 attention even of the most incurious they spend all their 
 leisure time in striking and cuffing each other on the wing in 
 a kind of playful skirmish ; and, when they move from one 
 place to another, frequently turn on their backs with a loud 
 croak, and seem to be falling to the ground. When this odd 
 gesture betides them, they are scratching themselves with one 
 foot, and thus lose the centre of gravity. Rooks sometimes 
 dive and tumble in a frolicsome manner; crows and daws 
 swagger in their walk ; woodpeckers fly volatu undoso, open- 
 ing and closing their wings at every stroke, and so are always 
 rising or falling in curves. All of this genus use their tails, 
 which incline downward, as a support while they run up trees. 
 Parrots, like all other hooked-clawed birds, walk awkwardly, 
 and make use of their bill as a third foot, climbing and de- 
 scending with ridiculous caution. .All the gallince parade and 
 walk gracefully, and run nimbly ; but fly with difficulty, with 
 an impetuous whirring, and in a straight line. Magpies and 
 jays flutter with powerless wings, and make no despatch ; 
 herons seem encumbered with too much sail for their light 
 bodies, but these vast hollow wings are necessary in carrying 
 burdens, such as large fishes and the like ; * pigeons, and par- 
 ticularly the sort called smiters, have a way of clashing their 
 wings the one against the other over their backs with a loud 
 snap ; another variety, called tumblers, turn themselves over 
 in the air. Some birds have movements peculiar to the season 
 of love : thus ring-doves, though strong and rapid at other 
 times, yet in the spring hang about on the wing in a toying 
 and playful manner ; thus the cock snipe while breeding, for- 
 getting his former flight, fans the air like the wind-hover; 
 
WHITE 
 
 and the greenfinch, in particular, exhibits such languishing 
 and faltering gestures as to appear like a wounded and dying 
 bird ; the kingfisher darts along like an arrow ; fern-owls, or 
 goat-suckers, glance in the dusk over the tops of trees like a 
 meteor ; starlings as it were swim along, while missel-thrushes 
 use a wild and desultory flight ; swallows sweep over the surface 
 of the ground and water, and distinguish themselves by rapid 
 turns and quick evolutions ; swifts dash round in circles ; and 
 the bank-martin moves with frequent vacillations like a but- 
 terfly. Most of the small birds fly by jerks, rising and falling 
 as they advance. Most small birds hop ; but wagtails and 
 larks walk, moving their legs alternately. Skylarks rise and 
 fall perpendicularly as they sing ; woodlarks hang poised in 
 the air ; and titlarks rise and fall in large curves, singing in 
 their descent. The whitethroat uses odd jerks and gesticula- 
 tions over the tops of hedges and bushes. All the duck kind 
 waddle ; divers and auks walk as if fettered, and stand erect 
 on their tails ; these are the compedes of Linnaeus. Geese and 
 cranes, and most wild fowls, move in figured flights, often 
 changing their position. The secondary remiges of Tringae, 
 wild-ducks, and some others, are very long, and give their 
 wings, when in motion, a hooked appearance. Dabchicks, 
 moor-hens, and coots fly erect, with their legs hanging down, 
 and hardly make any despatch; the reason is plain: their 
 wings are placed too forward out of the true centre of gravity, 
 as the legs of auks and divers are situated too backward. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 The flight of the heron seems particularly slow, yet the beats of its 
 wings average one hundred and twenty in a minute, and it makes very rapid 
 progress. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XLIII 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. qth, 1778. 
 
 DEAR SIR, From the motion of birds, the transition is 
 natural enough to their notes and language, of which I shall 
 say something. Not that I would pretend to understand 
 their language like the vizier who, by the recital of a conver- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 193 
 
 sation which passed between two owls, reclaimed a sultan, 1 
 before delighting in conquest and devastation ; but I would 
 be thought only to mean that many of the winged tribes have 
 various sounds and voices adapted to express their various 
 passions, wants, and feelings ; such as anger, fear, love, 
 hatred, hunger, and the like. All species are not equally 
 eloquent; some are copious and fluent as it were in their 
 utterance, while others are confined to a few important 
 sounds : no bird, like the fish kind, is quite mute, though 
 some are rather silent. The language of birds is very ancient, 
 and, like other ancient modes of speech, very elliptical ; little 
 is said, but much is meant and understood. 
 
 The notes of the eagle kind are shrill and piercing; and 
 about the season of nidification much diversified, as I have 
 been often assured by a curious observer of nature, who long 
 resided at Gibraltar, where eagles abound. The notes of our 
 hawks much resemble those of the king of birds. Owls have 
 very expressive notes ; they hoot in a fine vocal sound, much 
 resembling the vox humana> and reducible by a pitch-pipe to 
 a musical key. This note seems to express complacency and 
 rivalry among the males; they use also a quick call and a 
 horrible scream ; and can snore and hiss when they mean to 
 menace. Ravens, besides their loud croak, can exert a deep 
 and solemn note that makes the woods to echo ; the amorous 
 sound of a crow is strange and ridiculous ; rooks, in the breed- 
 ing season, attempt sometimes in the gaiety of their hearts to 
 sing, but with no great success ; the parrot kind have many 
 modulations of voice, as appears by their aptitude to learn 
 human sounds ; doves coo in an amorous and mournful man- 
 ner, and are emblems of despairing lovers ; the woodpecker 
 sets up a sort of loud and hearty laugh ; the fern-owl, or goat- 
 sucker, from the dusk till daybreak, serenades his mate with 
 the clattering of castanets. All the tuneful passeres express 
 their complacency by sweet modulations and a variety of 
 melody. The swallow, as has been observed in a former 
 letter, by a shrill alarm bespeaks the attention of the other 
 hirundines, and bids them be aware the hawk is at hand. 
 Aquatic and gregarious birds, especially the nocturnal, that 
 shift their quarters in the dark, are very noisy and loquacious ; 
 
194 WHITE 
 
 as cranes, wild-geese, wild-ducks, and the like ; their perpet- 
 ual clamor prevents them from dispersing and losing their 
 companions. 
 
 In so extensive a subject, sketches and outlines are as much 
 as can be expected ; for it would be endless to instance in all 
 the infinite variety of the feathered nation. We shall there- 
 fore confine the remainder of this letter to the few domestic 
 fowls of our yards, which are most known and therefore best 
 understood. And first the peacock, with his gorgeous train, 
 demands our attention ; but, like most of the gaudy birds, his 
 notes are grating and shocking to the ear : the yelling of cats, 
 and the braying of an ass, are not more disgustful. The voice 
 of the goose is trumpet-like and clanking, and once saved the 
 Capitol at Rome, as grave historians assert ; the hiss, also, of 
 the gander is formidable and full of menace, and " protective 
 of his young." Among ducks the sexual distinction of voice 
 is remarkable ; for, while the quack of the female is loud and 
 sonorous, the voice of the drake is inward and harsh, and 
 feeble, and scarce discernible. The cock turkey struts and gob- 
 bles to his mistress in a most uncouth manner ; he hath also 
 a pert and petulant note when he attacks his adversary. 
 When a hen turkey leads forth her young brood she keeps a 
 watchful eye ; and if a bird of prey appear, though ever so 
 high in the air, the careful mother announces the enemy with 
 a little inward moan, and watches him with a steady and 
 attentive look ; but, if he approach, her note becomes earnest 
 and alarming, and her outcries are redoubled. 
 
 No inhabitants of a yard seem possessed of such a variety 
 of expression and so copious a language as common poultry. 
 Take a chicken of four or five days old, and hold it up to a 
 window where there are flies, and it will immediately seize its 
 prey, with little twitterings of complacency ; but if you tender 
 it a wasp or a bee, at once its note becomes harsh, and expres- 
 sive of disapprobation and a sense of danger. When a pullet 
 is ready to lay she intimates the event by a joyous and easy 
 soft note. Of all the occurrences of their life that of laying 
 seems to be the most important ; for no sooner has a hen dis- 
 burdened herself, than she rushes forth with a clamorous kind 
 of joy, which the cock and the rest of his mistresses immedi- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 195 
 
 ately adopt. The tumult is not confined to the family con- 
 cerned, but catches from yard to yard, and spreads to every 
 homestead within hearing, till at last the whole village is in 
 an uproar. As soon as a hen becomes a mother her new 
 relation demands a new language ; she then runs clocking and 
 screaming about, and seems agitated as if possessed. The 
 father of the flock has also a considerable vocabulary ; if he 
 finds food, he calls a favorite concubine to partake ; and if 
 a bird of prey passes over, with a warning voice he bids his 
 family beware. The gallant chanticleer has, at command, his 
 amorous phrases and his terms of defiance. But the sound 
 by which he is best known is his crowing : by this he has 
 been distinguished in all ages as the countryman's clock or 
 larum, as the watchman that proclaims the divisions of the 
 night. Thus the poet elegantly styles him 
 
 . . . " the crested cock, whose clarion sounds 
 The silent hours." 
 
 A neighboring gentleman one summer had lost most of his 
 chickens by a sparrow-hawk, that came gliding down between 
 a faggot pile and the end of his house to the place where the 
 coops stood. The owner, inwardly vexed to see his flock thus 
 diminished, hung a setting-net adroitly between the pile and 
 the house, into which the caitiff dashed and was entangled. 
 Resentment suggested the law of retaliation ; he therefore 
 clipped the hawk's wings, cut off his talons, and, fixing a cork 
 on his bill, threw him down among the brood hens. Imagina- 
 tion cannot paint the scene that ensued ; the expressions that 
 fear, rage, and revenge inspired were new, or at least such 
 as had been unnoticed before : the exasperated matrons up- 
 braided, they execrated, they insulted, they triumphed. In a 
 word, they never desisted from buffeting their adversary till 
 they had torn him in a hundred pieces. 
 
 NOTE 
 1 See Spectator, Vol. VII., No. 512. G. W. 
 
196 WHITE 
 
 LETTER XLIV 
 
 . . . "Monstrent 
 ***** 
 Quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soles 
 Hyberni ; vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet." 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 GENTLEMEN who have outlets might contrive to make orna- 
 ments subservient to utility : a pleasing eye-trap might also 
 contribute to promote science : an obelisk in a garden or park 
 might be both an embellishment and an heliotrope. 
 
 Any person that is curious, and enjoys the advantage of a 
 good horizon, might, with little trouble, make two heliotropes ; 
 the one for the winter, the other for the summer solstice : and 
 the two erections might be constructed with very little expense ; 
 for two pieces of timber frame-work, about ten or twelve feet 
 high, and four feet broad at the base, and close lined with 
 plank, would answer the purpose. 
 
 The erection for the former should, if possible, be placed 
 within sight of some window in the common sitting parlor ; 
 because men, at that dead season of the year, are usually within 
 doors at the close of the day ; while that for the latter might 
 be fixed for any given spot in the garden or outlet ; whence 
 the owner might contemplate, in a fine summer's evening, the 
 utmost extent that the sun makes to the northward at the sea- 
 son of the longest days. Now nothing would be necessary but 
 to place these two objects with so much exactness, that the 
 westerly limb of the sun, at setting, might but just clear the 
 winter heliotrope to the west of it on the shortest day ; and 
 that the whole disc of the sun, at the longest day, might 
 exactly at setting also clear the summer heliotrope to the 
 north of it. 
 
 By this simple expedient it would soon appear that there 
 is no such thing, strictly speaking, as a solstice ; for, from the 
 shortest day, the owner would, every clear evening, see the disc 
 advancing at its setting, to the westward of the object; and, 
 from the longest day, observe the sun retiring backwards every 
 evening at its setting, towards the object westward, till, in a 
 few nights, it would set quite behind it, and so by degrees, to 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 the west of it : for when the sun comes near the summer sol- 
 stice, the whole disc of it would at first set behind the object; 
 after a time the northern limb would first appear, and so every 
 night gradually more, till at length the whole diameter would 
 set northward of it for about three nights ; but on the middle 
 night of the three, sensibly more remote than the former or 
 following. When beginning its recess from the summer tropic, 
 it would continue more and more to be hidden every night, till 
 at length it would descend quite behind the object again ; and 
 so nightly more and more to the westward. 
 
 LETTER XLV 
 
 . . . " Mugire videbis 
 Sub pedibus terram, et descendere montibus ornos." 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 WHEN I was a boy I used to read, with astonishment and 
 implicit assent, accounts in Baker's " Chronicle " of walking 
 hills and travelling mountains. John Philips, in his " Cyder," 
 alludes to the credit that was given to such stories with a deli- 
 cate but quaint vein of humor peculiar to the author of the 
 "Splendid Shilling:" 
 
 " I nor advise, nor reprehend the choice 
 Of Marcely Hill ; the apple nowhere finds 
 A kinder mould ; yet 'tis unsafe to trust 
 Deceitful ground ; who knows but that once more 
 This mount may journey, and his present site 
 Forsaken, to thy neighbor's bounds transfer 
 Thy goodly plants, affording matter strange 
 For law debates ? " 
 
 But, when I came to consider better, I began to suspect that 
 though our hills may never have journeyed far, yet that the 
 ends of many of them have slipped and fallen away at distant 
 periods, leaving the cliffs bare and abrupt. This seems to 
 have been the case with Nore and Whetham hills ; and 
 especially with the ridge between Harteley Park and Ward 
 le Ham, where the ground has slid into vast swellings and fur- 
 
198 WHITE 
 
 rows ; and lies still in such romantic confusion as cannot be 
 accounted for from any other cause. A strange event, that 
 happened not long since, justifies our suspicions ; which, 
 though it befell not within the limits of this parish, yet as it 
 was within the hundred of Selborne, and as the circumstances 
 were singular, may fairly claim a place in a work of this nature. 
 The months of January and February, in the year 17/4, 
 were remarkable for great melting snows and vast gluts of 
 rain ; so that by the end of the latter month the land-springs, 
 or lavants, began to prevail, and to be near as high as in the 
 memorable winter of 1764. The beginning of March also 
 went on in the same tenor ; when, in the night between the 
 8th and Qth of that month, a considerable part of the great 
 woody hanger at Hawkley was torn from its place, and fell 
 down, leaving a high freestone cliff naked and bare, and 
 resembling the steep side of a chalk-pit. It appears that this 
 huge fragment, being perhaps sapped and undermined by 
 waters, foundered, and was ingulfed, going down in a perpen- 
 dicular direction ; for a gate which stood in the field, on the 
 top of the hill, after sinking with its posts for thirty or forty 
 feet, remained in so true and upright a position as to open and 
 shut with great exactness, just as in its first situation. Several 
 oaks also are still standing, and in a state of vegetation, after 
 taking the same desperate leap. That great part of this pro- 
 digious mass was absorbed in some gulf below is plain also 
 from the inclining ground at the bottom of the hill, which is 
 free and unencumbered, but would have been buried in heaps 
 of rubbish had the fragment parted and fallen forward. 
 About a hundred yards from the foot of this hanging coppice 
 stood a cottage by the side of a lane ; and two hundred yards 
 lower, on the other side of the lane, was a farmhouse, in 
 which lived a laborer and his family; and, just by, a stout new 
 barn. The cottage was inhabited by an old woman and her 
 son and his wife. These people in the evening, which was 
 very dark and tempestuous, observed that the brick floors of 
 their kitchens began to heave and part; and that the walls 
 seemed to open, and the roofs to crack ; but they all agree 
 that no tremor of the ground, indicating an earthquake, was 
 ever felt ; only that the wind continued to make a most tre- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 199 
 
 mendous roaring in the woods and hangers. The miserable 
 inhabitants, not daring to go to bed, remained in the utmost 
 solicitude and confusion, expecting every moment to be buried 
 under the ruins of their shattered edifices. When daylight 
 came they were at leisure to contemplate the devastations of 
 the night : they then found that a deep rift, or chasm, had 
 opened under their houses, and torn them, as it were, in two ; 
 and that one end of the barn had suffered in a similar man- 
 ner : that a pond near the cottage had undergone a strange 
 reverse, becoming deep at the shallow end, and so vice versa; 
 that many large oaks were removed out of their perpendicu- 
 lar, some thrown down, and some fallen into the heads of 
 neighboring trees ; and that a gate was thrust forward, with 
 its hedge, full six feet, so as to require a new track to be made 
 to it. From the foot of the cliff the general course of the 
 ground, which is pasture, inclines in a moderate descent for 
 half a mile, and is interspersed with some hillocks, which were 
 rifted, in every direction, as well towards the great woody 
 hanger, as from it. In the first pasture the deep clefts began ; 
 and running across the lane, and under the buildings, made 
 such vast shelves that the road was impassable for some time ; 
 and so over to an arable field on the other side, which was 
 strangely torn and disordered. The second pasture field, 
 being more soft and springy, was protruded forward without 
 many fissures in the turf, which was raised in long ridges 
 resembling graves, lying at right angles to the motion. At the 
 bottom of this enclosure the soil and turf rose many feet 
 against the bodies of some oaks that obstructed their farther 
 course and terminated this awful commotion. 
 
 The perpendicular height of the precipice in general is 
 twenty-three yards ; the length of the lapse or slip as seen 
 from the fields below, one hundred and eighty-one ; and a 
 partial fall, concealed in the coppice, extends seventy yards 
 more ; so that the total length of this fragment that fell was 
 two hundred and fifty-one yards. About fifty acres of land 
 suffered from this violent convulsion ; two houses were en- 
 tirely destroyed ; one end of a new barn was left in ruins, the 
 walls being cracked through the very stones that composed 
 them ; a hanging coppice was changed to a naked rock ; and 
 
200 WHITE 
 
 some grass grounds and an arable field so broken and rifted 
 by the chasms as to be rendered for a time neither fit for the 
 plough nor safe for pasturage, till considerable labor and ex- 
 pense had been bestowed in levelling the surface and filling in 
 the gaping fissures. 
 
 LETTER XLVI 
 
 " resonant arbusta." 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 THERE is a steep, abrupt pasture field and interspersed with 
 furze close to the back of this village, well known by the name 
 of Short Lith, consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to 
 the afternoon sun. This spot abounds with the gryllus cam- 
 festris t or field-cricket ; which, though frequent in these parts, 
 is by no means a common insect in many other countries. 
 
 As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the attention 
 of a naturalist, I have often gone down to examine the economy 
 of these grylli, and study their mode of life ; but they are so shy 
 and cautious that it is no easy matter to get a sight of them ; for 
 feeling a person's footsteps as he advances, they stop short in 
 the midst of their song, and retire backward nimbly into their 
 burrows, where they lurk till all suspicion of danger is over. 
 
 At first we attempted to dig them out with a spade, but with- 
 out any great success ; for either we could not get to the bottom 
 of the hole, which often terminated under a great stone ; or 
 else in breaking up the ground we inadvertently squeezed the 
 poor insect to death. Out of one so bruised we took a multi- 
 tude of eggs, which were long and narrow, of a yellow color, 
 and covered with a very tough skin. By this accident we 
 learned to distinguish the male from the female ; the former 
 of which is shining black, with a golden stripe across his shoul- 
 ders ; the latter is more dusky, more capacious about the ab- 
 domen, and carries a long, sword-shaped weapon at her tail, 
 which probably is the instrument with which she deposits her 
 eggs in crannies and safe receptacles. 
 
 Where violent methods will not avail, more gentle means 
 will often succeed, and so it proved in the present case ; for, 
 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 2OI 
 
 though a spade be too boisterous and rough an implement, a 
 pliant stock of grass, gently insinuated into the caverns, will 
 probe their windings to the bottom, and quickly bring out the 
 inhabitant; and thus the humane inquirer may gratify his 
 curiosity without injuring the object of it. It is remarkable, 
 that though these insects are furnished with long legs behind, 
 and brawny thighs for leaping, like grasshoppers ; yet when 
 driven from their holes they show no activity, but crawl along 
 in a shiftless manner, so as easily to be taken; and again, 
 though provided with a curious apparatus of wings, yet they 
 never exert them when there seems to be the greatest occasion. 
 The males only make that shrilling noise, perhaps, out of 
 rivalry and emulation, as is the case with many animals which 
 exert some sprightly note during their breeding time. It is 
 raised by a brisk friction of one wing against the other. They 
 are solitary beings, living singly male and female, each as it 
 may happen ; but there must be a time when the sexes have 
 some intercourse, and then the wings may be useful perhaps 
 during the hours of night. When the males meet they will 
 fight fiercely, as I found by some which I put into the crevices 
 of a dry stone wall, where I should have been glad to have 
 made them settle. For though they seemed distressed by be- 
 ing taken out of their knowledge, yet the first that got posses- 
 sion of the chinks would seize on any others that were intruded 
 upon them with a vast row of serrated fangs. With their strong 
 jaws, toothed like the shears of a lobster's claws, they perforate 
 and round their curious regular cells, having no fore-claws to 
 dig, like the mole-cricket. When taken in hand I could not 
 but wonder that they never offered to defend themselves, 
 though armed with such formidable weapons. Of such herbs 
 as grow before the mouths of their burrows they eat indis- 
 criminately, and on a little platform which they make just by 
 they drop their dung ; and never, in the day-time, seem to stir 
 more than two or three inches from home. Sitting in the en- 
 trance of their caverns they chirp all night as well as day from 
 the middle of the month of May to the middle of July ; and in 
 hot weather, when they are most vigorous, they make the hills 
 echo, and in the stiller hours of darkness may be heard to a con- 
 siderable distance. In the beginning of the season their notes 
 
202 WHITE 
 
 are more faint and inward ; but become louder as the summer 
 advances, and so die away again by degrees. 
 
 Sounds do not always give us pleasure according to their 
 sweetness and melody ; nor do harsh sounds always displease. 
 We are more apt to be captivated or disgusted with the asso- 
 ciations which they promote than with the notes themselves. 
 Thus the shrilling of the field-cricket, though sharp and stridu- 
 lous, yet marvellously delights some hearers, filling their minds 
 with a train of summer ideas of everything that is rural, ver- 
 durous, and joyous. 
 
 About the loth March the crickets appear at the mouths of 
 their cells, which they then open and bore, and shape very ele- 
 gantly. All that ever I have seen at that season were in their 
 pupa state, and had only the rudiments of wings, lying under 
 a skin or coat, which must be cast before the insect can arrive 
 at its perfect state ; from whence I should suppose that the 
 old ones of last year do not always survive the winter. In 
 August their holes begin to be obliterated, and the insects are 
 seen no more till spring. 
 
 Not many summers ago I endeavored to transplant a colony 
 to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes in the slop- 
 ing turf. The new inhabitants stayed some time, and fed and 
 sung ; but wandered away by degrees, and were heard at a 
 farther distance every morning, so that it appears that on this 
 emergency they made use of their wings in attempting to 
 return to the spot from which they were taken. 
 
 One of these crickets when confined in a paper cage and set 
 in the sun, and supplied with plants moistened with water, will 
 feed and thrive, and become so merry and loud as to be irk- 
 some in the same room where a person is sitting ; if the plants 
 are not wet it will die. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 203 
 
 LETTER XLVII 
 
 " Far from all resort of mirth 
 Save the cricket on the hearth." 
 
 MILTON'S // Penseroso. 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 DEAR SIR, While many other insects must be sought after 
 in fields, and woods, and waters, the grylhts domesticus, or 
 house-cricket, resides altogether within our dwellings, intrud- 
 ing itself upon our notice whether we will or no. This species 
 delights in new-built houses, being, like the spider, pleased 
 with the moisture of the walls ; and besides, the softness of the 
 mortar enables them to burrow and mine between the joints of 
 the bricks or stones, and to open communications from one 
 room to another. They are particularly fond of kitchens and 
 bakers' ovens, on account of their perpetual warmth. 
 
 Tender insects that live abroad either enjoy only the short 
 period of one summer, or else doze away the cold, uncomfort- 
 able months in profound slumbers ; but these, residing as it 
 were in a torrid zone, are always alert and merry, a good 
 Christmas fire is to them like the heats of the dog-days. 
 Though they are frequently heard by day, yet is their natural 
 time of motion only in the night. As soon as it grows dusk, the 
 chirping increases, and they come running forth, and are from 
 the size of a flea to that of their full stature. As one should 
 suppose, from the burning atmosphere which they inhabit, 
 they are a thirsty race, and show a great propensity for liquids, 
 being found frequently drowned in pans of water, milk, broth, 
 or the like. Whatever is moist they affect ; and therefore often 
 gnaw holes in wet woollen stockings and aprons that are hung 
 to the fire : they are the housewife's barometer, foretelling her 
 when it will rain, and are prognostic sometimes, she thinks, of 
 ill or good luck, of the death of a near relation, or the approach 
 of an absent lover. By being the constant companions of her 
 solitary hours they naturally become the objects of her super- 
 stition. These crickets are not only very thirsty, but very 
 voracious; for they will eat the scummings of pots, and yeast, 
 salt, and crumbs of bread, and any kitchen offal or sweepings. 
 
204 WHITE 
 
 In the summer we have observed them to fly, when it became 
 dusk, out of the windows and over the neighboring roofs. This 
 feat of activity accounts for the sudden manner in which they 
 often leave their haunts, as it does for the method by which 
 they come to houses where they were not known before. It 
 is remarkable that many sorts of insects seem never to use 
 their wings but when they have a mind to shift their quarters 
 and settle new colonies. When in the air they move "volatu 
 undoso" in waves or curves, like woodpeckers, opening and 
 shutting their wings at every stroke, and so are always rising 
 or sinking. 
 
 When they increase to a great degree, as they did once in 
 the house where I am now writing, they become noisome pests, 
 flying into the candles, and dashing into people's faces ; but 
 may be blasted and destroyed by gunpowder discharged into 
 their crevices and crannies. In families at such times they 
 are like Pharaoh's plague of frogs, " in their bedchambers, 
 and upon their beds, and in their ovens, and in their kneading 
 troughs." a Their shrilling noise is occasioned by a brisk attri- 
 tion of their wings. Cats catch hearth-crickets, and, playing 
 with them as they do with mice, devour them. Crickets may 
 be destroyed, like wasps, by phials half filled with beer, or any 
 liquid, and set in their haunts ; for being always eager to drink, 
 they will crowd in till the bottles are full. 
 
 NOTE 
 iExod. viii. 3. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XLVIII 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 How diversified are the modes of life not only of incongru- 
 ous but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their specific 
 distinctions are not more various than their propensities. 
 Thus, while the field-cricket delights in sunny, dry banks, and 
 the house-cricket rejoices amidst the glowing heat of the 
 kitchen hearth or oven, the Gryllus gryllo talpa (the mole- 
 cricket) haunts moist meadows and frequents the sides of 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 205 
 
 ponds and banks of streams, performing all its functions in a 
 swampy, wet soil. With a pair of fore-feet, curiously adapted 
 to the purpose, it burrows and works under ground like the 
 mole, raising a ridge as it proceeds, but seldom throwing up 
 hillocks. 
 
 As mole-crickets often infest gardens by the sides of canals, 
 they are unwelcome guests to the gardener, raising up ridges 
 in their subterraneous progress, and rendering the walks 
 unsightly. If they take to the kitchen quarters they occasion 
 great damage among the plants and roots by destroying whole 
 beds of cabbages, young legumes, and flowers. When dug 
 out they seem very slow and helpless, and make no use of 
 their wings by day ; but at night they come abroad, and make 
 long excursions, as I have been convinced by finding stragglers, 
 in a morning, in improbable places. In fine weather, about 
 the middle of April, and just at the close of day, they begin 
 to solace themselves with a low, dull, jarring note, continued 
 for a long time without interruption, and not unlike the chat- 
 tering of the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, but more inward. 
 
 About the beginning of May they lay their eggs, as I was 
 once an eye-witness ; for a gardener at a house where I was on a 
 visit, happening to be mowing, on the 6th of that month, by the 
 side of a canal, his scythe struck too deep, pared off a large 
 piece of turf, and laid open to view a curious scene of domestic 
 economy : 
 
 . . . " Ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram : 
 Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt : 
 Apparent . . . penetralia." 
 
 There were many caverns and winding passages leading to 
 a kind of chamber, neatly smoothed and rounded, and about 
 the size of a moderate snuff-box. Within this secret nursery 
 were deposited near a hundred eggs of a dirty yellow color, 
 and enveloped in a tough skin, but too lately excluded to con- 
 tain any rudiments of young, being full of a viscous substance. 
 The eggs lay but shallow, and within the influence of the sun, 
 just under a little heap of fresh-mowed mould, like that which 
 is raised by ants. 
 
 When mole-crickets fly they move "cursu undoso" rising 
 
206 WHITE 
 
 and falling in curves, like the other species mentioned before. 
 In different parts of this kingdom people call them fen-crickets, 
 churr-worms, and eve-churrs, all very apposite names. 
 
 Anatomists who have examined the intestines of these 
 insects astonish me with their accounts; for they say that, 
 from the structure, position, and number of their stomachs, or 
 maws there seems to be good reason to suppose that this and 
 the two former species ruminate or chew the cud like many 
 quadrupeds ! 1 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 The use of this peculiar formation of the stomach of the cricket (and 
 the locust has the same peculiarity) is not yet clear to naturalists, but it 
 seems quite clear that it does not chew the cud, and that it would be impos- 
 sible for the food to be returned for that purpose. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER XLIX 
 
 SELBORNE, May jth, 1779. 
 
 IT is now more than forty years that I have paid some atten- 
 tion to the ornithology of this district, without being able to 
 exhaust the subject : new occurrences still arise as long as any 
 inquiries are kept alive. 
 
 In the last week of last month five of those most rare birds, 
 too uncommon to have obtained an English name, but known 
 to naturalists by the terms of himantopus, or loripes, and chara- 
 drius himantopus} were shot upon the verge of Frinsham Pond, 
 a large lake belonging to the Bishop of Winchester, and lying 
 between Wolmer Forest and the town of Farnham, in the county 
 of Surrey. The pond-keeper says there were three brace in 
 the flock : but, that after he had satisfied his curiosity, he suf- 
 fered the sixth to remain unmolested. One of these specimens 
 I procured, and found the length of the legs to be so extraor- 
 dinary, that, at first sight, one might have supposed the shanks 
 had been fastened on to impose on the credulity of the beholder : 
 they were legs in caricatura ; and had we seen such proportions 
 on a Chinese or Japan screen we should have made large allow- 
 ances for the fancy of the draughtsman. These birds are of 
 the plover family, and might with propriety be called the stilt 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 2O/ 
 
 plovers. Brisson, under that idea, gives them the apposite 
 name of t'echasse. My specimen, when drawn and stuffed with 
 pepper, weighed only four ounces and a quarter, though the 
 naked part of the thigh measured three inches and a half, and 
 the legs four inches and a half. Hence we may safely assert 
 that these birds exhibit, weight for inches, incomparably the 
 greatest length of legs of any known bird. The flamingo, for 
 instance, is one of the most long-legged birds, and yet it bears 
 no manner of proportion to the kimantopus ; for a cock flamingo 
 weighs, at an average, about four pounds avoirdupois ; and his 
 legs and thighs measure usually about twenty inches. But four 
 pounds are fifteen times and a fraction more than four ounces 
 and one quarter ; and if four ounces and a quarter have eight 
 inches of legs, four pounds must have one hundred and twenty 
 inches and a fraction of legs, viz., somewhat more than ten 
 feet ; such a monstrous proportion as the world never saw ! 
 If you should try the experiment in still larger birds the dis- 
 parity would still increase. It must be matter of great curi- 
 osity to see the stilt plover move ; to observe how it can wield 
 such a length of lever with such feeble muscles as the thighs 
 seem to be furnished with. At best one should expect it to be 
 but a bad walker : but what adds to the wonder is that it has 
 no back toe. Now without that steady prop to support its steps 
 it must be liable, in speculation, to perpetual vacillations, and 
 seldom able to preserve the true centre of gravity. 
 
 The old name of himantopus is taken from Pliny ; and, by 
 an awkward metaphor, implies that the legs are as slender and 
 pliant as if cut out of a thong of leather. Neither Willughby 
 nor Ray, in all their curious researches, either at home or 
 abroad, ever saw this bird. Mr. Pennant never met with it in 
 all Great Britain, but observed it often in the cabinets of the 
 curious at Paris. Hasselquist says that it migrates to Egypt 
 in the autumn : and a most accurate observer of nature has 
 assured me that he has found it on the banks of the streams 
 in Andalusia. 
 
 Our writers record it to have been found only twice in Great 
 Britain. From all these relations it plainly appears that these 
 long-legged plovers are birds of south Europe, and rarely visit 
 our island ; and when they do, are wanderers and stragglers, 
 
208 WHITE 
 
 and impelled to make so distant and northern an excursion from 
 motives or accidents for which we are not able to account. 
 One thing may fairly be deduced, that these .birds come over 
 to us from the continent, since nobody can suppose that a 
 species not noticed once in an age, and of such a remarkable 
 make, can constantly breed unobserved in this kingdom. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 The bird referred to is the black-winged stilt, which is only an occa- 
 sional visitant in England. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER L 
 
 SELBORNE, April 2\stj 1780. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned 
 to you so often, is become my property. I dug it out of its 
 winter dormitory in March last, when it was enough awakened 
 to express its resentments by hissing ; and, packing it in a box 
 with earth, carried it eighty miles in post-chaises. The rattle 
 and hurry of the journey so perfectly roused it that, when I 
 turned it out on a border, it walked twice down to the bottom 
 of my garden ; however, in the evening, the weather being cold, 
 it buried itself in the loose mould, and continues still concealed. 
 
 As it will be under my eye, I shall now have an opportunity 
 of enlarging my observations on its mode of life and propen- 
 sities ; and perceive already that, towards the time of coming 
 forth, it opens a breathing place in the ground near its head, 
 requiring, I conclude, a freer respiration as it becomes more 
 alive. This creature not only goes under the earth from the 
 middle of November to the middle of April, but sleeps great 
 part of the summer : for it goes to bed in the longest days at 
 four in the afternoon, and often does not stir in the morning 
 till late. Besides, it retires to rest for every shower ; and does 
 not move at all in wet days. 
 
 When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it is a 
 matter of wonder to find that Providence should bestow such 
 a profusion of days, such a seeming waste of longevity, on a 
 reptile that appears to relish it so little as to squander more 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 209 
 
 than two-thirds of its existence in a joyless stupor, and be lost 
 to all sensation for months together in the profoundest of 
 slumbers. 
 
 While I was writing this letter, a moist and warm afternoon, 
 with the thermometer at 50, brought forth troops of shell- 
 snails ; and, at the same juncture, the tortoise heaved up the 
 mould and put out its head ; and the next morning came forth, 
 as it were, raised from the dead ; and walked about till four in 
 the afternoon. This was a curious coincidence ! a very amusing 
 occurrence ! to see such a similarity of feelings between the 
 two fapeoi/coi ! for so the Greeks called both the shell-snail and 
 the tortoise. 
 
 Summer birds are, this cold and backward spring, un- 
 usually late : I have seen but one swallow yet. This con- 
 formity with the weather convinces me more and more that 
 they sleep in the winter. 
 
 LETTER LI 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. yd, 1781. 
 
 I HAVE now read your miscellanies through with much care 
 and satisfaction ; and am to return you my best thanks for 
 the honorable mention made in them of me as a naturalist, 
 which I wish I may deserve. 
 
 In some former letters I expressed my suspicions that many 
 of the house-martins do not depart in the winter far from this 
 village. I therefore determined to make some search about 
 the south-east end of the hill, where I imagined they might 
 slumber out the uncomfortable months of winter. But sup- 
 posing that the examination would be made to the best 
 advantage in the spring, and observing that no martins had 
 appeared by the nth April last, on that day I employed 
 some men to explore the shrubs and cavities of the suspected 
 spot. The persons took pains, but without any success ; 
 however, a remarkable incident occurred in the midst of our 
 pursuit : while the laborers were at work a house-martin, the 
 first that had been seen this year, came down the village in 
 the sight of several people, and went at once into a nest, 
 15 
 
210 WHITE 
 
 where it stayed a short time, and then flew over the houses ; 
 for some days after no martins were observed, not till the 
 i6th April, and then only a pair. Martins in general were 
 remarkably late this year. 
 
 LETTER LII 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. $t/i, 1781. 
 
 I HAVE just met with a circumstance respecting swifts, 
 which furnishes an exception to the whole tenor of my 
 observations ever since I have bestowed any attention on that 
 species of hirundines. Our swifts, in general, withdrew this 
 year about the first day of August, all save one pair, which 
 in two or three days was reduced to a single bird. The 
 perseverance of this individual made me suspect that the 
 strongest of motives, that of an attachment to her young, could 
 alone occasion so late a stay. I watched therefore till the 
 24th August, and then discovered that, under the eaves of 
 the church, she attended upon two young, which were fledged, 
 and now put out their white chins from a crevice. These 
 remained till the 2/th, looking more alert every day, and 
 seeming to long to be on the wing. After this day they 
 were missing at once; nor could I ever observe them with 
 their dam coursing round the church in the act of learning to 
 fly, as the first broods evidently do. On the 3ist I caused 
 the eaves to be searched, but we found in the nest only two 
 callow, dead, stinking swifts, on which a second nest had been 
 formed. This double nest was full of the black shining cases 
 of the hippoboscce kirundinis. 
 
 The following remarks on this unusual incident are obvious. 
 The first is, that though it may be disagreeable to swifts to 
 remain beyond the beginning of August, yet that they can 
 subsist longer is undeniable. The second is, that this un- 
 common event, as it was owing to the loss of the first brood, 
 so it corroborates my former remark, that swifts breed 
 regularly but once; since, was the contrary the case, the 
 occurrence above could neither be new nor rare. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 211 
 
 P.S. One swift was seen at Lyndon, in the county of 
 Rutland, in 1782, so late as the 3rd September. 
 
 LETTER LIII 
 
 As I have sometimes known you make inquiries about sev- 
 eral kinds of insects, I shall here send you an account of one 
 sort which I little expected to have found in this kingdom. 
 I had often observed that one particular part of a vine grow- 
 ing on the walls of my house was covered in the autumn with 
 a black, dust-like appearance, on which the flies fed eagerly ; 
 and that the shoots and leaves thus affected did not thrive ; 
 nor did the fruit ripen. To this substance I applied my glasses ; 
 but could not discover that it had anything to do with animal 
 life, as I at first expected : but, upon a closer examination 
 behind the larger boughs, we were surprised to find that they 
 were coated over with husky shells, from whose sides pro- 
 ceeded a cotton-like substance, surrounding a multitude of 
 eggs. This curious and uncommon production put me upon 
 recollecting what I have heard and read concerning the coccus 
 vitis viniferce of Linnaeus, which, in the south of Europe, 
 infests many vines, and is a horrid and loathsome pest. As 
 soon as I had turned to the accounts given of this insect, I 
 saw at once that it swarmed on my vine ; and did not appear 
 to have been at all checked by the preceding winter, which 
 had been uncommonly severe. 
 
 Not being then at all aware that it had anything to do with 
 England, I was much inclined to think that it came from 
 Gibraltar among the many boxes and packages of plants and 
 birds which I had formerly received from thence ; and espe- 
 cially as the vine infested grew immediately under my study 
 window, where I usually kept my specimens. True it is that 
 I had received nothing from thence for some years : but as 
 insects, we know, are conveyed from one country to another 
 in a very unexpected manner, and have a wonderful power of 
 maintaining their existence till they fall into a nidus proper 
 for their support and increase, I cannot but suspect still that 
 
212 WHITE 
 
 these cocci came to me originally from Andalusia. Yet, all 
 the while, candor obliges me to confess that Mr. Lightfoot 
 has written me word that he once, and but once, saw these 
 insects on a vine at Weymouth in Dorsetshire ; which, it is 
 here to be observed, is a seaport town to which the coccus 
 might be conveyed by shipping. 
 
 As many of my readers may possibly never have heard of 
 this strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe a pas- 
 sage from a natural history of Gibraltar, written by the Rev- 
 erend John White, late vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, but 
 not yet published : 
 
 " In the year 1770 a vine, which grew on the east side of 
 my house, and which had produced the finest crops of grapes 
 for years past, was suddenly overspread on all the woody 
 branches with large lumps of a white fibrous substance re- 
 sembling spiders' webs, or rather raw cotton. It was of a 
 very clammy quality, sticking fast to everything that touched 
 it, and capable of being spun into long threads. At first I 
 suspected it to be the product of spiders, but could find none. 
 Nothing was to be seen connected with it but many brown 
 oval husky shells, which by no means looked like insects, but 
 rather resembled bits of the dry bark of the vine. The tree 
 had a plentiful crop of grapes set, when this pest appeared 
 upon it ; but the fruit was manifestly injured by this foul en- 
 cumbrance. It remained all the summer, still increasing, and 
 loaded the woody and bearing branches to a vast degree. I 
 often pulled off great quantities by handfuls ; but it was so 
 slimy and tenacious that it could by no means be cleared. 
 The grapes never filled to their natural perfection, but turned 
 watery and vapid. Upon perusing the works afterwards of 
 M. de Reaumur, I found this matter perfectly described and 
 accounted for. Those husky shells, which I had observed, 
 were no other than the female coccus, from whose side this 
 cotton-like substance exudes, and serves as a covering and 
 security for their eggs." 
 
 To this account I think proper to add that, though the 
 female cocci are stationary, and seldom remove from the place 
 to which they stick, yet the male is a winged insect ; and that 
 the black dust which I saw was undoubtedly the excrement 
 
GOLDFINCH (Carduelis Elegans). 
 
 
WHITE 
 
 ;hes cocci came to me originally from AndaluHtau Yet, all 
 rhc while, candor obliges me to confess that Mr. Lightfoot 
 has written me word that he once, and but or?.;*?, saw these 
 insects on a vine at Weymouth in Dorsetshire ; which, it is 
 here to be observed, is a seaport town to which the coccus 
 might be conveyed by shipping, 
 
 As many of my readers may possibly never have heard of 
 this strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe a pas- 
 sage from a natural history of Gibraltar, written by the Rev- 
 erend John White, late vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, but 
 not yet published ; 
 
 "In the year 1770 * vine, which grew on the east side of 
 my house, ami wla^h had produced the finest crops of grapes 
 tor years pa$t, w,is suddenly overspread on all the woody 
 branches with targe lumps of a white fibrous substance re- 
 sembling spiders' webs, or rather raw cotton. It was of a 
 very clammy qi;. to everything that touched 
 
 it, and capable of being n"-' n ' r ^' : lung threads. At first I 
 raspected Jmrfth'4h^ find none. 
 
 Nothing was to be s*:n .r.-h r^cted with it but many brown 
 oval husky shells, which by no means looked like insects, but 
 rather resembled bits of the dry bark of the vine. The tree 
 had a plentiful crop of grapes set, when this pest appeared 
 upon it; bu? \&<\ fruit wa* manifestly injured by this foul en- 
 cumbrance It veanbtted -rill the summer, still increasing, and 
 loaded the we* *-a.rin^ branches to a vast degree. I 
 
 * by handfuls; )>ut it was so 
 
 siimy and tetiaur--., * could by no means be cleared, 
 
 The grapes new.r - atural perfection, but turned 
 
 watery and vapid. 
 
 M. de ReaiJEftur, I tiwv> o .*?-riv described and 
 
 accounted for. Those h\T8$* *&* 
 
 were no other than the female coccus, from whose side thia 
 cotton-like substance exudes, and serves as a covering 
 security for their eggs." 
 
 To this account I think proper to add that, thoug- 
 female cocci are stationary, and seldom remove from the pb 
 to which they stick, yet the male is a winged insect; and 
 the black dust which I saw was undoubtedly the exert . 
 
V- 
 
 From coll. Mr. F Kaempfer 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 213 
 
 of the females, which is eaten by ants as well as flies. Though 
 the utmost severity of our winter did not destroy these insects, 
 yet the attention of the gardener in a summer or two has 
 entirely relieved my vine from this filthy annoyance. 
 
 As we have remarked above that insects are often conveyed 
 from one country to another in a very unaccountable manner, 
 I shall here mention an emigration of small aphides, which was 
 observed in the village of Selborne no longer ago than August 
 ist, 1785. 
 
 About three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, which was 
 very hot, the people of this village were surprised by a shower 
 of aphides, or smother-flies, which fell in these parts. Those 
 that were walking in the street at that juncture found them- 
 selves covered with these insects, which settled also on the 
 hedges and gardens, blackening all the vegetables where they 
 alighted. My annuals were discolored with them, and the 
 stalks of a bed of onions were quite coated over for six days 
 after. These armies were then, no doubt, in a state of emi- 
 gration, and shifting their quarters; and might have come, 
 as far as we know, from the great hop plantations of Kent or 
 Sussex, the wind being all that day in the easterly quarter. 
 They were observed at the same time in great clouds about 
 Farnham, and all along the vale from Farnham to Alton. 
 
 LETTER LIV 
 
 DEAR SIR, When I happen to visit a family where gold 
 and silver fishes are kept in a glass bowl, I am always pleased 
 with the occurrence, because it offers me an opportunity of 
 observing the actions and propensities of those beings with 
 whom we can be little acquainted in their natural state. Not 
 long since I spent a fortnight at the house of a friend where 
 there was such a vivary, to which I paid no small attention, 
 taking every occasion to remark what passed within its narrow 
 limits. It was here that I first observed the manner in which 
 fishes die. 1 As soon as the creature sickens, the head sinks 
 lower and lower, and it stands as it were on its head ; till, get- 
 
214 WHITE 
 
 ting weaker, and losing all poise, the tail turns over, and at last 
 it floats on the surface of the water with its belly uppermost. 
 The reason why fishes, when dead, swim in that manner is very 
 obvious ; because, when the body is no longer balanced by the 
 fins of the belly, the broad muscular back preponderates by 
 its own gravity, and turns the belly uppermost, as lighter from 
 its being a cavity, and because it contains the swimming- 
 bladders, which contribute to render it buoyant. Some that 
 delight in gold and silver fishes have adopted a notion that they 
 need no aliment. True it is that they will subsist for a long 
 time without any apparent food but what they can collect from 
 pure water frequently changed ; yet they must draw some sup- 
 port from animalcula, and other nourishment supplied by the 
 water; because, though they seem to eat nothing, yet the con- 
 sequences of eating often drop from them. That they are best 
 pleased with such jejune diet may easily be confuted, since if you 
 toss them crumbs they will seize them with great readiness, not 
 to say greediness ; however, bread should be given sparingly, 
 lest, turning sour, it corrupt the water. They will also feed on the 
 water-plant called Lemna (ducks' meat), and also on small fry. 2 
 
 When they want to move a little, they gently protrude them- 
 selves with their Pinna perforates ; but it is with their strong 
 muscular tails only that they and all fishes shoot along with 
 such inconceivable rapidity. It has been said that the eyes 
 of fishes are immovable ; but these apparently turn them for- 
 ward or backward in their sockets as occasions require. They 
 take little notice of a lighted candle, though applied close to 
 their heads, but flounce and seem much frightened by a sudden 
 stroke of the hand against the support whereon the bowl is 
 hung; especially when they have been motionless, and are 
 perhaps asleep. As fishes have no eyelids, it is not easy to 
 discern when they are sleeping or not, because their eyes are 
 always open. 
 
 Nothing can be more amusing than a glass bowl containing 
 such fishes ; the double refractions of the glass and water rep- 
 resent them, when moving, in a shifting and changeable vari- 
 ety of dimensions, shades, and colors ; while the two mediums, 
 assisted by the concavo-convex shape of the vessel, magnify 
 and distort them vastly ; not to mention that the introduction 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 21$ 
 
 of another element and its inhabitants into our parlors engages 
 the fancy in a very agreeable manner. 
 
 Gold and silver fishes, though originally natives of China 
 and Japan, yet are become so well reconciled to our climate 
 as to thrive and multiply very fast in our ponds and stews. 
 Linnaeus ranks this species of fish under the genus of Cypri- 
 mis, or carp, and calls it Cyprimts auratus. 
 
 Some people exhibit this sort of fish in a very fanciful 
 way ; for they cause a glass bowl to be blown with a large 
 hollow space within, that does not communicate with it. In 
 this cavity they put a bird occasionally ; so that you may see 
 a goldfinch or a linnet hopping as it were in the midst of the 
 water, and the fishes swimming in a circle round it. The 
 simple exhibition of the fishes is agreeable and pleasant ; but 
 in so complicated a way becomes whimsical and unnatural, 
 and liable to the objection due to him, 
 
 " Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam." 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Only fish which are very heavy in the head and shoulders die in the 
 way described by White. Other fish, such as trout, swim with their noses 
 at the surface of the water, standing on their tails, as it were, until they 
 turn, bellies up, and die. G. C. D. 
 
 2 In favorable waters the goldfish breeds very fast, and grows to a large 
 size. I know a small pond which is kept warm by waste water from the 
 boilers of an adjoining paper-mill, where these fish are in incredible num- 
 bers for so small a space, and grow to four or five pounds in weight. 
 
 LETTER LV 
 
 October loth, 1781. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I think I have observed before that much of 
 the most considerable part of the house-martins withdraw 
 from hence about the first week in October ; but that some, 
 the latter broods I am now convinced, linger on till towards 
 the middle of that month ; and that at times, once perhaps 
 in two or three years, a flight, for one day only, has shown 
 itself in the first week in November. 
 
 Having taken notice, in October 1780, that the last flight 
 
2l6 WHITE 
 
 was numerous, amounting perhaps to one hundred and fifty ; 
 and that the season was soft and still ; I was resolved to pay 
 uncommon attention to these late birds ; to find, if possible, 
 where they roosted, and to determine the precise time of 
 their retreat. The mode of life of these latter hirundines is 
 very favorable to such a design ; for they spend the whole 
 day in the sheltered district, between me and the Hanger, 
 sailing about in a placid, easy manner, and feasting on those 
 insects which love to haunt a spot so secure from ruffling 
 winds. As my principal object was to discover the place of 
 their roosting, I took care to wait on them before they re- 
 tired to rest, and was much pleased to find that for several 
 evenings together, just at a quarter past five in the afternoon, 
 they all scudded away in great haste towards the south-east, 
 and darted down among the low shrubs above the cottages 
 at the end of the hill. This spot in many respects seemed 
 to be well calculated for their winter residence ; for in many 
 parts it is as steep as the roof of any house, and therefore 
 secure from the annoyances of water; and it is moreover 
 clothed with beechen shrubs, which, being stunted and bitten 
 by sheep, make the thickest covert imaginable ; and are so 
 entangled as to be impervious to the smallest spaniel; be- 
 sides, it is the nature of underwood beech never to cast its 
 leaf all the winter ; so that, with the leaves on the ground and 
 those on the twigs, no shelter can be more complete. I watched 
 them on the I3th and I4th October, and found their evening 
 retreat was exact and uniform ; but after this they made no 
 regular appearance. Now and then a straggler was seen; and 
 on the 22nd October, I observed two in the morning over the 
 village, and with them my remarks for the season ended. 
 
 From all these circumstances put together, it is more than 
 probable that this lingering flight, at so late a season of the 
 year, never departed from the island. Had they indulged 
 me that autumn with a November visit, as I much desired, I 
 presume that, with proper assistants, I should have settled 
 the matter past all doubt ; but though the 3rd November was 
 a sweet day, and in appearance exactly suited to my wishes, 
 yet not a martin was to be seen ; and so I was forced, re- 
 luctantly, to give up the pursuit. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 217 
 
 I have only to add that were the bushes, which cover some 
 acres, and are not my own property, to be grubbed and care- 
 fully examined, probably those late broods, and perhaps the 
 whole aggregate body of the house-martins of this district, 
 might be found there, in different secret dormitories ; and that, 
 so far from withdrawing into warmer climes, it would appear 
 that they never depart three hundred yards from the village. 
 
 LETTER LVI 
 
 THEY who write on natural history cannot too frequently 
 advert to instinct, that wonderful limited faculty, which in 
 some instances raises the brute creation, as it were, above 
 reason, and in others leaves them so far below it. Philoso- 
 phers have defined instinct to be that secret influence by which 
 every species is compelled naturally to pursue, at all times, the 
 same way or track, without any teaching or example ; whereas 
 reason, without instruction, would often vary and do that by 
 many methods which instinct effects by one alone. Now this 
 maxim must be taken in a qualified sense ; for there are in- 
 stances in which instinct does vary and conform to the circum- 
 stances of place and convenience. 
 
 It has been remarked that every species of bird has a mode 
 of nidification peculiar to itself, so that a school-boy would at 
 once pronounce on the sort of nest before him. This is the 
 case among fields and woods and wilds ; but in the villages 
 round London, where mosses and gossamer, and cotton from 
 vegetables, are hardly to be found, the nest of the chaffinch 
 has not that elegant finished appearance, nor is it so beauti- 
 fully studded with lichens, as in a more rural district ; and the 
 wren is obliged to construct its house with straws and dry 
 grasses, which do not give it that rotundity and compactness 
 so remarkable in the edifices of that little architect. Again, the 
 regular nest of the house-martin is hemispheric ; but where a 
 rafter, or a joist; or a cornice, may happen to stand in the way, 
 the nest is so contrived as to conform to the obstruction, and 
 becomes flat, or compressed. 
 
218 WHITE 
 
 In the following instances instinct is perfectly uniform and 
 consistent. There are three creatures, the squirrel, the field- 
 mouse, and the bird called the nuthatch (sitta Europcea), which 
 live much on hazel-nuts ; and yet they open them each in a 
 different way. The first, after rasping off the small end, splits 
 the shell in two with his long fore-teeth, as a man does with 
 his knife ; the second nibbles a hole with his teeth, so regular 
 as if drilled with a wimble, and yet so small that one could 
 wonder how the kernel can be extracted through it ; while the 
 last picks an irregular ragged hole with its bill : but as this 
 artist has no paws to hold the nut firm while he pierces it, like 
 an adroit workman he fixes it, as it were, in a vice, in some 
 cleft of a tree, or in some crevice ; when standing over it, he 
 perforates the stubborn shell. We have often placed nuts in 
 the chink of a gate-post where nuthatches have been known 
 to haunt, and have always found that those birds have readily 
 penetrated them. While at work they make a rapping noise 
 that may be heard at a considerable distance. 
 
 You that understand both the theory and practical part of 
 music may best inform us why harmony or melody should so 
 strangely assist some men, as it were by recollection, for days 
 after the concert is over. What I mean the following passage 
 will most readily explain : 
 
 " Praehabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque har- 
 monicis musicam illam avium : non quod alia quoque non 
 delectaretur : sed quod ex musica humana relinqueretur in 
 animo continens quaedam, attentionemque et somnum contur- 
 bans agitatio ; dum ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac mutationes 
 illas sonorum, et consonantiarum euntque, redeuntque per phan- 
 tasiam: cum nihil tale relinqui possit ex modulationibus 
 avium, quae, quod non sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, non 
 possunt perinde internam facultatem commovere." Gassen- 
 dus in Vita Peireskii. 
 
 This curious quotation strikes me much by so well repre- 
 senting my own case, and by describing what I have so often 
 felt but never could so well express. When I hear fine music 
 I am haunted with passages therefrom night and day ; and 
 especially at first waking, which, by their importunity, give me 
 more uneasiness than pleasure ; elegant lessons still tease my 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 219 
 
 imagination, and recur irresistibly to my recollection at seasons, 
 and even when I am desirous of thinking of more serious 
 matters. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER LVII 
 
 A RARE, and I think a new, little bird frequents my gar- 
 den, which I have great reason to think is the pettichaps : it 
 is common in some parts of the kingdom ; and I have received 
 formerly several dead specimens from Gibraltar. This bird 
 much resembles the whitethroat, but has a more white, or rather 
 silvery breast and belly; is restless and active, like the willow- 
 wrens, and hops from bough to bough, examining every part 
 for food ; it also runs up the stems of the crown-imperials, and, 
 putting its head into the bells of those flowers, sips the liquor 
 which stands in the nectarium of each petal. Sometimes it 
 feeds on the ground like the hedge-sparrow, by hopping about 
 on the grass-plots and mown walks. 1 
 
 One of my neighbors, an intelligent and observing man, 
 informs me that, in the beginning of May and about ten min- 
 utes before eight o'clock in the evening, he discovered a great 
 cluster of house-swallows, thirty, at least, he supposes, perch- 
 ing on a willow that hung over the verge of James Knight's 
 upper pond. His attention was first drawn by the twittering 
 of these birds, which sat motionless in a row on the bough, 
 with their heads all one way, and, by their weight, pressing 
 down the twig so that it nearly touched the water. In this 
 situation he watched them till he could see no longer. Re- 
 peated accounts of this sort, spring and fall, induce us greatly 
 to suspect that house-swallows have some strong attachment 
 to water, independent of the matter of food ; and, though they 
 may not retire into that element, yet they may conceal them- 
 selves in the banks of pools and rivers during the uncomfort- 
 able months of winter. 
 
 One of the keepers of Wolmer Forest sent me a peregrine- 
 falcon, which he shot on the verge of that district as it was 
 devouring a wood-pigeon. The falco peregrinu s, or haggard- 
 falcon, is a noble species of hawk seldom seen in the southern 
 
220 WHITE 
 
 counties. In winter 1767, one was killed in the neighboring 
 parish of Farringdon, and sent by me to Mr. Pennant into 
 North Wales. 2 Since that time I have met with none till now. 
 The specimen mentioned above was in fine preservation, and 
 not injured by the shot : it measured forty-two inches from 
 wing to wing, and twenty-one from beak to tail, and weighed 
 two pounds and a half standing weight. This species is very 
 robust, and wonderfully formed for rapine ; its breast was 
 plump and muscular ; its thighs long, thick, and brawny ; and 
 its legs remarkably short and well set : the feet were armed 
 with most formidable, sharp, long talons : the eyelids and cere 
 of the bill were yellow ; but the irides of the eyes dusky ; the 
 beak was thick and hooked, and of a dark color, and had a 
 jagged process near the end of the upper mandible on each 
 side : its tail, or train, was short in proportion to the bulk of 
 its body ; yet the wings, when closed, did not extend to the 
 end of the train. From its large and fair proportions it might 
 be supposed to have been a female ; but I was not permitted 
 to cut open the specimen. 3 For one of the birds of prey, which 
 are usually lean, this was in high case : in its craw were many 
 barleycorns, which probably came from the crop of the wood- 
 pigeon on which it was feeding when shot; for voracious birds 
 do not eat grain, but, when devouring their quarry, with undis- 
 tinguishing vehemence swallow bones and feathers, and all 
 matters, indiscriminately. This falcon was probably driven 
 from the mountains of North Wales or Scotland, where they 
 are known to breed, by rigorous weather and deep snows that 
 had lately fallen. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTES 
 
 1 The pettichaps is more usually known by the name of the garden war- 
 bler, but White's description is more like the lesser whitethroat, which is 
 peculiarly restless and active, and has a very silvery breast and belly. 
 G. C. D. 
 
 2 See my tenth and eleventh letter to that gentleman. G. W. 
 
 8 Of the hawk tribe, the female is always the larger, stronger, and hand- 
 somer bird ; the reverse being the rule among those birds which are not 
 birds of prey. G. C. D. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 221 
 
 LETTER LVIII 
 
 MY near neighbor, a young gentleman in the service of the 
 East India Company, has brought home a dog and a bitch of 
 the Chinese breed from Canton, such as are fattened in that 
 country for the purpose of being eaten : they are about the 
 size of a moderate spaniel ; of a pale yellow color, with coarse 
 bristling hairs on their backs ; sharp upright ears, and peaked 
 heads, which give them a very fox-like appearance. Their 
 hind-legs are unusually straight, without any bend at the hock 
 or ham, to such a degree as to give them an awkward gait 
 when they trot. When they are in motion their tails are 
 curved high over their backs like those of some hounds, and 
 have a bare place each on the outside from the tip midway, 
 that does not seem to be matter of accident, but somewhat 
 singular. Their eyes are jet-black, small, and piercing ; the 
 insides of their lips and mouths of the same color, and their 
 tongues blue. The bitch has a dew-claw on each hind leg ; 
 the dog has none. When taken out into a field the bitch 
 showed some disposition for hunting, and dwelt on the scent 
 of a covey of partridges till she sprung them, giving her 
 tongue all the time. The dogs in South America are dumb ; 
 but these bark much in a short thick manner like foxes, and 
 have a surly, savage demeanor like their ancestors, which are 
 not domesticated, but bred up in sties, where they are fed for 
 the table with rice-meal and other farinaceous food. These 
 dogs, having been taken on board as soon as weaned, could 
 not learn much from their dam ; yet they did not relish flesh 
 when they came to England. In the islands of the Pacific 
 Ocean the dogs are bred upon vegetables, and would not eat 
 flesh when offered them by our circumnavigators. 
 
 We believe that all dogs, in a state of nature, have sharp, up- 
 right, fox-like ears ; and that hanging ears, which are esteemed 
 so graceful, are the effect of choice breeding and cultivation. 
 Thus, in the " Travels of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to 
 China," the dogs which draw the Tartars on snow-sledges, 
 near the river Oby, are engraved with prick ears, like those 
 from Canton. The Kamschatdales also train the same sort 
 
222 WHITE 
 
 of sharp-eared, peak-nosed dogs to draw their sledges; as 
 may be seen in an elegant print engraved for Captain Cook's 
 last voyage round the world. 
 
 Now we are upon the subject of dogs, it may not be imper- 
 tinent to add that spaniels, as all sportsmen know, though they 
 hunt partridges and pheasants as it were by instinct, and with 
 much delight and alacrity, yet will hardly touch their bones 
 when offered as food; nor will a mongrel dog of my own, 
 though he is remarkable for finding that sort of game. But, 
 when we came to offer the bones of partridges to the two 
 Chinese dogs, they devoured them with much greediness, and 
 licked the platter clean. 
 
 No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to the scent 
 and trained to the sport, which they then pursue with vehe- 
 mence and transport ; but then they will not touch their bones, 
 but turn from them with abhorrence, even when they are 
 hungry. 
 
 Now, that dogs should not be fond of the bones of such 
 birds as they are not disposed to hunt is no wonder ; but why 
 they reject and do not care to eat their natural game is not 
 so easily accounted for, since the end of hunting seems to be, 
 that the chase pursued should be eaten. Dogs again will not 
 devour the more rancid water-fowls, nor indeed the bones of 
 any wild fowls ; nor will they touch the fetid bodies of birds 
 that feed on offal and garbage; and indeed there may be 
 somewhat of providential instinct in this circumstance of dis- 
 like ; for vultures, 1 and kites, and ravens, and crows, etc., were 
 intended to be messmates with dogs 2 over their carrion ; and 
 seem to be appointed by nature as fellow-scavengers to re- 
 move all cadaverous nuisances from the face of the earth. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Hasselquist, in his travels to the Levant, observes that the dogs and 
 vultures at Grand Cairo maintain such a friendly intercourse as to bring up 
 their young together in the same place. G. W. 
 
 2 The Chinese word for a dog to a European ear sounds like quihloh. 
 G. W. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 223 
 
 LETTER LIX 
 
 THE fossil wood buried in the bogs of Wolmer Forest is not 
 yet all exhausted ; for the peat-cutters now and then stumble 
 upon a log. I have just seen a piece which was sent by a 
 laborer of Oakhanger to a carpenter of this village ; this was 
 the butt end of a small oak, about five feet long, and about 
 five inches in diameter. It had apparently been severed from 
 the ground by an axe, was very ponderous, and as black as 
 ebony. Upon asking the carpenter for what purpose he had 
 procured it, he told me that it was to be sent to his brother, 
 a joiner at Farnham, who was to make use of it in cabinet- 
 work, by inlaying it along with whiter woods. 
 
 Those that are much abroad on evenings after it is dark, in 
 spring and summer, frequently hear a nocturnal bird passing 
 by on the wing, and repeating often a short, quick note. This 
 bird I have remarked myself, but never could make out till 
 lately. I am assured now that it is the stone-curlew (ckara- 
 drius cedicnemus). Some of them pass over or near my house 
 almost every evening after it is dark, from the uplands of 
 the hill and North Fields, away down towards Dorton, where, 
 among the streams and meadows, they find a greater plenty 
 of food. Birds that fly by night are obliged to be noisy; their 
 notes often repeated become signals or watchwords to keep 
 them together, that they may not stray or lose each other in 
 the dark. 
 
 The evening proceedings and manoeuvres of the rooks are 
 curious and amusing in the autumn. Just before dusk they 
 return in long strings from the foraging of the day, and ren- 
 dezvous by thousands over Selborne Down, where they wheel 
 round in the air, and sport and dive in a playful manner, all 
 the while exerting their voices, and making a loud cawing, 
 which, being blended and softened by the distance that we 
 at the village are below them, becomes a confused noise or 
 chiding ; or rather a pleasing murmur, very engaging to the 
 imagination, and not unlike the cry of a pack of hounds in 
 hollow, echoing woods, or the rushing of the wind in tall trees, 
 or the tumbling of the tide upon a pebbly shore. When this 
 
224 WHITE 
 
 ceremony is over, with the last gleam of day, they retire for 
 the night to the deep beechen woods of Tisted and Ropley. 
 We remember a little girl who, as she was going to bed, used 
 to remark on such an occurrence, in the true spirit of physico- 
 theology, that the rooks were saying their prayers ; and yet 
 this child was much too young to be aware that the Scriptures 
 have said of the Deity that " He f eedeth the ravens who 
 call upon Him." I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER LX 
 
 IN reading Dr. Huxam's " Observationes de Ae're," etc., 
 written at Plymouth, I find by those curious and accurate 
 remarks, which contain an account of the weather from the 
 year 1727 to the year 1748, inclusive, that though there is 
 frequent rain in that district of Devonshire, yet the quantity 
 falling is not great; and that some years it has been very small: 
 for in 1731 the rain measured only 17.266 in.; and in 1741, 
 20.354 in. ; and again, in 1743, only 20.908 in. Places near 
 the sea have frequent scuds, that keep the atmosphere moist, 
 yet do not reach far up into the country ; making thus the 
 maritime situations appear wet, when the rain is not consider- 
 able. In the wettest years at Plymouth the Doctor measured 
 only once 36; and again once, viz., 1734, 37.114 in. a 
 quantity of rain that has twice been exceeded at Selborne in 
 the short period of my observations. Dr. Huxam remarks 
 that frequent small rains keep the air moist ; while heavy ones 
 render it more dry by beating down the vapors. He is also 
 of opinion that the dingy, smoky appearance in the sky, in 
 very dry seasons, arises from the want of moisture sufficient 
 to let the light through, and render the atmosphere trans- 
 parent ; because he had observed several bodies more diapha- 
 nous when wet than dry ; and did never recollect that the air 
 had that look in rainy seasons. 
 
 My friend, who lives just beyond the top of the Down, 
 brought his three swivel guns to try them in my outlet, with 
 their muzzles towards the Hanger, supposing that the report 
 would have had a great effect ; but the experiment did not 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 225 
 
 answer his expectation. He then removed them to the alcove 
 on the Hanger, when the sound, rushing along the Lith and 
 Comb Wood, was very grand ; but it was at the hermitage that 
 the echoes and repercussions delighted the hearers ; not only 
 filling the Lith with the roar, as if all the beeches were tear- 
 ing up by the roots ; but, turning to the left, they pervaded the 
 vale above Comb Wood ponds ; and after a pause seemed to take 
 up the crash again, and to extend round Harteley Hangers, and 
 to die away at last among the coppices and coverts of Ward le 
 Ham. It has been remarked before that this district is an 
 Anathoth, a place of responses or echoes, and therefore proper 
 for such experiments : we may farther add that the pauses in 
 echoes, when they cease and yet are taken up again, like the 
 pauses in music, surprise the hearers, and have a fine effect 
 on the imagination. 
 
 The gentleman above-mentioned has just fixed a barometer 
 in his parlor at Newton Valence. The tube was first filled here 
 (at Selborne) twice with care, when the mercury agreed and 
 stood exactly with my own ; but, being filled twice again at 
 Newton, the mercury stood, on account of the great elevation 
 of that house, three-tenths of an inch lower than the barometers 
 at this village, and so continues to do, be the weight of the 
 atmosphere what it may. The plate of the barometer at 
 Newton is figured as low as 27; because in stormy weather 
 the mercury there will sometimes descend below 28. We have 
 supposed Newton House to stand two hundred feet higher than 
 this house : but if the rule holds good which says that mercury 
 in a barometer sinks one-tenth of an inch for every hundred 
 feet elevation, then the Newton barometer, by standing three- 
 tenths lower than that of Selborne, proves that Newton House 
 must be three hundred feet higher than that in which I am 
 writing, instead of two hundred. 
 
 It may not be impertinent to add that the barometers at 
 Selborne stand three-tenths of an inch lower than the barome- 
 ters at South Lambeth : whence we may conclude that the 
 former place is about three hundred feet higher than the latter ; 
 and with good reason, because the streams that rise with us 
 run into the Thames at Weybridge, and so to London. Of 
 course therefore there must be lower ground all the way from 
 
 16 
 
226 WHITE 
 
 Selborne to South Lambeth ; the distance between which, all 
 the windings and indentings of the stream considered, cannot 
 be less than a hundred miles. 
 
 I am, etc. 
 
 LETTER LXI 
 
 SINCE the weather of a district is undoubtedly part of its 
 natural history, I shall make no further apology for the four 
 following letters, which will contain many particulars concern- 
 ing some of the great frosts, and a few respecting some very 
 hot summers, that have distinguished themselves from the rest 
 during the course of my observations. 
 
 As the frost in January 1768 was, for the small time it lasted, 
 the most severe that we had then known for many years, and 
 was remarkably injurious to evergreens, some account of its 
 rigor, and reason of its ravages, may be useful, and not unac- 
 ceptable to persons that delight in planting and ornamenting ; 
 and may particularly become a work that professes never to 
 lose sight of utility. 
 
 For the last two or three days of the former year there were 
 considerable falls of snow, which lay deep and uniform on the 
 ground without any drifting, wrapping up the more humble 
 vegetation in perfect security. From the first day to the fifth 
 of the new year more snow succeeded ; but from that day the 
 air became entirely clear ; and the heat of the sun about noon 
 had a considerable influence in sheltered situations. 
 
 It was in such an aspect that the snow on the author's ever- 
 greens was melted every day, and frozen intensely every night ; 
 so that the laurestines, bays, laurels, and arbutuses looked, in 
 three or four days, as if they had been burnt in the fire ; while 
 a neighbor's plantation of the same kind, in a high, cold situa- 
 tion, where the snow was never melted at all, remained unin- 
 jured. 
 
 From hence I would infer that it is the repeated melting 
 and freezing of the snow that is so fatal to vegetation, rather 
 than the severity of the cold. Therefore it highly behooves 
 every planter who wishes to escape the cruel mortification of 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 22/ 
 
 losing in a few days the labor and hopes of years, to bestir 
 himself on such emergencies ; and if his plantations are small, 
 to avail himself of mats, cloths, pease-haum, straw, reeds, or 
 any such covering, for a short time ; or, if his shrubberies are 
 extensive, to see that his people go about with prongs and 
 forks, and carefully dislodge the snow from the boughs : since 
 the naked foliage will shift much better for itself, than where 
 the snow is partly melted and frozen again. 
 
 It may perhaps appear at first like a paradox ; but doubtless 
 the more tender trees and shrubs should never be planted in 
 hot aspects ; not only for the reason assigned above, but also 
 because, thus circumstanced, they are disposed to shoot earlier 
 in the spring, and to grow on later in the autumn than they 
 would otherwise do, and so are sufferers by lagging or early 
 frosts. For this reason also plants from Siberia will hardly 
 endure our climate; because, on the very first advances of 
 spring, they shoot away, and so are cut off by the severe nights 
 of March or April. 
 
 Dr. Fothergill and others have experienced the same incon- 
 venience with respect to the more tender shrubs from North 
 America, which they therefore plant under north walls. There 
 should also perhaps be a wall to the east to defend them from 
 the piercing blasts from that quarter. 
 
 This observation might without any impropriety be carried 
 into animal life ; for discerning bee-masters now find that their 
 hives should not in the winter be exposed to the hot sun, 
 because such unseasonable warmth awakens the inhabitants 
 too early from their slumbers ; and, by putting their juices into 
 motion too soon, subjects them afterwards to inconveniences 
 when rigorous weather returns. 
 
 The coincidents attending this short but intense frost were, 
 that the horses fell sick with an epidemic distemper, which 
 injured the winds of many, and killed some ; that colds and 
 coughs were general among the human species ; that it froze 
 under people's beds for several nights ; that meat was so hard 
 frozen that it could not be spitted, and could not be secured 
 but in cellars ; that several redwings and thrushes were killed 
 by the frost ; and that the large titmouse continued to pull 
 straws lengthwise from the eaves of thatched houses and barns 
 
228 WHITE 
 
 in a most adroit manner, for a purpose that has been explained 
 already. 
 
 On the 3rd January, Benjamin Martin's thermometer within 
 doors, in a close parlor where there was no fire, fell in the 
 night to 20, and on the 4th, to 18, and on the /th, to i/^- , 
 a degree of cold which the owner never since saw in the same 
 situation ; and he regrets much that he was not able at that 
 juncture to attend his instrument abroad. All this time the 
 wind continued north and north-east; and yet on the 8th roost- 
 cocks, which had been silent, began to sound their clarions, and 
 crows to clamor, as prognostic of milder weather ; and, more- 
 over, moles began to heave and work, and a manifest thaw 
 took place. From the latter circumstance we may conclude 
 that thaws often originate under ground from warm vapors 
 which arise ; else how should subterraneous animals receive 
 such early intimations of their approach ? Moreover, we have 
 often observed that cold seems to descend from above ; for, 
 when a thermometer hangs abroad in a frosty night, the inter- 
 vention of a cloud shall immediately raise the mercury 10 ; 
 and a clear sky shall again compel it to descend to its former 
 gauge. 
 
 And here it may be proper to observe, on what has been 
 said above, that though frosts advance to their utmost severity 
 by somewhat of a regular gradation, yet thaws do not usually 
 come on by as regular a declension of cold ; but often take 
 place immediately from intense freezing ; as men in sickness 
 often mend at once from a paroxysm. 
 
 To the great credit of Portugal laurels and American juni- 
 pers, be it remembered that they remained untouched amidst 
 the general havoc: hence men should learn to ornament chiefly 
 with such trees as are able to withstand accidental severities, 
 and not subject themselves to the vexation of a loss which may 
 befall them once perhaps in ten years, yet may hardly be 
 recovered through the whole course of their lives. 1 
 
 As it appeared afterwards, the ilexes were much injured, 
 the cypresses were half destroyed, the arbutuses lingered on 
 but never recovered ; and the bays, laurestines, and laurels 
 were killed to the ground ; and the very wild hollies, in hot 
 aspects, were so much affected that they cast all their leaves. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 229 
 
 By the I4th January the snow was entirely gone ; the tur- 
 nips emerged not damaged at all, save in sunny places ; the 
 wheat looked delicately, and the garden plants were well pre- 
 served ; for snow is the most kindly mantle that infant vege- 
 tation can be wrapped in : were it not for that friendly meteor 
 no vegetable life could exist at all in northerly regions. Yet 
 in Sweden the earth in April is not divested of snow for more 
 than a fortnight before the face of the country is covered with 
 flowers. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 At the same time the snow fell so fast and in such quantity, and lay 
 so long, that all the thick shrubs were bent to the ground with its weight, 
 and unless the snow was constantly shaken off the branches they per- 
 ished. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER LXII 
 
 THERE were some circumstances attending the remarkable 
 frost in January 1776, so singular and striking, that a short 
 detail of them may not be unacceptable. 
 
 The most certain way to be exact will be to copy the pas- 
 sages from my journal, which were taken from time to time, 
 as things occurred. But it may be proper previously to 
 remark that the first week in January was uncommonly wet, 
 and drowned with vast rains from every quarter : from whence 
 may be inferred, as there is great reason to believe is the case, 
 that intense frosts seldom take place till the earth is perfectly 
 glutted and chilled with water ; l and hence dry autumns are 
 seldom followed by rigorous winters. 
 
 January 7th. Snow driving all the day, which was followed 
 by frost, sleet, and some snow, till the I2th, when a prodigious 
 mass overwhelmed all the works of men, drifting over the tops 
 of the gates and filling the hollow lanes. 
 
 On the 1 4th the writer was obliged to be much abroad; and 
 thinks he never before or since has encountered such rugged 
 Siberian weather. Many of the narrow roads were now filled 
 above the tops of the hedges ; through which the snow was 
 driven into most romantic and grotesque shapes, so striking 
 
230 WHITE 
 
 to the imagination as not to be seen without wonder and pleas- 
 ure. The poultry dared not to stir out of their roosting places; 
 for cocks and hens are so dazzled and confounded by the glare 
 of snow that they would soon perish without assistance. The 
 hares also lay sullenly in their seats, and would not move till 
 compelled by hunger; being conscious poor animals that 
 the drifts and heaps treacherously betray their footsteps, and 
 prove fatal to numbers of them. 
 
 From the I4th the snow continued to increase, and began 
 to stop the road wagons, and coaches, which could no longer 
 keep on their regular stages ; and especially on the western 
 roads, where the fall appears to have been deeper than in 
 the south. The company at Bath, that wanted to attend the 
 Queen's birthday, were strangely incommoded : many car- 
 riages of persons, who got in their way to town from Bath 
 as far as Marlborough, after strange embarrassments, here 
 met with a ne plus ultra. The ladies fretted, and offered large 
 rewards to laborers if they would shovel them a track to Lon- 
 don ; but the relentless heaps of snow were too bulky to be 
 removed; and so the i8th passed over, leaving the company 
 in very uncomfortable circumstances at the Castle and other 
 inns. 
 
 On the 2Oth the sun shone out for the first time since the 
 frost began ; a circumstance that has been remarked before 
 much in favor of vegetation. All this time the cold was not 
 very intense, for the thermometer stood at 29, 28, 25, and 
 thereabout; but on the 2ist it descended to 20. The birds 
 now began to be in a very pitiable and starving condition. 
 Tamed by the season, skylarks settled in the streets of towns, 
 because they saw the ground was bare; rooks frequented dung- 
 hills close to houses ; and crows watched horses as they passed, 
 and greedily devoured what dropped from them : hares now 
 came into men's gardens, and, scraping away the snow, de- 
 voured such plants as they could find. 
 
 On the 22nd the author had occasion to go to London 
 through a sort of Laplandian scene, very wild and grotesque 
 indeed. But the metropolis itself exhibited a still more singu- 
 lar appearance than the country ; for, being bedded deep in 
 snow, the pavement of the streets could not be touched by 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 231 
 
 the wheels or the horses' feet, so that the carriages ran about 
 without the least noise. Such an exemption from din and 
 clatter was strange, but not pleasant ; it seemed to convey an 
 uncomfortable idea of desolation : 
 
 . . . " Ipsa silentia terrent." 
 
 On the 27th much snow fell all day, and in the evening the 
 frost became very intense. At South Lambeth, for the four 
 following nights, the thermometer fell to 11, 7, 6, 6; and 
 at Selborne to 7, 6, 10 ; and on the 3ist January, just before 
 sunrise, with rime on the trees and on the tube of the glass, 
 the quicksilver sank exactly to zero, being 32 below the freez- 
 ing point ; but by eleven in the morning, though in the shade, 
 it sprang up to i6J-, 2 a most unusual degree of cold this for 
 the south of England ! During these four nights the cold was 
 so penetrating that it occasioned ice in warm chambers and 
 under beds ; and in the day the wind was so keen that persons 
 of robust constitutions could scarcely endure to face it. The 
 Thames was at once so frozen over both above and below the 
 bridge that crowds ran about on the ice. The streets were now 
 strangely encumbered with snow, which crumbled and trod 
 dusty ; and, turning gray, resembled bay-salt ; what had fallen 
 on the roofs was so perfectly dry that, from first to last, it lay 
 twenty-six days on the houses in the city : a longer time than 
 had been remembered by the oldest housekeepers living. Ac- 
 cording to all appearances we might now have expected the 
 continuance of this rigorous weather for weeks to come, since 
 every night increased in severity; but behold, without any 
 apparent cause, on the ist February a thaw took place, and 
 some rain followed before night, making good the observation 
 above, that frosts often go off as it were at once, without any 
 gradual declension of cold. On the 2nd February the thaw 
 persisted ; and on the 3rd swarms of little insects were frisk- 
 ing and sporting in a court-yard at South Lambeth, as if they 
 had felt no frost. Why the juices in the small bodies and 
 smaller limbs of such minute beings are not frozen is a mat- 
 ter of curious inquiry. 
 
 Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to run in currents ; for at 
 the same juncture, as the author was informed by accurate 
 
232 WHITE 
 
 correspondents, at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, the 
 thermometer stood at 19 ; at Blackburn, in Lancashire, at 
 19; and at Manchester, at 21, 20, and 18. Thus does 
 some unknown circumstance strangely overbalance latitude, 
 and render the cold sometimes much greater in the southern 
 than the northern parts of this kingdom. 
 
 The consequences of this severity were that in Hampshire, 
 at the melting of the snow, the wheat looked well, and the tur- 
 nips came forth little injured. The laurels and laurestines 
 were somewhat damaged, but only in hot aspects. No ever- 
 greens were quite destroyed ; and not Half the damage sus- 
 tained that befell in January 1768. Those laurels that were 
 a little scorched on the south sides were perfectly untouched 
 on their north sides. The care taken to shake the snow day 
 by day from the branches seemed greatly to avail the author's 
 evergreens. A neighbor's laurel-hedge, in a high situation, 
 and facing to the north, was perfectly green and vigorous ; and 
 the Portugal laurels remained unhurt. 
 
 As to the birds, the thrushes and blackbirds were mostly 
 destroyed ; and the partridges, by the weather and poachers, 
 were so thinned that few remained to breed the following year. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 The autumn preceding January 1768 was very wet, and particularly the 
 month of September, during which there fell at Lyndon, in the county of 
 Rutland, six inches and a half of rain. And the terrible long frost in 1 739-40 
 set in after a rainy season, and when the springs were very high. G. W. 
 
 2 At Selborne the cold was greater than at any other place that the author 
 could hear of with certainty : though some reported at the time that at a 
 village in Kent the thermometer fell two degrees below zero, viz., thirty- 
 four degrees below the freezing point. 
 
 The thermometer used at Selborne was graduated by Benjamin Martin. 
 G. W. 
 
 LETTER LXIII 
 
 As the frost in December 1784 was very extraordinary, you, 
 I trust, will not be displeased to hear the particulars ; and 
 especially when I promise to say no more about the severities 
 of winter after I have finished this letter. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 233 
 
 The first week in December was very wet, with the barom- 
 eter very low. On the 7th, with the barometer at 28.5, 
 came on a vast snow, which continued all that day and the 
 next, and most part of the following night; so that by the 
 morning of the Qth the works of men were quite overwhelmed, 
 the lanes filled so as to be impassable, and the ground covered 
 twelve or fifteen inches without any drifting. In the evening 
 of the Qth the air began to be so very sharp that we thought 
 it would be curious to attend to the motions of a thermometer ; 
 we therefore hung out two, one made by Martin and one 
 by Dollond, which soon began to show us what we were to 
 expect; for by ten o'clock they fell to 21, and at eleven to 4, 
 when we went to bed. On the loth, in the morning, the 
 quicksilver of Dollond's glass was down to half a degree 
 below zero; and that of Martin's, which was absurdly gradu- 
 ated only to four degrees above zero, sank quite into the brass 
 guard of the ball; so that when the weather became most 
 interesting this was useless. On the loth, at eleven at night, 
 though the air was perfectly still, Dollond's glass went down 
 to one degree below zero! This strange severity of the 
 weather made me very desirous to know what degree of cold 
 there might be in such an exalted and near situation as New- 
 ton. We had, therefore, on the morning of the loth, written 
 
 to Mr. , and entreated him to hang out his thermometer, 
 
 made by Adams, and to pay some attention to it morning and 
 evening, expecting wonderful phenomena, in so elevated a 
 region, at two hundred feet or more above my house. But, 
 behold ! on the loth, at eleven at night, it was down only to 
 17, and the next morning at 22, when mine was at 10 ! We 
 were so disturbed at this unexpected reverse of comparative 
 local cold, that we sent one of my glasses up, thinking that of 
 
 Mr. must, somehow, be wrongly constructed. But, when 
 
 the instruments came to be confronted, they went exactly to- 
 gether ; so that, for one night at least, the cold at Newton was 
 1 8 less than at Selborne, and, through the whole frost, 10 
 or 12; and indeed, when we came to observe consequences, 
 we could readily credit this; for all my laurestines, bays, 
 ilexes, arbutuses, cypresses, and even my Portugal laurels, and 
 (which occasions more regret) my fine sloping laurel-hedge, 
 
234 WHITE 
 
 were scorched up, while at Newton the same trees have not 
 lost a leaf. 
 
 We had steady frost on the 25th, when the thermometer in 
 the morning was down to 10 with us, and at Newton only to 
 2 1 . Strong frost continued till the 3 1 st, when some tendency 
 to thaw was observed; and, by January 3rd, 1785, the thaw 
 was confirmed, and some rain fell. 
 
 A circumstance that I must not omit, because it was new to 
 us, is that on Friday, December loth, being bright sunshine, 
 the air was full of icy spiculcs, floating in all directions, like 
 atoms in a sunbeam let into a dark room. We thought them 
 at first particles of the rime falling from my tall hedges ; but 
 were soon convinced to the contrary, by making our observa- 
 tions in open places where no rime could reach us. Were they 
 watery particles of the air frozen as they floated, or were they 
 evaporations from the snow frozen as they mounted ? 
 
 We were much obliged to the thermometers for the early 
 information they gave us ; and hurried our apples, pears, onions, 
 potatoes, etc., into the cellar, and warm closets ; while those 
 who had not, or neglected such warnings, lost all their store of 
 roots and fruits, and had their very bread and cheese frozen. 
 
 I must not omit to tell you that, during these two Siberian 
 days, my parlor cat was so electric, that had a person stroked 
 her, and been properly insulated, the shock might have been 
 given to a whole circle of people. 
 
 I forgot to mention before that, during the two severe days, 
 two men, who were tracing hares in the snow, had their feet 
 frozen, and two men, who were much better employed, had 
 their fingers so affected by the frost, while they were thrash- 
 ing in a barn, that a mortification followed, from which they 
 did not recover for many weeks. 
 
 This frost killed all the furze and most of the ivy, and in 
 many places stripped the hollies of all their leaves. It came 
 at a very early time of the year, before old November ended ; 
 and yet may be allowed from its effects to have exceeded any 
 since 1730-40. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 235 
 
 LETTER LXIV 
 
 As the effects of heat are seldom very remarkable in the 
 northerly climate of England, where the summers are often 
 so defective in warmth and sunshine as not to ripen the fruits 
 of the earth so well as might be wished, I shall be more con- 
 cise in my account of the severity of a summer season, and 
 so make a little amends for the prolix account of the degrees 
 of cold, and the inconveniences that we suffered from some 
 late rigorous winters. 
 
 The summers of 1781 and 1783 were unusually hot and 
 dry ; to them therefore I shall turn back in my journals, with- 
 out recurring to any more distant period. In the former of 
 these years my peach and nectarine trees suffered so much 
 from the heat that the rind on the bodies was scalded and came 
 off ; since which the trees have been in a decaying state. This 
 may prove a hint to assiduous gardeners to fence and shelter 
 their wall trees with mats or boards, as they may easily do, 
 because such annoyance is seldom of long continuance. Dur- 
 ing that summer also, I observed that my apples were coddled, 
 as it were, on the trees ; so that they had no quickness of flavor, 
 and would not keep in the winter. This circumstance put me 
 in mind of what I have heard travellers assert, that they never 
 ate a good apple or apricot in the south of Europe, where the 
 heats were so great as to render the juices vapid and insipid. 
 
 The great pests of a garden are wasps, which destroy all 
 the finer fruits just as they are coming into perfection. In 
 1781 we had none ; in 1783 there were myriads ; which would 
 have devoured all the produce of my garden, had not we set 
 the boys to take the nests, and caught thousands with hazel- 
 twigs tipped with bird-lime : we have since employed the boys 
 to take and destroy the large breeding wasps in the spring. 
 Such expedients have a great effect on these marauders, and 
 will keep them under. Though wasps do not abound but in 
 hot summers, yet they do not prevail in every hot summer, as 
 I have instanced in the two years above-mentioned. 
 
 In the sultry season of 1783, honey-dews were so frequent 
 as to deface and destroy the beauties of my garden. My 
 
236 WHITE 
 
 honeysuckles, which were one week the most sweet and lovely 
 objects that the eye could behold, became the next the most 
 loathsome; being enveloped in a viscous substance, and loaded 
 with black aphides, or smother-flies. The occasion of this 
 clammy appearance seems to be this, that in hot weather 
 the effluvia of flowers in fields and meadows and gardens are 
 drawn up in the day by a brisk evaporation, and then in 
 the night fall down again with the dews, in which they are 
 entangled; that the air is strongly scented, and therefore 
 impregnated with the particles of flowers in summer weather, 
 our senses will inform us; and that this clammy sweet sub- 
 stance is of the vegetable kind we may learn from bees, to 
 whom it is very grateful : and we may be assured that it falls 
 in the night, because it is always first seen in warm still 
 mornings. 1 
 
 On chalky and sandy soils, and in the hot villages about 
 London, the thermometer has been often observed to mount 
 as high as 83 or 84 ; but with us, in this hilly and woody dis- 
 trict, I have hardly ever seen it exceed 80 ; nor does it often 
 arrive at that pitch. The reason, I conclude, is that our 
 dense clayey soil, so much shaded by trees, is not so easily 
 heated through as those above-mentioned ; and, besides, our 
 mountains cause currents of air and breezes; and the vast 
 effluvia from our wood-lands temper and moderate our heats. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 White's explanation of the origin of honey-dew is ingenious but incor- 
 rect. It is now ascertained to be an exudation from the aphides themselves. 
 It is by some called their excrement. G. C. D. 
 
 LETTER LXV 
 
 THE summer of the year 1783 was an amazing and por- 
 tentous one, and full of horrible phenomena; for, besides 
 the alarming meteors and tremendous thunder-storms that 
 affrighted and distressed the different counties of this king- 
 dom, the peculiar haze, or smoky fog, that prevailed for many 
 weeks in this island, and in every part of Europe, and even 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 237 
 
 beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary appearance, 
 unlike anything known within the memory of man. By my 
 journal I find that I had noticed this strange occurrence from 
 June 23rd to July 2Oth inclusive, during which period the wind 
 varied to every quarter without making any alteration in the 
 air. The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded moon, 
 and shed a rust-colored ferruginous light on the ground, and 
 floors of rooms ; but was particularly lurid and blood-colored 
 at rising and setting. All the time the heat was so intense 
 that butcher's meat could hardly be eaten on the day after it 
 was killed ; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and hedges 
 that they rendered the horses half frantic, and riding irksome. 
 The country-people began to look with a superstitious awe at the 
 red, lowering aspect of the sun ; and indeed there was reason 
 for the most enlightened person to be apprehensive ; for, all 
 the while, Calabria and a part of the Isle of Sicily were torn 
 and convulsed with earthquakes ; and about that juncture a 
 volcano sprang out of the sea on the coast of Norway. On 
 this occasion Milton's noble simile of the sun, in his first book 
 of " Paradise Lost," frequently occurred to my mind ; and it 
 is indeed particularly applicable, because, towards the end, it 
 alludes to a superstitious kind of dread, with which the minds 
 of men are always impressed by such strange and unusual 
 
 phenomena. 
 
 . . . " As when the sun, new risen, 
 
 Looks through the horizontal, misty air, 
 Shorn of his beams ; or from behind the moon, 
 In dim. eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 
 On half the nations, and vtiihfear of change 
 Perplexes monarchs." . . . 
 
 LETTER LXVI 
 
 WE are very seldom annoyed with thunder-storms : and it 
 is no less remarkable than true, that those which arise in the 
 south have hardly been known to reach this village; for, 
 before they get over us, they take a direction to the east or to 
 the west, or sometimes divide in two, go in part to one of those 
 quarters, and in part to the other ; as was truly the case in 
 
238 WHITE 
 
 summer 1783, when, though the country round was continu- 
 ally harassed with tempests, and often from the south, yet we 
 escaped them all, as appears by my journal of that summer. 
 The only way that I can at all account for this fact for such 
 it is is that, on that quarter, between us and the sea, there 
 are continual mountains, hill behind hill, such as Nore Hill, the 
 Barnet, Butser Hill, and Ports Down, which somehow divert 
 the storms and give them a different direction. High prom- 
 ontories, and elevated grounds, have always been observed 
 to attract clouds and disarm them of their mischievous con- 
 tents, which are discharged into the trees and summits as soon 
 as they come in contact with those turbulent meteors ; while 
 the humble vales escape, because they are so far beneath 
 them. 
 
 But, when I say I do not remember a thunder-storm from 
 the south, I do not mean that we never have suffered from 
 thunder-storms at all; for on June 5th, 1784, the thermom- 
 eter in the morning being at 64, and at noon at 70, the 
 barometer at 29.6^ and the wind north, I observed a blue 
 mist, smelling strongly of sulphur, hanging along our sloping 
 woods, and seeming to indicate that thunder was at hand. I 
 was called in about two in the afternoon, and so missed seeing 
 the gathering of the clouds in the north ; which they who were 
 abroad assured me had something uncommon in its appear- 
 ance. At about a quarter after two the storm began in the 
 parish of Harteley, moving slowly from north to south : and 
 from thence it came over Norton Farm, and so to Grange 
 Farm, both in this parish. It began with vast drops of rain, 
 which were soon succeeded by round hail, and then by con- 
 vex pieces of ice, which measured three inches in girth. Had 
 it been as extensive as it was violent, and of any continuance 
 (for it was very short), it must have ravaged all the neighbor- 
 hood. In the parish of Harteley it did some damage to one 
 farm ; but Norton, which lay in the centre of the storm, was 
 greatly injured ; as was Grange, which lay next to it. It did 
 but just reach to the middle of the village, where the hail broke 
 my north windows, and all my garden-lights and hand-glasses, 
 and many of my neighbors' windows. The extent of the 
 storm was about two miles in length and one in breadth. We 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 239 
 
 were just sitting down to dinner ; but were soon diverted from 
 our repast by the clattering of tiles and the jingling of glass. 
 There fell at the same time prodigious torrents of rain on the 
 farms above-mentioned, which occasioned a flood as violent as 
 it was sudden ; doing great damage to the meadows and fal- 
 lows, by deluging the one and washing away the soil of the 
 other. The hollow lane towards Alton was so torn and dis- 
 ordered as not to be passable till mended, rocks being removed 
 that weighed two hundred-weight. Those that saw the effect 
 which the great hail had on ponds and pools say that the dash- 
 ing of the water made an extraordinary appearance, the froth 
 and spray standing up in the air three feet above the sur- 
 face. The rushing and roaring of the hail, as it approached, 
 was truly tremendous. 
 
 Though the clouds at South Lambeth, near London, were 
 at that juncture thin and light, and no storm was in sight, nor 
 within hearing, yet the air was strongly electric ; for the bells 
 of an electric machine at that place rang repeatedly, and 
 fierce sparks were discharged. 
 
 When I first took the present work in hand I proposed to 
 have added an " Annus Historico-naturalis," or " The Natural 
 History of the Twelve Months of the Year;" which would 
 have comprised many incidents and occurrences that have not 
 fallen in my way to be mentioned in my series of letters ; but, 
 as Mr. Aikin of Warrington has lately published somewhat 
 of this sort, and as the length of my correspondence has 
 sufficiently put your patience to the test, I shall here take a 
 respectful leave of you and natural history together, and am, 
 
 With all due deference and regard, 
 
 Your most obliged and most humble servant, 
 
 GIL. WHITE. 
 SELBORNE, 
 June 2$th, 1785. 
 
THE 
 
 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 
 
 LETTER I 
 
 IT is reasonable to suppose that in remote ages this woody 
 and mountainous district was inhabited only by bears and 
 wolves. Whether the Britons ever thought it worthy their 
 attention is not in our power to determine; but we may safely 
 conclude, from circumstances, that it was not unknown to the 
 Romans. Old people remember to have heard their fathers 
 and grandfathers say that, in dry summers and in windy 
 weather, pieces of money were sometimes found round the 
 verge of Wolmer Pond ; and tradition had inspired the forest- 
 ers with a notion that the bottom of that lake contained great 
 stores of treasure. During the spring and summer of 1740 
 there was little rain; and the following summer also, 1741, 
 was so uncommonly dry that many springs and ponds failed, 
 and this lake in particular, whose bed became as dusty as 
 the surrounding heaths and wastes. This favorable juncture 
 induced some of the forest-cottagers to begin a search, which 
 was attended with such success, that all the laborers in the 
 neighborhood flocked to the spot, and with spades and hoes 
 turned up great part of that large area. Instead of pots of 
 coins, as they expected, they found great heaps, the one lying 
 on the other, as if shot out of a bag ; many of which were in 
 good preservation. Silver and gold these inquirers expected 
 to find ; but their discoveries consisted solely of many hun- 
 dreds of Roman copper coins, and some medallions, all of the 
 lower empire. There was not much virtu stirring at that time 
 in this neighborhood ; however, some of the gentry and clergy 
 17 241 
 
242 WHITE 
 
 around bought what pleased them best, and some dozens fell 
 to the share of the author. 1 
 
 The owners at first held their commodity at a high price ; 
 but, finding that they were not likely to meet with dealers at 
 such a rate, they soon lowered their terms, and sold the fair- 
 est as they could. The coins that were rejected became 
 current, and passed for farthings at the petty shops. Of 
 those that we saw, the greater part were of Marcus Aurelius, 
 and the Empress Faustina, his wife, the father and mother 
 of Commodus. Some of Faustina were in high relief, and 
 exhibited a very agreeable set of features, which probably 
 resembled that lady, who was more celebrated for her beauty 
 than for her virtues. The medallions in general were of a 
 paler color than the coins. To pretend to account for the 
 means of their coming to this place would be spending time 
 in conjecture. The spot, I think, could not be a Roman camp, 
 because it is commanded by hills on two sides ; nor does it 
 show the least traces of entrenchments ; nor can I suppose that 
 it was a Roman town, because I have too good an opinion of 
 the taste and judgment of those polished conquerors to imagine 
 that they would settle on so barren and dreary a waste. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 In October 1873 ^ wo earthenware vessels were found two feet under the 
 surface of a field near Selborne containing about thirty thousand Roman 
 and Roman-British coins. 
 
 LETTER II 
 
 THAT Selborne was a place of some distinction and note in 
 the time of the Saxons we can give most undoubted proofs. 
 But, as there are few if any accounts of the villages before 
 Domesday, it will be best to begin with that venerable record. 
 " Ipse rex tenet Selesburne. Eddid regina tenuit, et nunquam 
 geldavit. De isto manerio dono dedit rex Radfredo presby- 
 tero dimidiam hidam cum ecclesia. Tempore regis Edwardi 
 et post, valuit duodecim solidos et sex denarios ; modo octo 
 solidos et quatuor denarios." Here we see that Selborne was 
 a royal manor: and that Editha, the queen of Edward the 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 243 
 
 Confessor, had been lady of that manor, and was succeeded 
 in it by the Conqueror, and that it had a church. Besides 
 these, many circumstances concur to prove it to have been 
 a Saxon village ; such as the name of the place itself, 1 the 
 names of many fields, and some families, 2 with a variety of 
 words in husbandry and common life, still subsisting among 
 the country-people. 
 
 What probably first drew the attention of the Saxons to this 
 spot was the beautiful spring or fountain called Well Head, 3 
 which induced them to build by the banks of that perennial 
 current ; for ancient settlers loved to reside by brooks and 
 rivulets, where they could dip for their water without the 
 trouble and expense of digging wells and of drawing. 
 
 It remains still unsettled among the antiquaries at what 
 time tracts of land were first appropriated to the chase alone 
 for the amusement of the sovereign. Whether our Saxon 
 monarchs had any royal forests does not, I believe, appear 
 on record; but the " Constitutiones de Foresta" of Canute, 
 the Dane, are come down to us. We shall not, therefore, 
 pretend to say whether Wolmer Forest existed as a royal 
 domain before the conquest. If it did not, we may suppose 
 it was laid out by some of our earliest Norman kings, who 
 were exceedingly attached to the pleasures of the chase, and 
 resided much at Winchester, which lies at a moderate distance 
 from this district. The Plantagenet princes seem to have been 
 pleased with Wolmer, for tradition says that King John re- 
 sided just upon the verge, at Ward le Ham, on a regular and 
 remarkable mount, still called King John's Hill, and Lodge 
 Hill; and Edward III. had a chapel in his park, or enclosure, 
 at Kingsley. 4 Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and Richard, 
 Duke of York, say my evidences, were both, in their turns, 
 wardens of Wolmer Forest, which seems to have served for 
 an appointment for the younger princes of the royal family, 
 as it may again. 
 
 I have intentionally mentioned Edward III. and the dukes 
 Humphrey and Richard, before King Edward II., because I 
 have reserved, for the entertainment of my readers, a pleas- 
 ant anecdote respecting that prince, with which I shall close 
 this letter. 
 
244 WHITE 
 
 As Edward II. was hunting on Wolmer Forest, Morris Ken, 
 of the kitchen, fell from his horse several times, at which ac- 
 cidents the king laughed immoderately ; and, when the chase 
 was over, ordered him twenty shillings, 6 an enormous sum for 
 those days ! Proper allowances ought to be made for the 
 youth of this monarch, whose spirits also, we may suppose, 
 were much exhilarated by the sport of the day ; but, at the 
 same time, it is reasonable to remark that, whatever might 
 be the occasions of Ken's first fall, the subsequent ones seem 
 to have been designed. The scullion appears to have been 
 an artful fellow, and to have seen the king's foible, which fur- 
 nishes an early specimen of that his easy softness and facility 
 of temper, of which the infamous Gaveston took such advan- 
 tages as brought innumerable calamities on the nation and 
 involved the prince at last in misfortunes and sufferings too 
 deplorable to be mentioned without horror and amazement. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Selesburne, Seleburne, Selburn, Selbourn, Selborne, and Selborn, as it 
 has been variously spelt at different periods, is of Saxon derivation ; for Set 
 signifies great, and burn torrens, a brook or rivulet : so that the name seems 
 to be derived from the great perennial stream that breaks out at the upper 
 end of the village. Sel also signifies bonus, item fcecundus, fertilis. " Sel 
 gsepr-cun : foBcunda graminis clausura ; fertile pascuum : a meadow in the 
 parish of Godelming is still called Sal-gars-ton" LYE'S Saxon Dictionary, 
 in the Supplement, by Mr. Manning. G. W. 
 
 2 Thus, the name of Aldred signifies all-reverend, and that of Kemp means 
 a soldier. Thus we have a church-litten, or enclosure for dead bodies, and 
 not a chitrch-yard ; there is also a Culver-croft near the Grange Farm, being 
 the enclosure where the priory pigeon-house stood, from culver a pigeon. 
 Again there are three steep pastures in this parish called the Lith, from 
 Hlithe, clivus. The wicker-work that binds and fastens down a hedge on 
 the top is called ether, from ether, a hedge. When the good women call 
 their hogs they cry sic, sic,* not knowing that sic is Saxon, or rather Celtic, 
 for a hog. Coppice or brushwood our countrymen call rise, from hris, 
 frondes ; and talk of a load of rise. Within the author's memory the Saxon 
 plurals, housen and peason, were in common use. But it would be endless 
 to instance in every circumstance : he that wishes for more specimens must 
 frequent a farmer's kitchen. I have therefore selected some words to show 
 
 * 2i'ca, porcus apud Lacones ; un Porceau chez les Lacedemoniens : ce mot a sans 
 doute este pris des Celtes, qui disent sic, pour marquer un porceau. Encore aujour'huy 
 quand le Bretons chassent ces animaux, ils ne disent autrement que sic, sic. Antiquite 
 de la Nation et de la Langue des Celtes, par Pezron. G. C. D. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 245 
 
 how familiar the Saxon dialect was to this district, since in more than seven 
 hundred years it is far from being obliterated. G. W. 
 
 8 Well head signifies spring head, and not a deep pit from whence we 
 draw water. For particulars about which see Letter I. to Mr. Pennant. 
 G. W. 
 
 4 The parish of Kingsley lies between and divides Wolmer Forest from 
 Ayles Holt Forest. See Letter IX. to Mr. Pennant. G. W. 
 
 6 " Item, paid at the lodge at Wolmer, when the king was stag-hunting 
 there, to Morris Ken, of the kitchen, because he rode before the king and 
 often fell from his horse, at which the king laughed exceedingly a gift, by 
 command, of twenty shillings." A MS. in possession of Thomas Astle, 
 Esq., containing the private expenses of Edward II. G. W. 
 
 LETTER III 
 
 FROM the silence of Domesday respecting churches, it has 
 been supposed that few villages had any at the time when 
 that record was taken ; but Selborne, we see, enjoyed the 
 benefit of one : hence we may conclude that this place was 
 in no abject state even at that very distant period. How 
 many fabrics have succeeded each other since the days of 
 Radfredrus the presbyter, we cannot pretend to say; our 
 business leads us to a description of the present edifice, in 
 which we shall be circumstantial. 
 
 Our church, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, con- 
 sists of three aisles, and measures fifty-four feet in length by 
 forty-seven in breadth, being almost as broad as it is long. 
 The present building has no pretensions to antiquity, and is, 
 as I suppose, of no earlier date than the beginning of the 
 reign of Henry VII. It is perfectly plain and unadorned, 
 without painted glass, carved work, sculpture, or tracery. But 
 when I say it has no claim to antiquity, I would mean to be 
 understood the fabric in general; for the pillars, which sup- 
 port the roof, are undoubtedly old, being of that low, squat, 
 thick order usually called Saxon. These, I should imagine, 
 upheld the roof of a former church, which, falling into decay, 
 was rebuilt on those massy props, because their strength had 
 preserved them from the injuries of time. 1 Upon these rest 
 blunt Gothic arches, such as prevailed in the reign above- 
 
246 WHITE 
 
 mentioned, and by which, as a criterion, we would prove the 
 date of the building. 
 
 At the bottom of the south aisle, between the west and 
 south doors, stands the font, which is deep and capacious, 
 and consists of three massy round stones, piled one on another, 
 without the least ornament or sculpture : the cavity at the 
 top is lined with lead, and has a pipe at the bottom to convey 
 off the water after the sacred ceremony is performed. 
 
 The east end of the south aisle is called the South Chancel, 
 and, till within these thirty years, was divided off by old carved 
 Gothic framework of timber, having been a private chantry. 
 In this opinion we are more confirmed by observing two Gothic 
 niches within the space, the one in the east wall and the other 
 in the south, near which there probably stood images and 
 altars. 
 
 In the middle aisle there is nothing remarkable : but I 
 remember when its beams were hung with garlands in honor 
 of young women of the parish, reputed to have died virgins ; 
 and recollect to have seen the clerk's wife cutting, in white 
 paper, the resemblances of gloves, and ribbons to be twisted 
 in knots and roses, to decorate these memorials of chastity. 
 In the church of Faringdon, which is the next parish, many 
 garlands of this sort still remain. 
 
 The north aisle is narrow and low, with a sloping ceiling, 
 reaching within eight or nine feet of the floor. It had origi- 
 nally a flat roof, covered with lead, till, within a century past, 
 a church-warden stripping off the lead, in order, as he said, 
 to have it mended, sold it to a plumber, and ran away with 
 the money. This aisle has no door, for an obvious reason ; 
 because the north side of the church-yard, being surrounded 
 by the vicarage-garden, affords no path to that side of the 
 church. Nothing can be more irregular than the pews of 
 this church, which are of all dimensions and heights, being 
 patched up according to the fancy of the owners ; but whoever 
 nicely examines them will find that the middle aisle had, on 
 each side, a regular row of benches of solid oak, all alike, with 
 a low back-board to each. These we should not hesitate to say 
 are coeval with the present church ; and especially as it is 
 to be observed that, at their ends, they are ornamented with 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 247 
 
 carved blunt Gothic niches, exactly correspondent to the arches 
 of the church, and to a niche in the south wall. The fourth 
 aisle also has a row of these benches ; but some are decayed 
 through age, and the rest much disguised by modern altera- 
 tions. 
 
 At the upper end of this aisle, and running out to the north, 
 stands a transept, known by the name of the North Chancel, 
 measuring twenty-one feet from south to north and nineteen 
 feet from east to west : this was intended, no doubt, as a private 
 chantry ; and was also, till of late, divided off by a Gothic frame- 
 work of timber. In its north wall, under a very blunt Gothic 
 arch, lies perhaps the founder of this edifice, which, from the 
 shape of its arch, may be deemed no older than the latter end 
 of the reign of Henry VII. The tomb was examined some 
 years ago, but contained nothing except the skull and thigh- 
 bones of a large tall man, and the bones of a youth or woman, 
 lying in a very irregular manner, without any escutcheon or 
 other token to ascertain the names or rank of the deceased. 
 The grave was very shallow, and lined with stone at the bottom 
 and on the sides. 
 
 From the east wall project four stone brackets, which I con- 
 clude supported images and crucifixes. In the great thick 
 pilaster, jutting out between this transept and the chancel, 
 there is a very sharp Gothic niche, of older date than the 
 present chantry or church. But the chief pieces of antiquity 
 are two narrow stone coffin-lids, which compose part of the 
 floor, and lie from west to east, with the very narrow ends 
 eastward : these belong to remote times ; and, if originally 
 placed here, which I doubt, must have been part of the pave- 
 ment of an older transept. At present there are no coffins 
 under them, whence I conclude they have been removed to 
 this place from some part of a former church. One of these 
 lids is so eaten by time, that no sculpture can be discovered 
 upon it ; or, perhaps, it may be the wrong side uppermost; but 
 on the other, which seems to be of stone of a closer and harder 
 texture, is to be discerned a discus, with a cross on it, at the 
 end of a staff or rod, the well-known symbol of a Knight 
 Templar. 2 
 
 This order was distinguished by a red cross on the left 
 
248 WHITE 
 
 shoulder of their cloak, and by this attribute in their hand. 
 Now, if these stones belonged to Knights Templars, they must 
 have lain here many centuries ; for this cruder came into Eng- 
 land early in the reign of King Stephen in 1113; and was dis- 
 solved in the time of Edward II. in 1312, having subsisted only 
 one hundred and thirty-nine years. Why I should suppose 
 that Knights Templars were occasionally buried at this church 
 will appear in some future letter, when we come to treat more 
 particularly concerning the property they possessed here and 
 the intercourse that subsisted between them and the priors of 
 Selborne. 
 
 We must now proceed to the chancel, properly so-called, 
 which seems to be coeval with the church, and is in the same 
 plain, unadorned style, though neatly kept. This room meas- 
 ures thirty-one feet in length, and sixteen feet and a half in 
 breadth, and is wainscoted all round, as high as to the bottom 
 of the windows. The space for the communion table is raised 
 two steps above the rest of the floor, and railed in with oaken 
 balusters. Here I shall say somewhat of the windows of the 
 chancel in particular, and of the whole fabric in general. They 
 are mostly of that simple and unadorned sort called lancet, 
 some single, some double, and some in triplets. At the east 
 end of the chancel are two of a moderate size, near each 
 other ; and in the north wall two very distant small ones, un- 
 equal in length and height : and in the south wall are two, one 
 on each side of the chancel door, that are broad and squat, 
 and of a different order. At the east end of the south aisle of 
 the church there is a large lancet window in a triplet ; and two 
 very small, narrow, single ones in the south wall, and a broad 
 squat window beside, and a double lancet one in the west end ; 
 so that the appearance is very irregular. In the north aisle are 
 two windows, made shorter when the roof was sloped ; and in 
 the north transept a large triple window, shortened at the time 
 of a repair in 1721, when over it was opened a round one of 
 considerable size, which affords an agreeable light, and renders 
 that chantry the most cheerful part of the edifice. 
 
 The church and chancels have all covered roofs, ceiled about 
 the year 1633 ; before which they were open to the tiles and 
 shingles, showing the naked rafters, and threatening the con- 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 249 
 
 gregation with the fall of a spar, or a blow from a piece of loose 
 mortar. 
 
 On the north wall of the chancel is fixed a large oval white 
 marble monument, with the following inscription ; and at the 
 foot of the wall, over the deceased, and inscribed with his 
 name, age, arms, and time of death, lies a large slab of black 
 marble : 
 
 Prope hunc parietem sepelitur 
 
 GILBERTUS WHITE, SAMSONIS WHITE, de 
 
 Oxon, militis films tertius, Collegii Magdale- 
 -nensis ibidem alumnus, & socius. Tandem faven- 
 -te collegio ad hanc ecclesiam promotus ; ubi primae- 
 -va morum simplicitate, et diffusa erga omnes bene- 
 
 -volentia feliciter consenuit. 
 Pastor fidelis, comis, affabilis, 
 Maritus, et pater amantissimus, 
 A conjuge invicem, et liberis, atque 
 A parochianis impense' dilectus. 
 Pauperibus ita beneficus 
 ut decimam partem census 
 
 moribundus 
 piis usibus consecravit. 
 Meritis demum juxta et annis plenus 
 ex hac vita migravit Feb. 13 
 anno salutis 172^ 
 ^Etatis suae 77 
 Hoc posuit Rebecca 
 Conjux illius maestissima, 
 mox secutura. 
 
 On the same wall is newly fixed a small square table monu- 
 ment of white marble, inscribed in the following manner : 
 
 Sacred to the memory 
 of the Rev d . ANDREW ETTY, B.D. 
 
 23 Years Vicar of this parish : 
 
 In whose character 
 The conjugal, the parental, and the sacerdotal virtues 
 
 were so happily combined 
 
 as to deserve the imitation of mankind. 
 
 And if in any particular he followed more invariably 
 
 the steps of his blessed Master, 
 
 It was in his humility. 
 
2$0 WHITE 
 
 His parishioners, 
 
 especially the sick and necessitous, 
 as long as any traces of his memory shall remain, 
 
 must lament his death. 
 
 To perpetuate such an example, this stone is erected ; 
 
 as while living he was a preacher of righteousness, 
 
 so, by it, he being dead yet speaketh. 
 
 He died April 8 th , 1784, aged 66 years. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 In the same manner, to compare great things with small, did Wykeham, 
 when he new built the cathedral at Winchester, from the tower westward 
 apply to his purpose the old piers or pillars of Bishop Walkelin's church, 
 by blending Saxon and Gothic architecture together. See LOWTH'S Life 
 of Wykeham. G.W. 
 
 2 See DUGDALE, Monasticon Anglicanum, Vol. II., where there is a fine 
 engraving of a Knight Templar, by Hollar. G. W. 
 
 LETTER IV 
 
 WE have now taken leave of the inside of the church, and 
 shall pass by a door at the west end of the middle aisle into 
 the belfry. This room is part of a handsome square embat- 
 tled tower of forty-five feet in height, and of much more mod- 
 ern date than the church ; but old enough to have needed a 
 thorough repair in 1781, when it was neatly stuccoed at a con- 
 siderable expense, by a set of workmen who were employed on 
 it for the greatest part of the summer. The old bells, three 
 in number, loud and out of tune, were taken down in 1735, 
 and cast into four ; to which Sir Simon Stuart, the grand- 
 father of the present baronet, added a fifth at his own ex- 
 pense ; and, bestowing it in the name of his favorite daughter, 
 Mrs. Mary Stuart, caused it to be cast with the following motto 
 
 round it : Q ara p ue ll a dedit, dixitque mihi esto Maria : 
 Illius et laudes nomen ad astra sono." 
 
 The day of the arrival of this tunable peal was observed as 
 a high festival by the village, and rendered more joyous by an 
 order from the donor that the treble bell should be fixed bottom 
 upward in the ground and filled with punch, of which all present 
 were permitted to partake. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 251 
 
 The porch of the church, to the south, is modern, and would 
 not be worthy attention did it not shelter a fine sharp Gothic 
 doorway. This is undoubtedly much older than the present 
 fabric ; and, being found in good preservation, was worked into 
 the wall, and is the grand entrance into the church ; nor are the 
 folding doors to be passed over in silence ; since, from their 
 thick and clumsy structure, and the rude flourished work of 
 their hinges, they may possibly be as ancient as the doorway 
 itself. 
 
 The whole roof of the south aisle, and the south side of the 
 roof of the middle aisle, is covered with oaken shingles instead 
 of tiles, on account of their lightness, which favors the ancient 
 and crazy timber-frame. And, indeed, the consideration of 
 accidents by fire excepted, this sort of roofing is much more 
 eligible than tiles. For shingles well-seasoned, and cleft from 
 quartered timber, never warp, nor let in drifting snow ; nor do 
 they shiver with frost ; nor are they liable to be blown off, like 
 tiles ; but, when nailed down, last for a long period, as experi- 
 ence has shown us in this place, where those that face to the 
 north are known to have endured, untouched, by undoubted 
 tradition, for more than a century. 
 
 Considering the size of the church, and the extent of the 
 parish, the church-yard is very scanty ; and especially as all 
 wish to be buried on the south side, which is become such a 
 mass of mortality that no person can be there interred without 
 disturbing or displacing the bones of his ancestors. There 
 is reason to suppose that it once was larger, and extended to 
 what is now the vicarage court and garden ; because many 
 human bones have been dug up in those parts several yards 
 without the present limits. At the east end are a few graves ; 
 yet none till very lately on the north side ; but, as two or three 
 families of best repute have begun to bury in that quarter, prej- 
 udice may wear out by degrees, and their example be followed 
 by the rest of the neighborhood. 
 
 In speaking of the church, I have all along talked of the 
 east and west ends, as if the chancel stood exactly true to those 
 points of the compass ; but this is by no means the case, for 
 the fabric bears so much to the north of the east that the four 
 corners of the tower, and not the four sides, stand to the four 
 
252 WHITE 
 
 cardinal points. The best method of accounting for this 
 deviation seems to be that the workmen, who probably were 
 employed in the longest days, endeavored to set the chancels 
 to the rising of the sun. 
 
 Close by the church, at the west end, stands the vicarage- 
 house ; an old, but roomy and convenient, edifice. It faces 
 very agreeably to the morning sun, and is divided from the 
 village by a neat and cheerful court. According to the man- 
 ner of old times, the hall was open to the roof ; and so con- 
 tinued, probably, till the vicars became family men, and began 
 to want more conveniences ; when they flung a floor across, 
 and, by partitions, divided the space into chambers. In this 
 hall we remember a date, some time in the reign of Elizabeth ; 
 it was over the door that leads to the stairs. 
 
 Behind the house is a garden of an irregular shape, but well 
 laid out ; whose terrace commands so romantic and picturesque 
 a prospect, that the first master in landscape might contemplate 
 it with pleasure, and deem it an object well worthy of his pencil. 
 
 LETTER V 
 
 IN the church-yard of this village is a yew-tree, whose aspect 
 bespeaks it to be of a great age : it seems to have seen several 
 centuries, and is probably coeval with the church, and therefore 
 may be deemed an antiquity : the body is squat, short, and 
 thick, and measures twenty-three feet in the girth, supporting 
 a head of suitable extent to its bulk. This is a male tree, which 
 in the spring sheds clouds of dust, and fills the atmosphere 
 around with its farina. 
 
 As far as we have been able to observe, the males of this 
 species become much larger than the females ; and it has so 
 fallen out that most of the yew-trees in the church-yards of this 
 neighborhood are males : but this must have been matter of 
 mere accident, since men, when they first planted yews, little 
 dreamed that there were sexes in trees. 
 
 In a yard, in the midst of the street, till very lately, grew a 
 middle-sized female tree of the same species, which commonly 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 253 
 
 bore great crops of berries. By the high winds usually pre- 
 vailing about the autumnal equinox, these berries, then ripe, 
 were blown down into the road, where the hogs ate them. And 
 it was very remarkable that, though barrow-hogs and young 
 sows found no inconvenience from this food, yet milch-sows 
 often died after such a repast : a circumstance that can be 
 accounted for only by supposing that the latter, being much 
 exhausted and hungry, devoured a larger quantity. 
 
 While mention is making of the bad effects of yew-berries, 
 it may be proper to remind the unwary that the twigs and 
 leaves of yew, though eaten in a very small quantity, are cer- 
 tain death to horses and cows, and that in a few minutes. A 
 horse tied to a yew-hedge, or to a faggot-stack of dead yew, 
 shall be found dead before the owner can be aware that any 
 danger is at hand ; and the writer has been several times a 
 sorrowful witness to losses of this kind among his friends ; 
 and in the island of Ely had once the mortification to see nine 
 young steers or bullocks of his own all lying dead in a heap 
 from browsing a little on a hedge of yew in an old garden, into 
 which they had broken in snowy weather. Even the clippings 
 of a yew-hedge have destroyed a whole dairy of cows, when 
 thrown inadvertently into a yard. And yet sheep and tur- 
 keys and, as park-keepers say, deer will crop these trees with 
 impunity. 
 
 Some intelligent persons assert that the branches of yew, 
 while green, are not noxious ; and that they will kill only when 
 dead and withered, by lacerating the stomach; but to this 
 assertion we cannot by any means assent, because, among the 
 number of cattle that we have known fall victims to this deadly 
 food, not one has been found, when it was opened, but had a 
 lump of green yew in its paunch. True it is, that yew-trees 
 stand for twenty years or more in a field, and no bad conse- 
 quences ensue ; but at some time or other cattle, either from 
 wantonness when full, or from hunger when empty (from both 
 which circumstances we have seen them perish), will be med- 
 dling, to their certain destruction ; the yew seems to be a very 
 improper tree for a pasture-field. 
 
 Antiquaries seem much at a loss to determine at what period 
 this tree first obtained a place in church-yards. A statute passed 
 
254 WHITE 
 
 A.D. 1307 and 35 Edward I., the title of which is "Ne rector 
 arbores in cemeterio prosternat." Now if it is recollected that 
 we seldom see any other very large or ancient tree in a church- 
 yard but yews, this statute must have principally related to this 
 species of tree ; and consequently their being planted in church- 
 yards is of much more ancient date than the year 1307. 
 
 As to the use of these trees, possibly the more respect- 
 able parishioners were buried under their shade before the 
 improper custom was introduced of burying within the body 
 of the church, where the living are to assemble. Deborah, 
 Rebekah's nurse, 1 was buried under an oak ; the most honor- 
 able place of interment probably next to the cave of Mach- 
 pelah, 2 which seems to have been appropriated to the remains 
 of the patriarchal family alone. 
 
 The farther use of yew-trees might be as a screen to churches, 
 by their thick foliage, from the violence of winds ; perhaps also 
 for the purpose of archery, the best long-bows being made of 
 that material ; and we do not hear that they are planted in the 
 church-yards of other parts of Europe, where long-bows were 
 not so much in use. They might also be placed as a shelter 
 to the congregation assembling before the church doors were 
 opened, and as an emblem of mortality by their funereal appear- 
 ance. In the south of England every church-yard almost has 
 its tree, and some two ; but in the north, we understand, few 
 are to be found. 
 
 The idea of R. C, that the yew-tree afforded its branches 
 instead of palms for the processions on Palm Sunday, is a good 
 one and deserves attention. See "Gent. Mag.," Vol. L., p. 128. 
 
 NOTES 
 * Gen. xxxv. 8. G. W. 2 Gen. xxiii. 9. G. W. 
 
 LETTER VI 
 
 THE living of Selborne was a very small vicarage; but, 
 being in the patronage of Magdalen College, in the Univer- 
 sity of Oxford, that society endowed it with the great tithes 
 of Selborne, more than a century ago; and since the year 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 2$ 5 
 
 1758 again with the great tithes of Oakhanger, called Bene's 
 parsonage ; so that, together, it is become a respectable piece 
 of preferment, to which one of the fellows is always pre- 
 sented. The vicar holds the great tithes, by lease, under the 
 college. The great disadvantage of this living is that it has 
 not one foot of glebe near home. 1 
 
 ITS PAYMENTS ARE: S. d. 
 
 King's books 821 
 
 Yearly tenths 0162^ 
 
 Yearly procurations for Blackmore and Oakhanger 
 
 Chap, with acquit 017 
 
 Selborne procurations and acquit 090 
 
 I am unable to give a complete list of the vicars of this 
 parish till towards the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; 
 from which period the registers furnish a regular series. 
 
 In Domesday we find thus " De isto manerio dono dedit 
 Rex Radfredo presbytero dimidiam hidam cum ecclesia." So 
 that before Domesday, which was compiled between the years 
 1081 and 1086, here was an officiating minister at this place. 
 
 After this, among my documents, I find occasional mention 
 of a vicar here and there ; the first is 
 
 Roger, instituted in 1254. 
 
 In 1410 John Lynne was vicar of Selborne. 
 
 In 1411 Hugo Tybbe was vicar. 
 
 The presentations to the vicarage of Selborne generally 
 ran in the name of the prior and the convent; but Tybbe 
 was presented by Prior John Wynechestre only. 
 
 June 29th, 1528, William Fisher, vicar of Selborne, resigned 
 to Miles Peyrson. 
 
 1594, William White appears to have been vicar to this 
 time. Of this person there is nothing remarkable, but that 
 he hath made a regular entry twice in the register of Sel- 
 borne of the funeral of Thomas Cowper, Bishop of Winches- 
 ter, as if he had been buried at Selborne ; yet this learned 
 prelate, who died 1594, was buried at Winchester, in the cathe- 
 dral, near the episcopal throne. 2 
 
 1595, Richard Boughton, vicar. 
 
 1596, William Inkforbye, vicar. 
 May 1606, Thomas Phippes, vicar. 
 
256 WHITE 
 
 June 1631, Ralph Austine, vicar. 
 
 July 1632, John Longworth. This unfortunate gentleman, 
 living in the time of Cromwell's usurpation, was deprived of 
 his preferment for many years, probably because he would 
 not take the league and covenant; for I observe that his 
 father-in-law, the Reverend Jethro Beal, rector of Faringdon, 
 which is the next parish, enjoyed his benefice during the 
 whole of that unhappy period. Longworth, after he was dis- 
 possessed, retired to a little tenement about one hundred and 
 fifty yards from the church, where he earned a small pittance 
 by the practice of physic. During those dismal times it was 
 not uncommon for the deposed clergy to take up a medical 
 character; as was the case in particular, I know, with the Rev- 
 erend Mr. Yalden, rector of Compton, near Guildford, in the 
 county of Surrey. Vicar Longworth used frequently to men- 
 tion to his sons, who told it to my relations, that, the Sunday 
 after his deprivation, his puritanical successor stepped into the 
 pulpit with no small petulance and exultation : and began his 
 sermon from Psalm xx. 8, " They are brought down and fallen ; 
 but we are risen and stand upright." This person lived to be 
 restored in 1660, and continued vicar for eighteen years; but 
 was so impoverished by his misfortunes, that he left the vicar- 
 age-house and premises in a very abject and dilapidated state. 
 
 July 1678. Richard Byfield, who left eighty pounds by 
 will, the interest to be applied to apprentice out poor chil- 
 dren; but this money, lent on private security, was in danger 
 of being lost, and the bequest remained in an unsettled state 
 for near twenty years, till 1700 ; so that little or no advantage 
 was derived from it. About the year 1759 it was again in the 
 utmost danger by the failure of a borrower ; but, by prudent 
 management, has since been raised to one hundred pounds 
 stock in the three per cents reduced. The trustees are the 
 vicar and the renters or owners of Temple, Priory, Grange, 
 Blackmore, and Oakhanger House, for the time being. This 
 gentleman seemed inclined to have put the vicarial premises 
 in a comfortable state ; and began by building a solid stone 
 wall round the front court, and another in the lower yard, 
 between that and the neighboring garden; but was inter- 
 rupted by death from fulfilling his laudable intentions. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 2$/ 
 
 April 1680, Barnabas Long became vicar. 
 
 June 1681. This living was now in such low estimation in 
 Magdalen College that it descended to a junior fellow, Gilbert 
 White, M.A., who was instituted to it in the thirty-first year 
 of his age. At his first coming he ceiled the chancel, and also 
 floored and wainscoted the parlor and hall, which before were 
 paved with stone, and had naked walls ; he enlarged the kitchen 
 and brewhouse, and dug a cellar and well ; he also built a large 
 new barn in the lower yard, removed the hovels in the front 
 court, which he laid out in walks and borders ; and entirely 
 planned the back garden, before a rude field with a stone-pit 
 in the midst of it. By his will he gave and bequeathed " the 
 sum of forty pounds to be laid out in the most necessary 
 repairs of the church ; that is, in strengthening and securing 
 such parts as seem decaying and dangerous." With this sum 
 two large buttresses were erected to support the east end of 
 the south wall of the church, and the gable-end wall of the 
 west end of the south aisle was new built from the ground. 
 
 By his will also he gave " one hundred pounds to be laid 
 out on lands ; the yearly rents whereof shall be employed in 
 teaching the poor children of Selbourn parish to read and 
 write, and say their prayers and catechism, and to sew and 
 knit ; and be under the direction of his executrix as long as 
 she lives ; and, after , her, under the direction of such of his 
 children and their issue, as shall live in or within five miles of 
 the said parish ; and on failure of any such, then under the 
 direction of the vicar of Selbourn for the time being ; but still 
 to the uses above-named." With this sum was purchased, of 
 Thomas Turville, of Hawkeley, in the county of Southampton, 
 yeoman, and Hannah his wife, two closes of freehold land, 
 commonly called Collier's, containing, by estimation, eleven 
 acres, lying in Hawkeley aforesaid. These closes are let at 
 this time, 1785, on lease, at the rate of three pounds by the 
 year. 
 
 This vicar also gave by will two hundred pounds towards 
 the repairs of the highways 3 in the parish of Selborne. That 
 sum was carefully and judiciously laid out in the summer of 
 the year 1730, by his son John White, who made a solid and 
 firm causeway from Rood Green, all down Honey Lane, to a 
 18 
 
258 WHITE 
 
 farm called Oak Woods, where the sandy soil begins. This 
 miry and gulfy lane was chosen as worthy of repair, because 
 it leads to the forest, and thence through the Holt to the town 
 of Farnham in Surrey, the only market in those days for men 
 who had wheat to sell in this neighborhood. This causeway 
 was so deeply bedded with stone, so properly raised above the 
 level of the soil, and so well drained, that it has, in some de- 
 gree, withstood fifty-four years of neglect and abuse; and 
 might, with moderate attention, be rendered a solid and com- 
 fortable road. The space from Rood Green to Oak Woods 
 measures about three-quarters of a mile. 
 
 In 1727 William Henry Cane, B.D., became vicar, and, 
 among several alterations and repairs, new built the back front 
 of the vicarage-house. 
 
 On February ist, 1740, Buncombe Bristowe, D.D., was insti- 
 tuted to this living. What benefactions this vicar bestowed on 
 the parish will be best explained by the following passages 
 from his will : " Item, I hereby give and bequeath to the 
 minister and church-wardens of the parish of Selbourn, in the 
 county of Southampton, a mahogany table, which I have or- 
 dered to be made for the celebration of the Holy Communion ; 
 and also the sum of thirty pounds, in trust, to be applied in 
 manner following ; that is, ten pounds towards the charge of 
 erecting a gallery at the west end of the church ; and ten 
 pounds to be laid out for cloathing, and such like necessaries, 
 among the poor (and especially among the ancient and infirm) 
 of the said parish : and the remaining ten pounds to be dis- 
 tributed in bread, at twenty shillings a week, at the discretion 
 of John White, Esq., or any of his family, who shall be resi- 
 dent in the said parish." 
 
 On November I2th, 1758, Andrew Etty, B.D., became vicar. 
 Among many useful repairs he new roofed the body of the 
 vicarage-house ; and wainscoted, up to the bottom of the win- 
 dows, the whole of the chancel ; to the neatness and decency 
 of which he always paid the most exact attention. 
 
 On September 25th, 1784, Christopher Taylor, B.D., was 
 inducted into the vicarage of Selborne. 
 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 259 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 At Bene's or Bin's parsonage there is a house and stout barn, and seven 
 acres of glebe ; Bene's parsonage is three miles from the church. G. W. 
 
 2 See "Godwin de Praesulibus," Folio Cant. 1743, p. 239. G. W. 
 
 3 " Such legacies were very common in former times, before any effectual 
 laws were made for the repairs of highways." Sir John Cullum's Hawsted, 
 p. 15. G. W. 
 
 LETTER VII 
 
 I SHALL now proceed to the Priory, which is undoubtedly the 
 most interesting part of our history. 
 
 The Priory of Selborne was founded by Peter de la Roche, 
 or de Rupibus, 1 one of those accomplished foreigners that 
 resorted to the court of King John, where they were usually 
 caressed, and met with a more favorable reception than ought, 
 in prudence, to have been shown by any monarch to strangers. 
 This adventurer was a Poictevin by birth, had been bred to 
 arms in his youth, and distinguished by knighthood. His- 
 torians all agree not to speak very favorably of this remark- 
 able man ; they allow that he was possessed of courage and 
 fine abilities, but then they charge him with arbitrary princi- 
 ples, and violent conduct. By his insinuating manners he soon 
 rose high in the favor of John ; and in 1205, early in the reign 
 of that prince, was appointed bishop of Winchester. In 1214, 
 he became lord chief justiciary of England, the first magistrate 
 of the state, and a kind of viceroy, on whom depended all the 
 civil affairs in the kingdom. After the death of John, and dur- 
 ing the minority of his son Henry, this prelate took upon him 
 the entire management of the realm, and was soon appointed 
 protector of the king and kingdom. 
 
 The barons saw with indignation a stranger possessed of all 
 the power and influence, to part of which they thought they 
 had a claim ; they therefore entered into an association against 
 him, and determined to wrest some of that authority from him, 
 which he had so unreasonably usurped. The bishop discerned 
 the storm at a distance ; and, prudently resolving to give way 
 to that torrent of envy which he knew not how to withstand, 
 
260 WHITE 
 
 withdrew quietly to the Holy Land, where he resided some 
 time. 
 
 At this juncture a very small part of Palestine remained in 
 the hands of the Christians ; they had been by Saladin dis- 
 possessed of Jerusalem, and all the internal parts, near forty 
 years before ; and with difficulty maintained some maritime 
 towns and garrisons ; yet the busy and enterprising spirit of 
 De Rupibus could not be at rest ; he distinguished himself by 
 the splendor and magnificence of his expenses, and amused 
 his mind by strengthening fortresses and castles, and by re- 
 moving and endowing of churches. Before his expedition to 
 the East he had signalized himself as the founder of convents, 
 and as a benefactor to hospitals and monasteries. 
 
 In the year 1231 he returned again to England; and the 
 very next year, in 1232, began to build and endow the Priory 
 of Selborne. As this great work followed so close upon his 
 return, it is not improbable that it was the result of a vow made 
 during his voyage, and especially as it was dedicated to the 
 Virgin Mary. Why the bishop made choice of Selborne for 
 the scene of his munificence can never be determined now ; 
 it can only be said that the parish was in his diocese, and lay 
 almost midway between Winchester and Farnham, or South 
 Waltham and Farnham ; from either of which places he could 
 without much trouble overlook his workmen, and observe what 
 progress they made ; and that the situation was retired, with 
 a stream running by it, and sequestered from the world, amidst 
 woods and meadows, and so far proper for the site of a relig- 
 ious house. 2 
 
 The first person with whom the founder treated about the 
 purchase of land was Jacobus de Achangre, or Ochangre, a 
 gentleman of property who resided in that hamlet, and, as 
 appears, at the house now called Oakhanger House. With 
 him he agreed for a croft, or little close of land, known by the 
 name of La liega, or La lyge, which was to be the immediate 
 site of the Priory. 
 
 De Achangre also accommodated the bishop at the same 
 instant with three more adjoining crofts, which for a time was 
 all the footing that this institution obtained in the parish. The 
 seller in the conveyance says, " Warantizabimus, def endemus, 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 261 
 
 et aequietabimus contra omnes gentes ; " viz., " We will warrant 
 the thing sold against all claims from any quarter." In 
 modern conveyancing this would be termed a covenant for 
 further assurance. Afterwards is added " Pro hac autem 
 donacione, etc., dedit mihi pred. Episcopus sexdecem marcas 
 argenti in Gersumam" i.e. " The bishop gave me sixteen sil- 
 ver marks as a consideration for the thing purchased/' 
 
 As the grant from Jac. de Achangre was without date, 3 and 
 the next is circumstanced in the same manner, we cannot say 
 exactly what interval there was between the two purchases ; 
 but we find that Jacobus de Nortun, a neighboring gentleman, 
 also soon sold to the bishop of Winchester some adjoining 
 grounds, through which our stream passes, that the Priory 
 might be accommodated with a mill, which was a common 
 necessary appendage to every manor ; he also allowed access 
 to these lands by a road for carts and wagons. " Jacobus 
 de Nortun concedit Petro Winton episcopo totum cursum aque 
 que descendit de Molendino de Durton usq ; ad boscum Will. 
 Mauduit, et croftam terre vocat : Edriche croft, cum extensione 
 ejusdem et abuttamentis ; ad fundandam domum religiosam 
 de ordine Sti. Augustini. Concedit etiam viam ad carros, et 
 caretas," etc. This vale, down which runs the brook, is now 
 called the Long Lith, or Lyth. Bating the following par- 
 ticular expression, this grant runs much in the style of the 
 former : " Dedit mihi episcopus predictus triginta quinque 
 marcas argenti ad me acquietandum versus Jttdceos ; " that is, 
 " The bishop advanced me thirty-five marks of silver to pay 
 my debts to the Jews," who were then the only lenders of 
 money. 
 
 Finding himself still straitened for room, the founder ap- 
 plied to his royal master, Henry, who was graciously pleased to 
 bestow certain lands in the manor of Selborne on the new Priory 
 of his favorite minister. These grounds had been the property 
 of Stephen de Lucy ; and, abutting upon the narrow limits of 
 the convent, became a very commodious and agreeable acqui- 
 sition. This grant, I find, was made on March 9th, in the 
 eighteenth year of Henry, viz., 1234, being two years after 
 the foundation of the monastery. The royal donor bestowed 
 his favor with good grace, by adding to it almost every immu- 
 
262 WHITE 
 
 nity and privilege that could have been specified in the law- 
 language of the times. " Quare volumus prior, etc., habeant 
 totam terrain, etc., cum omnibus libertatibus in bosco et piano, 
 in viis et semitis, pratis et pascuis ; aquis et piscariis ; infra 
 burgum, et extra burgum, cum soka et saca, Thol et Them, 
 Infangenethef et Utfangenethef, et hamsocne et blodwite, et 
 pecunia que dari solet pro murdro et forstal, et flemenestrick, 
 et cum quietancia de omni scotto et geldo, et de omnibus 
 auxiliis regum, vicecomitum, et omn : ministralium suorum ; et 
 hidagio et exercitibus, et scutagiis, et tallagiis, et shiris et hun- 
 dredis, et placitis et querelis, et warda et wardpeny, et opibus 
 castellorum et pontium, et clausuris parcorum, et omni carcio 
 et sumagio, et domor : regal : edificatione, et omnimoda repa- 
 ratione, et cum omnibus aliis libertatibus." This grant was 
 made out by Richard bishop of Chichester, then chancellor, at 
 the town of Northampton, before the lord chief justiciary, who 
 was the founder himself. 
 
 The charter of foundation of the Priory, dated 1233, comes 
 next in order to be considered ; but being of some length, I 
 shall not interrupt my narrative by placing it here. This my 
 copy, taken from the original, I have compared with Dugdale's 
 copy, and find that they perfectly agree ; except that in the 
 latter the preamble and the names of the witnesses are omitted. 
 Yet I think it proper to quote a passage from this charter : 
 " Et ipsa domus religiosa a citjuslibet alterius domtis religiose? 
 szibjectione libera permaneat, et in omnibus absoluta" to show 
 how much Dugdale was mistaken when he inserted Selborne 
 among the alien priories ; forgetting that this disposition of 
 the convent contradicted the grant that he had published. In 
 the " Monasticon Anglicanum," in English, p. 119, is part of 
 his catalogue of alien priories, suppressed 2 Henry V., viz., 
 1414, where may be seen as follows : 
 
 S. 
 
 Sele, Sussex, 
 
 SELEBURN. 
 
 Shir burn. 
 
 This appeared to me from the first to have been an over- 
 sight, before I had seen my authentic evidences. or priories 
 alien> a few conventual ones excepted, were little better than 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 263 
 
 granges to foreign abbeys, and their priors little more than bail- 
 iffs removable at will; whereas the Priory of Selborne pos- 
 sessed the valuable estates and manors of Selborne, Achangre, 
 Norton, Brompden, Bassinges, Basingstoke, and Natele ; and 
 the prior challenged the right of pillory, thurcet, and furcas, 
 and every manorial privilege. 
 
 I find next a grant from Jo. de Venur, or Venuz, to the prior 
 of Selborne, " deto ta mora [a moor or bog] ubi Berne 
 oritur, usque ad campum vivarii, et de prato voc. Sydenmeade 
 cum abutt : et de cursu aque molendini." And also a grant in 
 reversion " unius virgate terre " (a yard land), in Achangre at 
 the death of Richard Actedene his sister's husband, who had 
 no child. He was to present a pair of gloves of one penny 
 value to the prior and canons, to be given annually by the said 
 Richard ; and to quit all claim to the said lands in reversion, 
 provided the prior and canons would engage annually to pay 
 to the king, through the hands of his bailiffs of Aulton, ten 
 shillings at four quarterly payments, " pro omnibus serviciis, 
 consuetudinibus, exactionibus, et demandis." 
 
 This Jo. de Venur was a man of property at Oakhanger, and 
 lived probably at the spot now called Chapel Farm. The grant 
 bears date the i/th year of the reign of Henry III. (viz., 1233). 
 
 It would be tedious to enumerate every little grant for lands 
 or tenements that might be produced from my vouchers. I 
 shall therefore pass over all such for the present, and conclude 
 this letter with a remark that must strike every thinking per- 
 son with some degree of wonder. No sooner had a monastic 
 institution got a footing, but the neighborhood began to be 
 touched with a secret and religious awe. Every person round 
 was desirous to promote so good a work ; and either by sale, 
 by grant, or by gift in reversion, was ambitious of appearing 
 a benefactor. They who had not lands to spare gave roads 
 to accommodate the infant foundation. The religious were not 
 backward in keeping up this pious propensity, which they ob- 
 served so readily influenced the breasts of men. Thus did the 
 more opulent monasteries add house to house, and field to field, 
 and by degrees manor to manor, till at last " there was no place 
 left ; " but every district around became appropriated to the 
 purposes of their founders, and every precinct was drawn into 
 the vortex. 
 
264 WHITE 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 See "Godwin de Praesulibus Angliae." Folio. London, 1743, p. 217. 
 G. W. 
 
 2 The institution at Selborne was a priory of black canons of the order 
 of St. Augustine, called also canons regular. Regular canons were such as 
 lived in a conventual manner under one roof, had a common refectory and 
 dormitory, and were bound by vows to observe the rules and statutes of their 
 order : in fine, they were a kind of religious, whose discipline was less rigid 
 than the monks. The chief rule of these canons was that of St. Augustine, 
 who was constituted bishop of Hippo, A.D. 395 ; but they were not brought 
 into England till after the conquest ; and seem not to have obtained the 
 appellation of Augustine canons till some years after. Their habit was a 
 long black cassock, with a white rochet over it ; and over that a black cloak 
 and hood. The monks were always shaved ; but these canons wore their 
 hair and beards, and caps on their heads. There were of these canons, and 
 women of the same order called Canonesses, about 175 houses. G. W. 
 
 8 The custom of affixing dates to deeds was not become general in the 
 reign of Henry III. G. W. 
 
 LETTER VIII 
 
 OUR forefathers in this village were no doubt as busy and 
 bustling, and as important, as ourselves : yet have their names 
 and transactions been forgotten from century to century, and 
 have sunk into oblivion ; nor has this happened only to the 
 vulgar, but even to men remarkable and famous in their gen- 
 eration. I was led into this train of thinking by rinding in my 
 vouchers that Sir Adam Gurdon was an inhabitant of Selborne, 
 and a man of the first rank and property in the parish. By 
 Sir Adam Gurdon I would be understood to mean that leading 
 and accomplished malcontent in the Mountfort faction, who 
 distinguished himself by his daring conduct in the reign of 
 Henry III. The first that we hear of this person in my papers 
 is that with two others he was bailiff of Alton before the six- 
 teenth of Henry III., viz., about 1231, and then not knighted. 
 Who Gurdon was, and whence he came, does not appear : yet 
 there is reason to suspect that he was originally a mere soldier 
 of fortune, who had raised himself by marrying women of 
 property. The name of Gurdon does not seem to be known 
 in the south; but there is a name so like it in an adjoining 
 kingdom, and which belongs to two or three noble families, 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 265 
 
 that it is probable this remarkable person was a North Briton ; 
 and the more so, since the Christian name of Adam is a dis- 
 tinguished one to this day among the family of the Gordons. 
 But, be this as it may, Sir Adam Gurdon has been noticed by 
 all the writers of English history for his bold disposition and 
 disaffected spirit, in that he not only figured during the suc- 
 cessful rebellion of Leicester but kept up the war after the de- 
 feat and death of that baron, entrenching himself in the woods 
 of Hampshire, towards the town of Farnham. After the battle 
 of Evesham, in which Mountfort fell, in the year 1265, Gur- 
 don might not think it safe to return to his house for fear of 
 a surprise ; but cautiously fortified himself amidst the forests 
 and wood-lands with which he was so well acquainted. Prince 
 Edward, desirous of putting an end to the troubles which had 
 so long harassed the kingdom, pursued the arch-rebel into his 
 fastnesses, attacked his camp, leaped over the entrenchments, 
 and, singling out Gurdon, ran him down, wounded him, and 
 took him prisoner. 1 
 
 There is not perhaps in all history a more remarkable in- 
 stance of command of temper, and magnanimity, than this 
 before us : that a young prince, in the moment of victory, 
 when he had the fell adversary of the crown and royal family 
 at his mercy, should be able to withhold his hand from that 
 vengeance which the^vanquished so well deserved. A cow- 
 ardly disposition would have been blinded by resentment; 
 but this gallant heir apparent saw at once a method of con- 
 verting a most desperate foe into a lasting friend. He raised 
 the fallen veteran from the ground, he pardoned him, he 
 admitted him into his confidence, and introduced him to the 
 queen, then lying at Guildford, that very evening. This un- 
 merited and unexpected lenity melted the heart of the rugged 
 Gurdon at once ; he became in an instant a loyal and useful 
 subject, trusted and employed in matters of moment by 
 Edward when king, and confided in till the day of his death. 
 
 NOTE 
 1 M. Paris, p. 675, and Triveti Annale. 
 
266 WHITE 
 
 LETTER IX 
 
 IT has been hinted in a former letter that Sir Adam Gur- 
 don had availed himself by marrying women of property. 
 By my evidences it appears that he had three wives, and 
 probably in the following order: Constantia, Ameria, and 
 Agnes. The first of these ladies, who was the companion of 
 his middle life, seems to have been a person of considerable 
 fortune, which she inherited from Thomas Makerel, a gentle- 
 man of Selborne, who was either her father or uncle. The 
 second, Ameria, calls herself the quondam wife of Sir Adam, 
 " quae fui uxor," etc., and talks of her sons under age. Now 
 Gurdon had no son : and beside, Agnes, in another document, 
 says, "Ego Agnes quondam uxor Domini Ada Gurdon in 
 pura et ligea viduitate mea : " but Gurdon could not leave 
 two widows ; and therefore it seems probable that he had 
 been divorced from Ameria, who afterwards married and had 
 sons. By Agnes Sir Adam had a daughter Johanna, who 
 was his heiress, to whom Agnes in her lifetime surrendered 
 part of her jointure : he had also a bastard son. 
 
 Sir Adam seems to have inhabited the house now called 
 Temple, lying about two miles east of the church, which had 
 been the property of Thomas Makerel. 
 
 In the year 1262 he petitioned the prior of Selborne in his 
 own name, and that of his wife Constantia only, for leave to 
 build him an oratory in his manor-house, "in curia sua." 
 Licenses of this sort were frequently obtained by men of fort- 
 une and rank from the bishop of the diocese, the archbishop, 
 and sometimes, as I have seen instances, from the Pope ; not 
 only for convenience' sake, and on account of distance, and 
 the badness of the roads, but as a matter of state and dis- 
 tinction. Why the owner should apply to the prior, in prefer- 
 ence to the bishop of the diocese, and how the former became 
 competent to such a grant, I cannot say ; but that the priors 
 of Selborne did take that privilege is plain, because some years 
 afterwards, in 1280, Prior Richard granted to Henry Water- 
 ford and his wife Nicholaa, a license to build an oratory in 
 their court-house, " curia sua de Waterford," in which they 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 267 
 
 might celebrate divine service, saving the rights of the mother 
 church of Basynges. Yet all the while the prior of Selborne 
 grants with such reserve and caution, as if in doubt of his 
 power, and leaves Gurdon and his lady answerable in future 
 to the bishop, or his ordinary, or to the vicar for the time 
 being, in case they should infringe the rights of the mother 
 church of Selborne. 
 
 The manor-house, called " Temple," is at present a single 
 building, running in length from south to north, and has been 
 occupied as a common farmhouse from time immemorial. The 
 south end is modern, and consists of a brewhouse, and then a 
 kitchen. The middle part is a hall twenty-seven feet in length 
 and nineteen feet in breadth ; and has been formerly open to 
 the top, but there is now a floor above it, and also a chimney 
 in the western wall. The roofing consists of strong massive 
 rafter work ornamented with carved roses. I have often looked 
 for the lamb and flag, the arms of the Knights Templars, with- 
 out success ; but in one corner found a fox with a goose on his 
 back, so coarsely executed that it required some attention to 
 make out the device. 
 
 Beyond the hall to the north is a small parlor with a vast 
 heavy stone chimney-piece, and at the end of all the chapel or 
 oratory, whose massive thick walls and narrow windows at once 
 bespeak great antiquity. This room is only sixteen feet by six- 
 teen feet eight inches, and full seventeen feet nine inches in 
 height. The ceiling is formed of vast joists, placed only five 
 or six inches apart. Modern delicacy would not much approve 
 of such a place of worship ; for it has at present much more 
 the appearance of a dungeon than of a room fit for the recep- 
 tion of people of condition. . The field on which this oratory 
 abuts is called Chapel Field. The situation of this house is very 
 particular, for it stands upon the immediate verge of a steep, 
 abrupt hill. 
 
 Not many years since this place was used for a hop-kiln, and 
 was divided into two stories by a loft, part of which remains 
 at present and makes it convenient for peat and turf, with 
 which it is stowed. 
 
268 WHITE 
 
 LETTER X 
 
 THE Priory at times was much obliged to Gurdon and his 
 family. As Sir Adam began to advance in years he found his 
 mind influenced by the prevailing opinion of the reasonableness 
 and efficacy of prayers for the dead ; and therefore, in con- 
 junction with his wife Constantia, in the year 1271, granted to 
 the prior and convent of Selborne all his right and claim to a 
 certain place, placea, called "La Playstow," in the village 
 aforesaid, "in liberam, puram, et perpetuam elemosinam" 
 This Pleystow, 1 locus ludorum, or play-place, is a level area 
 near the church of about forty-four yards by thirty-six, and is 
 known now by the name of the Plestor. 2 
 
 It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene of 
 recreation for the youths and children of the neighborhood ; 
 and impresses an idea on the mind that this village, even in 
 Saxon times, could not be the most abject of places, when the 
 inhabitants thought proper to assign so spacious a spot for the 
 sports and amusements of its young people. 3 
 
 As soon as the prior became possessed of this piece of 
 ground, he procured a charter for a market 4 from King 
 Henry III., and began to erect houses and stalls, " seldas" 
 around it. From this period Selborne became a market town ; 
 but how long it enjoyed that privilege does not appear. At 
 the same time, Gurdon reserved to himself, and his heirs, a 
 way through the said Plestor to a tenement and some crofts 
 at the upper end, abutting on the south corner of the church- 
 yard. This was in old days the manorial house of the street 
 manor, though now a poor cottage, and is known at present 
 by the modern name of Elliot's. Sir Adam also did, for the 
 health of his own soul and that of his wife Constantia, their 
 predecessors and successors, grant to the prior and canons 
 quiet possession of all the tenements and gardens, " curtilla- 
 gia" which they had built and laid out on the lands in Sel- 
 borne, on which he and his vassals, " homines" had undoubted 
 right of common ; and moreover did grant to the convent 
 the full privilege of that right of common, and empowered 
 the religious to build tenements and make gardens along the 
 king's highway in the village of Selborne. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 269 
 
 From circumstances put together, it appears that the above 
 were the first grants obtained by the Priory in the village of 
 Selborne after it had subsisted about thirty-nine years ; more- 
 over, they explain the nature of the mixed manor still remain- 
 ing in and about the village, where one field or tenement shall 
 belong to Magdalen College in the University of Oxford, and 
 the next to Norton Powlet, Esq., of Rotherfield House, and so 
 down the whole street. The case was, that the whole was 
 once the property of Gurdon, till he made his grants to the 
 convent, since which some belongs to the successors of Gurdon 
 in the manor, and some to the college ; and this is the occasion 
 of the strange jumble of property. It is remarkable that the 
 tenement and crofts which Sir Adam reserved at the time of 
 granting the Plestor should still remain a part of the Gurdon 
 Manor, though so desirable an addition to the vicarage, that 
 is not as yet possessed of one inch of glebe at home ; but of 
 late, viz., in January 1785, Magdalen College purchased that 
 little estate, which is life-holding, in reversion, for the gener- 
 ous purpose of bestowing it, and its lands, being twelve acres 
 (three of which abut on the church-yard and vicarage garden) 
 as an improvement hereafter to the living, and an eligible 
 advantage to future incumbents. 
 
 The year after Gurdon had bestowed the Plestor on the 
 Priory, viz., in 1272, Henry III., King of England, died, and 
 was succeeded by his Son Edward. This magnanimous prince 
 continued his regard for Sir Adam, whom he esteemed as a 
 brave man, and made him warden, "custos" of the forest of 
 Wolmer. 5 Though little emolument might hang to this ap- 
 pointment, yet are there reasons why it might be highly accept- 
 able ; and, in a few reigns after, it was given to princes of the 
 blood. 6 In old days gentry resided more at home on their 
 estates, and, having fewer resources of elegant indoor amuse- 
 ment, spent most of their leisure hours in the field and the 
 pleasures of the chase. A large domain, therefore, at little 
 more than a mile distance, and well stocked with game, must 
 have been a very eligible acquisition, affording him influence 
 as well as entertainment ; and especially as the manorial house 
 of Temple, by its exalted situation, could command a view of 
 near two-thirds of the forest. 
 
2/0 WHITE 
 
 That Gurdon, who had lived some years the life of an out- 
 law and at the head of an army of insurgents, was for a con- 
 siderable time in high rebellion against his sovereign, should 
 have been guilty of some outrages, and should have committed 
 some depredations, is by no means matter of wonder. Accord- 
 ingly we find a distringas against him, ordering him to restore 
 to the bishop of Winchester some of the temporalities of that 
 see, which he had taken by violence and detained, viz., some 
 lands in Hocheleye, and a mill. 7 By a breve t or writ, from the 
 king, he is also enjoined to readmit the bishop of Winchester, 
 and his tenants of the parish and town of Farnham, to pasture 
 their horses, and other larger cattle, " averia" in the forest of 
 Wolmer, as has been the usage from time immemorial. This 
 writ is dated in the tenth year of the reign of Edward, viz., 
 1282. 
 
 All the king's writs directed to Gurdon are addressed in the 
 following manner, " Edwardus Dei gratia, etc., dilecto et fideli 
 suo Ade Gurdon salutem;" and again, "Custodi foreste sue 
 de Wolvemere." 
 
 In the year 1293 a quarrel between the crews of an Eng- 
 lish and a Norman ship about some trifle brought on by 
 degrees such serious consequences, that in 1293 a war broke 
 out between the two nations. The French king, Philip the 
 Hardy, gained some advantages in Gascony ; and, not con- 
 tent with those, threatened England with an invasion, and by 
 a sudden attempt took and burnt Dover. 
 
 Upon this emergency, Edward sent a writ to Gurdon, order- 
 ing him and four others to enlist three thousand soldiers in the 
 counties of Surrey, Dorset, and Wiltshire, able-bodied men, 
 " tarn sagittare quam balistare potentes ; " and to see that they 
 were marched by the feast of All Saints, to Winchelsea, there 
 to be embarked aboard the king's transports. 
 
 The occasion of this armament appears also from a sum- 
 mons to the bishop of Winchester to Parliament, part of which 
 I shall transcribe on account of the insolent menace which is 
 said therein to have been denounced against the English lan- 
 guage : " qualiter rex Franciae de terra nostra Gascon nos 
 fraudulenter et cautelose decepit, earn nobis nequiter deti- 
 nendo . . . vero predictis fraude et nequitia non contentus, 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 2/1 
 
 ad expugnationem regni nostri classe maxima et bellatorum 
 copiosa multitudine congregatis, cum quibus regnum nostrum 
 et regni ejusdem incolas hostiliter jam invasurus, linguam 
 Anglicam si concepte iniquitatis proposito detestabili potestas 
 correspondeat, quod Deus avertat omnino de terra delere pro- 
 ponit" Dated 3Oth September, in the year of King Edward's 
 reign xxiii. 8 
 
 The above are the last traces that I can discover of Gurdon's 
 appearing and acting in public. The first notice that my evi- 
 dences give of him is that in 1232, being the i6th of Henry 
 III., he was the king's bailiff, with others, for the town of 
 Alton. Now, from 1232 to 1295 is a space of sixty-three 
 years, a long period for one man to be employed in active life ! 
 Should any one doubt whether all these particulars can relate 
 to one and the same person, I should wish him to attend to the 
 following reasons why they might. In the first place, the docu- 
 ments from the Priory mention but one Sir Adam Gurdon, who 
 had no son lawfully begotten ; and in the next, we are to recol- 
 lect that he must have probably been a man of uncommon 
 vigor, both of mind and body, since no one unsupported by 
 such accomplishments could have engaged in such adventures, 
 or could have borne up against the difficulties which he some- 
 times must have encountered ; and moreover, we have modern 
 instances of persons that have maintained their abilities for 
 near that period. 
 
 Were we to suppose 6urdon to be only twenty years of age 
 in 1232, in 1295 he would be eighty-three; after which ad- 
 vanced period it could not be expected that he should live 
 long. From the silence, therefore, of my evidences, it seems 
 probable that this extraordinary person finished his life in 
 peace, not long after, at his mansion of Temple. Gurdon's 
 seal had for its device a man, with a helmet on his head, 
 drawing a cross-bow ; the legend, "Sigillum Ade de Gurdon ; " 
 his arms were, " Goulis, iii floures argent issant de testes de 
 leopards." 9 
 
 If the stout and unsubmitting spirit of Gurdon could be so 
 much influenced by the belief and superstition of the times, 
 much more might the hearts of his ladies and daughter. And 
 accordingly we find that Ameria, by the consent and advice 
 
2/2 WHITE 
 
 of her sons, though said to be all under age, makes a grant 
 forever of some lands down by the stream at Durton; and 
 also of her right of the common of Durton itself. 10 Johanna, 
 the daughter and heiress of Sir Adam, was married, I find, to 
 Richard Achard; she also grants to the prior and convent 
 lands and tenements in the village of Selborne, which her 
 father obtained from Thomas Makerel ; and also all her goods 
 and chattels in Selborne for the consideration of two hundred 
 pounds sterling. This last business was transacted in the first 
 year of Edward II., viz., 1307. It has been observed before 
 that Gurdon had a natural son ; this person was called by the 
 name of John Dastard, alias Wastard, but more probably Bas- 
 tard ; since bastardy, in those days, was not deemed any dis- 
 grace, though dastardy was esteemed the greatest. He was 
 married to Gunnorie Duncun ; and had a tenement and some 
 land granted him in Selborne by his sister Johanna. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 In Saxon Plegestow, or Plegstow. G. W. 
 
 2 At this juncture probably the vast oak was planted by the prior, as an 
 ornament to his new-acquired market-place. According to this supposition 
 the oak was aged 432 years when blown down. G. W. 
 
 8 For more circumstances respecting the Plestor, see Letter II. to Mr. 
 Pennant G. W. 
 
 4 Bishop Tanner, in his " Notitia Monastica," has made a mistake re- 
 specting the market and fair at Selborne ; for in his references to Dodsworth, 
 cart. 54 Hen. III. m. 3., he says, " De mercatu, et feria de Seleburn? But 
 this reference is wrong ; for, instead of Seleburn. it proves that the place 
 there meant was Lekeborne, or Legeborne, in the county of Lincoln. This 
 error was copied from the index of the Cat. MSS. Angl. It does not appear 
 that there ever was a chartered fair at Selborne. For several particulars 
 respecting the present fair at Selborne, see Letter XXVI. of these Antiqui- 
 ties. G. W. 
 
 5 Since the letters respecting Wolmer Forest and Aylesholt were printed, 
 the author has been favored with the following extracts : 
 
 " In the ' Act of Resumption, i Hen. VII.' it was provided, that it be not 
 prejudicial to * Harry at Lode,' ranger of our forest of Wolmere, to him by 
 oure letters patents before tyme gevyn." Rolls of ParL, Vol. VI., p. 370. 
 
 " In the 1 1 Hen. VIL, 1495, < Warlham (Ward le Ham) and the office of 
 forest (forester) of Wolmere,' were held by Edmund, duke of Suffolk." 
 Rolls, ib. 474. 
 
 " Act of general pardon, 14 Hen. VIII., 1523, not to extend to ' Rich. Bp. 
 of Wynton (Bishop Fox) for any seizure or forfeiture of liberties, etc., within 
 the forest of Wolmer, Alysholt, and Newe Forest ; nor to any person for 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 273 
 
 waste, etc., within the manor of Wardlam, or parish of Wardlam (Ward le 
 Ham) ; nor to abusing, etc., of any office or fee, within the said forests of 
 Wolmer or Alysholt, or the said park of Wardlam. 1 " County Suth't. 
 Rolls prefixt to ist Vol. of Journals of the Lords, p. xciii. b. 
 
 To these may be added some other particulars, taken from a book lately 
 published, entitled "An Account of all the Manors, Messuages, Lands, etc., 
 in the Different Counties of England and Wales, held by Lease from the 
 Crown ; as contained in the Report of the Commissioners appointed to 
 inquire into the State and Condition of the Royal Forests, etc." London, 
 1787. 
 
 " Southampton. 
 
 P. 64. "A fee-farm rent of ,31 2s. lid. out of the manors of East and 
 West Ward le Ham ; and also the office of lieutenant or keeper of the forest 
 or chase of Aliceholt, and Wolmer, with all offices, fees, commodities, and 
 privileges thereto belonging. 
 
 "Names of lessees, William, Earl of Dartmouth, and others (in trust). 
 
 "Date of the last lease, March 23rd, 1780; granted for such term as 
 would fill up the subsisting term to 31 years. 
 
 "Expiration March 23rd, 1811. 
 
 " Southampton. 
 
 " Hundreds Selborne and Finchdeane. 
 " Honors and manors, etc. 
 
 " Aliceholt Forest, three parks there. 
 
 " Bensted and Kingsley ; a petition of the parishioners concerning the 
 three parks in Aliceholt forest." 
 
 William, first earl of Dartmouth, and paternal grandfather to the present 
 Lord Stawel, was a lessee of the forests of Aliceholt and Wolmer before 
 brigadier-general Emanuel Scroope Howe. G. W. 
 
 6 See Letter II. of these Antiquities. G. W. 
 
 7 Hocheleye, now spelt Hawkley, is in the hundred of Selborne, and has 
 a mill at this day. G. W. 
 
 8 Reg. Winton, Stratford, but query Stratford ; for Stratford was not 
 bishop of Winton till 1323, near thirty years afterwards. G. W. 
 
 9 From the collection of Thomas Martin, Esq., in the " Antiquarian Rep- 
 ertory," p. 109, No. XXXI. G. W. 
 
 10 Durton, now called Dorton, is still a common for the copyholders of 
 Selborne Manor. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XI 
 
 THE Knights Templars, 1 who have been mentioned in a 
 former letter, had considerable property in Selborne ; and also 
 a preceptory at Sudington, now called Southington, a hamlet 
 lying one mile to the east of the village. Bishop Tanner men- 
 tions only two such houses of the Templars in all the county 
 19 
 
274 WHITE 
 
 of Southampton, viz., Godesfield, founded by Henry de Blois, 
 bishop of Winchester, and South Badeisley, a preceptory of 
 the Knights Templars, and afterwards of St. John of Jeru- 
 salem, valued at one hundred and eighteen pounds sixteen 
 shillings and sevenpence per annum. Here then was a 
 preceptory unnoticed by antiquaries, between the village and 
 Temple. Whatever the edifice of the preceptory might have 
 been, it has long since been dilapidated ; and the whole ham- 
 let contains now only one mean farmhouse, though there were 
 two in the memory of man. 
 
 It has been usual for the religious of different orders to fall 
 into great dissensions, and especially when they were near 
 neighbors. Instances of this sort we have heard of between 
 the monks of Canterbury ; and again between the old abbey 
 of St. Swythun, and the comparatively new minster of Hyde 
 in the city of Winchester. 2 These feuds arose probably from 
 different orders being crowded within the narrow limits of a 
 city, or garrison town, where every inch of ground was pre- 
 cious and an object of contention. But with us, as far as my 
 evidences extend, and while Robert Saunford was master, 3 
 and Richard Carpenter was preceptor, the Templars and the 
 priors lived in an intercourse of mutual good offices. 
 
 My papers mention three transactions, the exact time of 
 which cannot be ascertained, because they fell out before 
 dates were usually inserted ; though probably they happened 
 about the middle of the thirteenth century, not long after 
 Saunford became master. The first of these is that the Tem- 
 plars shall pay to the Priory of Selborne, annually, the sum 
 of ten shillings at two half-yearly payments from their cham- 
 ber, "camera," at Sudington, "per manum preceptoris, vel 
 ballivi nostri, qui pro tempore fuerit ibidem," till they can 
 provide the prior and canons with an equivalent in lands or 
 rents within four or five miles of the said convent. It is also 
 further agreed that, if the Templars shall be in arrears for 
 one year, then the prior shall be empowered to distrain upon 
 their live-stock in Bradeseth. The next matter was a grant 
 from Robert de Sunford to the Priory forever, of a good and 
 sufficient road, " cheminum," capable of admitting carriages, 
 and proper for the drift of their larger cattle, from the way 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 2/5 
 
 which extends from Sudington towards Blakemere, on to the 
 lands which the convent possesses in Bradeseth. 
 
 The third transaction (though for want of dates we cannot 
 say which happened first and which last) was a grant from 
 Robert Samford to the Priory of a tenement and its appurte- 
 nances in the village of Selborne, given to the Templars by 
 Americus de Vasci. 4 This property, by the manner of de- 
 scribing it, " totum tenementum cum omnibus pertinentiis 
 suis, scilicet in terris, & hominibus, in pratis & pascuis, & 
 nemoribus," etc., seems to have been no inconsiderable pur- 
 chase, and was sold for two hundred marks sterling, to be 
 applied for the buying of more land for the support of the 
 holy war. 
 
 Prior John is mentioned as the person to whom Vasci's 
 land is conveyed. But in Willis's list there is no Prior John 
 till 1339, several years after the dissolution of the order of 
 the Templars in 1312, so that, unless Willis is wrong, and 
 has omitted a Prior John since 1262 (that being the date of 
 his first prior), these transactions must have fallen out before 
 that date. 
 
 I find not the least traces of any concerns between Gurdon 
 and the Knights Templars ; but probably after his death his 
 daughter Johanna might have, and might bestow, Temple on 
 that order in support of, the holy land; and, moreover, she 
 seems to have been removing from Selborne, when she sold 
 her goods and chattels to the Priory, as mentioned above. 
 
 Temple, no doubt, did belong to the Knights, as may be 
 asserted, not only from its name, but also from another cor- 
 roborating circumstance of its being still a manor, tithe-free ; 
 " for, by virtue of their order," says Blackstone, " the lands 
 of the Knights Templars were privileged by the Pope with a 
 discharge from tithes." 
 
 Antiquaries have been much puzzled about the terms pre- 
 ceptores and preceptorium, not being able to determine what 
 officer or edifice was meant. But perhaps all the while the 
 passage quoted above from one of my papers, " per manum 
 preceptoris vel ballivi nostri, qui pro tempore fuerit, ibidem," 
 may help to explain the difficulty. For if it be allowed here 
 that preceptor and ballivus are synonymous words, then the 
 
2/6 WHITE 
 
 brother who took on him that office resided in the house of 
 the Templars at Sudington, a preceptory ; where he was their 
 preceptor, superintended their affairs, received their money, 
 and, as in the instance there mentioned, paid from their cham- 
 ber, " camera" as directed ; so that, according to this expla- 
 nation, a preceptor was no other than a steward, and a precep- 
 torium was his residence. I am well aware that, according 
 to strict Latin, the vel should have been seu or sive, and the 
 order of the words "preceptoris nostri, vel ballivi, qui " et 
 " ibidem " should have been ibi ; ibidem necessarily having 
 reference to two or more persons ; but it will hardly be thought 
 fair to apply the niceties of classic rules to the Latinity of the 
 thirteenth century, the writers of which seem to have aimed 
 at nothing farther than to render themselves intelligible. 
 
 There is another remark that we have made, which, I think, 
 corroborates what has been advanced ; and that is, that Richard 
 Carpenter, preceptor of Sudington, at the time of the transac- 
 tions between the Templars and Selborne Priory, did always 
 sign last as a witness in the three deeds ; he calls himself 
 frater, it is true, among many other brothers, but subscribes 
 with a kind of deference, as if, for the time being, his office 
 rendered him an inferior in the community. 6 
 
 NOTES 
 
 * 
 1 THE MILITARY ORDERS OF THE RELIGIOUS 
 
 The Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem, afterwards called 
 Knights of Rhodes, now of Malta, came into England about the year noo, 
 i Hen. i. 
 
 The Knights Templars came into England pretty early in Stephen's reign, 
 which commenced 1 135. The order was dissolved in 1312, and their estates 
 given by Act of Parliament to the Hospitalers in 1323 (all in Edw. II.), 
 though many of their estates were never actually enjoyed by the said Hos- 
 pitalers. Vid. TANNER, p. 24, 10. 
 
 The commanderies of the Hospitalers, and preceptories of Templars, were 
 each subordinate to the principal house of their respective religion in London. 
 Although these are the different denominations, which Tanner at p. 37 
 assigns to the cells of these different orders, yet throughout the work very 
 frequent instances occur of preceptories attributed to the Hospitalers ; and 
 if in some passages of "Notitia Monast." commanderies are attributed to the 
 Templars, it is only where the place afterwards became the property of the 
 Hospitalers, and so is there indifferently styled preceptory or commandery ; 
 see pp. 243, 263, 276, 577, 678. But, to account for the first observed inac- 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 2/7 
 
 curacy, it is probable the preceptories of the Templars, when given to the 
 Hospitalers, were still vulgarly, however, called by their old name of pre- 
 ceptories ; whereas in propriety societies of the Hospitalers were indeed 
 (as has been said) commanderies. And such deviation from the strictness 
 of expression in this case might occasion those societies of Hospitalers also 
 to be indifferently called preceptories, which had originally been vested in 
 them, having never belonged to the Templars at all. See in ARCHER, 
 p. 609 ; TANNER, p. 300, col. i, 720, n. e. 
 
 It is observable that the very statute for the dissolution of the Hospitalers 
 holds the same language ; for there, in the enumeration of particulars occur 
 " commanderies, preceptories." CODEX, p. 1 190. Now this intercommunity 
 of names, and that in an Act of Parliament too, made some of our ablest 
 antiquaries look upon a preceptory and commandery as strictly synonymous ; 
 accordingly we find Camden, in his " Britannia," explaining praeceptoria in 
 the text by a commandery in the margin, pp. 356, 510. J. L. 
 
 Commandery, a manor or chief messuage with lands, etc., belonging to 
 the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem; and he who had the government of 
 such house was called the commander, who could not dispose of it but to 
 the use of the Priory, only taking thence his own sustenance, according 
 to his degree, who was usually a brother of the same Priory. COWELL. 
 He adds (confounding these with preceptories) they are in many places 
 termed temples, as Temple Bruere in Lincolnshire, etc. Preceptories were 
 possessed by the more eminent sort of Templars, whom the chief master 
 created and called Praeceptores Templi. COWELL, who refers to STEPHENS'S 
 Dejurisd. lib. iv. c. 10, no. 27. 
 
 Placita de juratis et assis coram Salom. de Roff et sociis suis justic. 
 Itiner. apud Wynton, etc., anno regni R. Edwardi fil. Reg. Hen. octavo. 
 " et Magr. Milicie Templi in Angl. ht emendasse panis, et suis [cerevisiae] 
 in Sodington, et nescint q. war. et et magist. Milicie Templi non ven io 
 distr." Chapter House, Westminster. G. W. 
 
 2 NOTITIA MONASTICA, p. 155 
 
 " Winchester, Newminster. King Alfred founded here first only a house 
 and chapel for the learned monk Grimbald, whom he had brought out of 
 Flanders ; but afterwards projected, and by his will ordered, a noble church 
 or religious house to be built in the cemetery on the north side of the old 
 minster or cathedral, and designed that Grimbald should preside over it. 
 This was begun A.D. 901, and finished to the honor of the Holy Trinity, 
 Virgin Mary, and St. Peter, by his son King Edward, who placed therein 
 secular canons, but A.D. 963 they were expelled, and an abbot and monks 
 put in possession by Bishop Ethelwold. 
 
 " Now the churches and habitations of these two societies being so very 
 near together, the differences which were occasioned by their singing, bells, 
 and other matters arose to so great a height, that the religious of the new 
 monastery thought fit, about A.D. 1119, to remove to a better and more 
 quiet situation without the walls, on the north part of the city called Hyde, 
 where King Edward I., at the instance of Will. Gifford, bishop of Winton, 
 founded a stately abbey for them. St. Peter was generally accounted patron, 
 
2/8 WHITE 
 
 though it is sometimes called the monastery of St. Grimbald, and sometimes 
 of St. Barnabas," etc. G. W. 
 
 A few years since a county bridewell, or house of correction, has been 
 built on the immediate site of Hyde Abbey. In digging up the old founda- 
 tions the workmen found the head of a crosier in good preservation. 
 G. C. D. 
 
 8 Robert Saunforde was master of the Temple in 1241 ; Guido de Foresta 
 was the next in 1292. The former is fifth in a list of the masters, in a MS. 
 "Bib. Cotton. Nero. E. VI." G. W. 
 
 4 Americus Vasci, by his name, must have been an Italian, and had been 
 probably a soldier of fortune, and one of Gurdon's captains. Americus 
 Vespucio, the person who gave name to the new world, was a Florentine. 
 G. W. 
 
 6 In two or three ancient records relating to St. Oswald's Hospital in the 
 city of Worcester, printed by Dr. Nash, pp. 227, 228, of his collections for 
 the history of Worcestershire, the words preceptorium and preceptoria signify 
 the mastership of the said hospital : " ad preceptorium sive magisterium 
 presentavit preceptorii sive magisterii patronas. Vacavit dicta preceptoria 
 seu magisterium ad preceptoriam et regimen dicti hospitalis Te pre- 
 ceptorem sive magistrum prefecimus." 
 
 Where preceptorium denotes a building or apartment it may probably 
 mean the master's lodgings, or at least the preceptor's apartment, whatsoever 
 may have been the office or employment of the said preceptor. 
 
 A preceptor is mentioned inThoresby's "Ducatus Leodiensis," or "His- 
 tory of Leeds," p. 225, and a deed witnessed by the preceptor and chaplain 
 before dates were inserted. Du Fresne's Supplement : " Preceptorise, prae- 
 dia preceptoribus assignata." Cowell, in his " Law Dictionary," enumerates 
 sixteen preceptoriae, or preceptories, in England ; but Sudington is not 
 among them. It is remarkable that Gurtlerus, in his "Historia Tem- 
 plariorum," Amstel. 1691, never once mentions the words preceptor or 
 preceptorium. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XII 
 
 THE ladies and daughter of Sir Adam Gurdon were not the 
 only benefactresses to the Priory of Selborne ; for, in the year 
 1281, Ela Longspee obtained masses to be performed for her 
 soul's health ; and the prior entered into an engagement that 
 one of the convent should every day say a special mass for- 
 ever for the said benefactress, whether living or dead. She 
 also engaged within five years to pay to the said convent one 
 hundred marks of silver for the support of a chantry and chantry 
 chaplain, who should perform his masses daily in the parish 
 church of Selborne. 1 In the east end of the south aisle there 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 279 
 
 are two sharp-pointed Gothic niches ; one of these probably 
 was the place under which these masses were performed; 
 and there is the more reason to suppose as much, because, till 
 within these thirty years, this space was fenced off with a 
 Gothic wooden railing, and was known by the name of the 
 South Chancel. 2 
 
 The solicitude expressed by the donor plainly shows her piety 
 and firm persuasion of the efficacy of prayers for the dead ; for 
 she seems to have made every provision for the payment of 
 the sum stipulated within the appointed time, and to have felt 
 much anxiety lest her death, or the neglect of her executors 
 or assigns, might frustrate her intentions. " Et si contingat 
 me in solucione perdicte pecunie annis predictis in parte aut 
 in toto deficere, quod absit ; concede et obligo pro me et assigna- 
 tis meis, quod Vice-Comes . . . Oxon et . . . qui pro tempore 
 fuerint, per omnes terras et tenementa, et omnia bona mea 
 mobilia et immobilia ubicunque in balliva sua fuerint inventa 
 ad solucionem predictam faciendam possent nos compellere." 
 And again " Et si contingat dictos religiosos labores seu 
 expensas facere circa predictam pecuniam, seu circa partem 
 dicte pecunie ; volo quod dictorum religiosorum impense et 
 labores levantur ita quod predicto priori vel uni canonicorum 
 suorum super hiis simplici verbo credatur sine alterius honere 
 probacionis; et quod utrique predictorum virorum in unam 
 marcam argenti pro cujuslibet distrincione super me facienda 
 tenear. Dat. apud Wareborn die sabati proxima ante fes- 
 tum St. Marci evangeliste, anno regni regis Edwardi tertio 
 decimo." 3 
 
 But the reader, perhaps, would wish to be better informed 
 respecting this benefactress, of whom as yet he has heard no 
 particulars. 
 
 The Ela Longspee, therefore, above-mentioned, was a lady 
 of high birth and rank, and became countess to Thomas de 
 Newburgh, the sixth earl of Warwick: she was the second 
 daughter of the famous Ela Longspee, Countess of Salisbury, 
 by William Longspee, natural son of King Edward II., by 
 Rosamond. 
 
 Our lady, following the steps of her illustrious mother, 4 " was 
 a great benefactress to the University of Oxford, to the canons 
 
280 WHITE 
 
 of Oseney, the nuns of Godstow, and other religious houses in 
 Oxfordshire. She died very aged, in the year isoo, 5 and was 
 buried before the high altar in the abbey church of Oseney, 
 at the head of the tomb of Henry d'Oily, under a flat marble, 
 on which was inlaid her portraiture, in the habit of a vowess, 
 engraved on a copper-plate." Edmondson's " History and 
 Genealogical Account of the Grevilles," p. 23. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 A chantry was a chapel joined to some cathedral or parish church, and 
 endowed with annual revenues for the maintenance of one or more priests 
 to sing mass daily for the soul of the founder and others. G. W. 
 
 2 For what is said more respecting this chantry, see Letter III. of these 
 Antiquities. Mention is made of a Nicholas Langrish, capellanus de S el- 
 borne, in the time of Henry VIII. Was he chantry-chaplain to Ela Longspee, 
 whose masses were probably continued to the time of the Reformation ? 
 More will be said of this person hereafter. G. W. 
 
 8 Ancient deeds are often dated on a Sunday, having been executed in 
 churches and church-yards for the sake of notoriety, and for the conveniency 
 of procuring several witnesses to attest. G. W. 
 
 4 Ela Longspee, Countess of Salisbury, in 1232 founded a monastery at 
 Lacock, in the county of Wilts, and also another at Hendon, in the county 
 of Somerset, in her widowhood, to the honor of the Blessed Virgin and St. 
 Bernard. CAMDEN. 
 
 6 Thus she survived the foundation of her chantry at Selborne fifteen 
 years. About this lady and her mother consult Dugdale's " Baronage," i. 
 72, 175, 177 ; Dugdale's "Warwickshire," i. 383 ; Leland's "Itin.," ii. 45. 
 G. W. 
 
 LETTER XIII 
 
 THE reader is here presented with the titles of five forms 
 respecting the choosing of a prior. "Charta petens licen- 
 tiam elegendi prelatum a Domino episcopo Wintoniensi : " 
 " Forma licentie concesse : " " Forma decreti post electionem 
 conficiendi : " 108. " Modus procedendi ad electionem per 
 formam scrutinii : " et " Forma ricte presentandi electum." 
 Such evidences are rare and curious, and throw great light 
 upon the general monastico-ecclesiastical history of this king- 
 dom, not yet sufficiently understood. 
 
 Jn the year 1 324 there was an election for a prior at Selborne, 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 28 1 
 
 when, some difficulties occurring and a devolution taking place, 
 application was made to Stratford, who was bishop of Win- 
 chester at that time, and of course the visitor and patron of 
 the convent at the spot above-mentioned. 1 
 
 An Extract from " Reg. Stratford." Winton. 
 
 P. 4. " Commissio facta sub-priori de Selebourne," by the 
 bishop enjoining him to preserve the discipline of the order in 
 the convent during the vacancy made by the late death of the 
 prior, (" nuper pastoris solatio destituta,") dated 4th kal. Maii. 
 ann. 2do sc. of his consecration. [Sc. 1324.] 
 
 P. 6. " Custodia Prioratus de Seleburne vacantis," committed 
 
 by the bishop to Nicholas de la , a layman, it belonging 
 
 to the bishop, " ratione vacationis ejusdem," in July 1324, ibid, 
 "negotium electionis de Selebourne. Acta coram Johanne 
 Episcopo, &c., 1324 in negotio electionis de fratre Waltero de 
 Insula concanonico prioratus de Selebourne," lately elected by 
 the sub-prior and convent, by way of scrutiny ; that it appeared 
 to the bishop, by certificate from the dean of Alton, that solemn 
 citation and proclamation had been made in the church of the 
 convent where the election was held that any who opposed the 
 said election or elected should appear. Some difficulties were 
 started, which the bishop overruled, and confirmed the election, 
 and admitted the new prior sub hac forma: 
 
 " In Dei nomine Amen. Ego Johannes permissione divina, 
 &c., te Walterum de Insula ecclesie de Selebourne nostre dio- 
 ceseos nostrique patronatus vacantis, canonicum et cantorem, 
 virum utique providum, et discretum, literarum scientia pre- 
 ditum, vita moribus et conversatione merito commendatum, in 
 ordine sacerdotali et etate legitima constitutum, de legitimo 
 matrimonio procreatum, in ordine et religione Sancti Augustini 
 de Selebourne expresse professum, in spiritualibus et tempo- 
 ralibus circumspectum, jure nobis hac devoluto in hac parte, in 
 dicte ecclesie de Selebourne perf ectum priorem ; curam et ad- 
 ministrationem ejusdem tibi in spiritualibus et temporalibus 
 committentes. Dat. apud Selebourne XIII. kalend. Augusti 
 anno supradicto." 
 
 There follows an order to the sub-prior and convent pro 
 obedientia : 
 
282 WHITE 
 
 A mandate to Nicholas above-named to release the Priory 
 to the new prior : 
 
 A mandate for the induction of the new prior. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 Stratford was bishop of Winchester from 1323 to 1333, when he was 
 translated to Canterbury. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XIV 
 
 "!N the year 1373 Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, held 
 a visitation of his whole diocese ; not only of the secular clergy 
 through the several deaneries, but also of the monasteries, and 
 religious houses of all sorts, which he visited in person. The 
 next year he sent his commissioners with power to correct and 
 reform the several irregularities and abuses which he had dis- 
 covered in the course of his visitation. 
 
 " Some years afterwards, the bishop, having visited three 
 several times all the religious houses throughout his diocese, 
 and being well informed of the state and condition of each, 
 and of the particular abuses which required correction and 
 reformation, besides the orders which he had already given, 
 and the remedies which he had occasionally applied by his 
 commissioners, now issued his injunctions to each of them. 
 They were accommodated to their several exigencies, and 
 intended to correct the abuses introduced, and to recall them 
 all to a strict observation of the rules of their respective orders. 
 Many of these injunctions are still extant, and are evident 
 monuments of the care and attention with which he discharged 
 this part of his episcopal duty." 1 
 
 Some of these injunctions I shall here produce ; and they 
 are such as will not fail, I think, to give satisfaction to the 
 antiquary, both as never having been published before, and 
 as they are a curious picture of monastic irregularities at that 
 time. 
 
 The documents that I allude to are contained in the " Nota- 
 bilis Visitatio de Seleburne," held at the Priory of that place, 
 by Wykeham in person, in the year 1387. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 283 
 
 / 
 This evidence, in the original, is written on two skins of 
 
 parchment ; the one large, and the other smaller, and consists 
 of a preamble, thirty-six items, and a conclusion, which alto- 
 gether evince the patient investigation of the visitor, for which 
 he had always been so remarkable in all matters of moment, 
 and how much he had at heart the regularity of those institu- 
 tions, of whose efficacy in their prayers for the dead he was 
 so firmly persuaded. As the bishop was so much in/earnest, 
 we may be assured that he had nothing in view but (o correct 
 and reform what he found amiss, and was under no bias to 
 blacken or misrepresent as the commissioners of Thomas 
 Lord Cromwell seem in part to have done at the time of the 
 Reformation. 2 We may therefore with reason suppose that 
 the bishop gives us an exact delineation of the morals and 
 manners of the canons of Selborne at that juncture; and that 
 what he found they had omitted he enjoins them ; and for 
 what they have done amiss, and contrary to their rules and 
 statutes, he reproves them ; and threatens them with punish- 
 ment suitable to their irregularities. 
 
 The visitatio is of considerable length, and cannot be intro- 
 duced into the body of this work ; we shall therefore refer the 
 reader to the Appendix, where he will find every particular, 
 while we shall take some notice, and make some remarks on 
 the most singular items as they occur. 
 
 In the preamble the visitor says " Considering the charge 
 lying upon us, that your blood may not be required at our 
 hands, we came down to visit your Priory, as our office required : 
 and every time we repeated our visitation we found something 
 still not only contrary to regular rules but also repugnant to 
 religion and good reputation." 
 
 In the first article after the preamble "he commands them 
 on their obedience, and on pain of the greater excommunica- 
 tion, to see that the canonical hours by night and by day be 
 sung in their choir, and the masses of the Blessed Mary, and 
 other accustomed masses, be celebrated at the proper hours 
 with devotion, and at moderate pauses; and that it be not 
 allowed to any to absent themselves from the hours and 
 masses, or to withdraw before they are finished." 
 
 Item 2nd. He enjoins them to observe that silence to which 
 
284 WHITE 
 
 they are so strictly bound by the rule of St. Augustine at 
 stated times, and wholly to abstain from frivolous conversation. 
 
 Item 4th. " Not to permit such frequent passing of secular 
 people of both sexes through their convent, as if a thorough- 
 fare, from whence many disorders may and have arisen." 
 
 Item 5th. " To take care that the doors of their church 
 and priory be so attended to that no suspected and disorderly 
 females, 'suspectae et alise inhonestae/ pass through their choir 
 and cloister in the dark ; " and to see that the doors of their 
 church between the nave and the choir, and the gates of their 
 cloister opening into the fields, be constantly kept shut until 
 their first choir service is over in the morning, at dinner time, 
 and when they meet at their evening collation. 3 
 
 Item 6th mentions that several of the canons are found to 
 be very ignorant and illiterate, and enjoins the prior to see 
 that they be better instructed by a proper master. 
 
 Item 8th. The canons are here accused of refusing to ac- 
 cept of their statutable clothing year by year, and of demand- 
 ing a certain specified sum of money, as if it were their annual 
 rent and due. This the bishop forbids, and orders that the 
 canons shall be clothed out of the revenue of the priory, and 
 the old garments be laid by in a chamber and given to the 
 poor according to the rule of St. Augustine. 
 
 In Item Qth is a complaint that some of the canons are given 
 to wander out of the precincts of the convent without leave ; 
 and that others ride to their manors and farms, under pretence 
 of inspecting the concerns of the society, when they please, 
 and stay as long as they please. But they are enjoined never 
 to stir either about their own private concerns or the business 
 of the convent without leave from the prior : and no canon is 
 to go alone, but to have a brave brother to accompany him. 
 
 The injunction in Item loth at this distance of time appears 
 rather ludicrous ; but the visitor seems to be very serious on 
 the occasion, and says that it has been evidently proved to him 
 that some of the canons, living dissolutely after the flesh, and 
 not after the spirit, sleep naked in their beds without their 
 breeches and shirts, "absque femoralibus et camisiis." 4 He 
 enjoins that these culprits shall be punished by severe fasting, 
 especially if they shall be found to be faulty a third time ; and 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 285' 
 
 threatens the prior and sub-prior with suspension if they do 
 not correct this enormity. 
 
 In Item nth the good bishop is very wroth with some of 
 the canons, whom he finds to be professed hunters and sports- 
 men, keeping hounds and publicly attending hunting-matches. 
 These pursuits, he says, occasion much dissipation, danger to 
 the soul and body, and frequent expense ; he, therefore, wish- 
 ing to extirpate this vice wholly from the convent, " radicibus 
 extirpare" does absolutely enjoin the canons never intention- 
 ally to be present at any public noisy tumultuous huntings ; or 
 to keep any hounds, by themselves or by others, openly or by 
 stealth, within the convent, or without. 6 
 
 In Item I2th he forbids the canons in office to make their 
 business a plea for not attending the service of the choir ; since 
 by these means either divine worship is neglected or their 
 brother canons are overburdened. 
 
 By Item I4th we are informed that the original number of 
 canons at the Priory of Selborne was fourteen ; but that at 
 this visitation they were found to be let down to eleven. The 
 visitor therefore strongly and earnestly enjoins them that, with 
 all due speed and diligence, they should proceed to the elec- 
 tion of proper persons to fill up the vacancies, under pain of 
 the greater excommunication. 
 
 In Item i/th the prior and s canons are accused of suffer- 
 ing, through neglect, notorious dilapidations to take place 
 among their manorial houses and tenements, and in the walls 
 and enclosures of the convent itself, to the shame and scandal 
 of the institution ; they are therefore enjoined, under pain of 
 suspension, to repair all defects within the space of six months. 
 
 Item 1 8th charges them with grievously burthening the 
 said Priory by means of sales, and grants of liveries 6 and 
 corrodies. 7 
 
 The bishop, in Item iQth, accuses the canons of neglect 
 and omission with respect to their perpetual chantry-services. 
 
 Item 2Oth, The visitor here conjures the prior and canons 
 not to withhold their original alms, " eleemosynas ; " nor those 
 that they were enjoined to distribute for the good of the souls 
 of founders and benefactors ; he also strictly orders that the 
 fragments and broken victuals, both from the hall of their 
 
286 WHITE 
 
 prior and their common refectory, should be carefully col- 
 lected together by their eleemosynarius, and given to the 
 poor without any diminution, the officer to be suspended for 
 neglect or omission. 
 
 Item 23rd. He bids them distribute their pittances, " pitan- 
 cias" 8 regularly on obits, anniversaries, festivals, etc. 
 
 Item 25th. All and every one of the canons are hereby in- 
 hibited from standing godfather to any boy for the future, 
 "ne compatres alicujus pueri de cetero fieri presumatis," 
 unless by express license from the bishop obtained ; because 
 from such relationship favor and affection, nepotism, and 
 undue influence arise, to the injury and detriment of religious 
 institutions. 9 
 
 Item 26th. The visitor herein severely reprimands the 
 canons for appearing publicly in what would be called in the 
 universities an unstatutable manner, and for wearing of boots, 
 " caligae de Bifrneto, et sotularium in ocrearum loco, ad 
 modum sotularium." 10 
 
 It is remarkable that the bishop expresses more warmth 
 against this than any other irregularity ; and strictly enjoins 
 them, under pain of ecclesiastical censures, and even impris- 
 onment if necessary (a threat not made use of before), for 
 the future to wear boots, "ocreis seu botis," according to 
 the regular usage of their ancient order. 
 
 Item 29th. He here again, but with less earnestness, for- 
 bids them foppish ornaments, and the affectation of appear- 
 ing like beaux, with garments edged with costly furs, with 
 fringed gloves, and silken girdles trimmed with gold and 
 silver. It is remarkable that no punishment is annexed to 
 this injunction. 
 
 Item 3 1 st. He here singly and severally forbids each 
 canon not admitted to a cure of souls to administer extreme 
 unction, or the sacrament, to clergy or laity ; or to perform 
 the service of matrimony, till he has taken out the license of 
 the parish priest. 
 
 Item 32nd. The bishop says in this item that he had ob- 
 served and found, in his several visitations, that the sacra- 
 mental plate and cloths of the altar, surplices, etc., were 
 sometimes left in such an uncleanly and disgusting condition 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 287 
 
 as to make the beholders shudder with horror : " Quod ali- 
 quibus sunt horrori:" 11 he therefore enjoins them for the 
 future to see that the plate, cloths, and vestments be kept 
 bright, clean, and in decent order : and, what must surprise 
 the reader, adds that he expects for the future that the 
 sacrist should provide for the sacrament good wine, pure and 
 unadulterated ; and not, as had often been the practice, that 
 which was sour, and tending to decay : he says farther, that 
 it seems quite preposterous to omit in sacred matters that at- 
 tention to decent cleanliness, the neglect of which would dis- 
 grace a common convivial meeting. 12 
 
 Item 33rd says that, though the relics of saints, the plate, 
 holy vestments, and books of religious houses are forbidden 
 by canonical institutes to be pledged or lent out upon 
 pawn, yet, as the visitor finds this to be the case in his sev- 
 eral visitations, he therefore strictly enjoins the prior forth- 
 with to recall those pledges, and to restore them to the con- 
 vent ; and orders that all the papers and title-deeds thereto 
 belonging should be safely deposited, and kept under three 
 locks and keys. 
 
 In the course of the " Visitatio Notabilis " the constitutions 
 of Legate Ottobonus are frequently referred to. Ottobonus 
 was afterwards Pope Adrian V., and died in 1276. His con- 
 stitutions are in Lyndewood's " Provinciate," and were drawn 
 up in the 52nd of Henry III. 
 
 In the " Visitatio Notabilis " the usual punishment is fast- 
 ing on bread and beer ; and in cases of repeated delinquency 
 on bread and water. On these occasions quarto, feria, et sexta 
 feria, are mentioned often, and are to be understood of the 
 days of the week numerically on which such punishment is 
 to be inflicted. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 See Lowth's "Life of Wykeham." G. W. 
 
 2 Letters of this sort from Dr. Layton to Thomas Lord Cromwell are still 
 extant. G. W. 
 
 8 A collation was a meal or repast on a fast-day in lieu of a supper. 
 G. W. 
 
 4 The rule alluded to in Item loth, of not sleeping naked, was enjoined 
 the Knights Templars, who were also subject to the rules of St. Augustine. 
 See GURTLERI, Hist. Templariorum. G. W. 
 
288 WHITE 
 
 6 Considering the strong propensity inhuman nature towards the pleasures 
 of the chase, it is not to be wondered that the canons of Canterbury should 
 languish after hunting, when from their situation, so near the precincts of 
 Wolmer Forest, the king's hounds must have been often in hearing, and 
 sometimes in sight from their windows. If the bishop was so offended at 
 these sporting canons, what would he have said to our modern fox-hunting 
 divines! G. W. 
 
 6 " Liberationes, or liberaturae, allowances of corn, etc., to servants, de- 
 livered at certain times and in certain quantities, as clothes, were among the 
 allowances from religious houses to their dependants. See the corrodies 
 granted by Croyland Abbey. Hist, of Croyland, Appendix, No. XXXIV. 
 
 " It is not improbable that the word in after ages came to be confined to 
 the uniform of the retainers or servants of the great, who were hence called 
 livery servants." SIR JOHN CULLUM'S Hist, of Hawsted. G. W. 
 
 7 A corrody is an allowance to a servant living in an abbey or priory. 
 G. W. 
 
 8 Pitancia, an allowance of bread and beer, or other provision to any pious 
 use, " especially to the religious in a monastery, etc., for augmentation of 
 their commons." Gloss, to Kennefs Par. Ant. G. W. 
 
 9 The relationship between sponsors and their god-children, who were 
 called spiritual sons and daughters, was formerly esteemed much more sacred 
 than at present. The presents at christenings were sometimes very con- 
 siderable : the connection lasted through life, and was closed with a legacy. 
 This last mark of attention seems to have been thought almost indispen- 
 sable : for, in a will from whence no extracts have been given, the testator 
 left every one of his god-children a bushel of barley." SIR JOHN CULLUM'S 
 Hist, of Hawsted. 
 
 " De Margaretae filiae regis primogenitae, quam filiolam, quia ejus in bap- 
 tismo compater fuit, appellat, cyphum aureum et quadraginta libras, legavit." 
 ARCHBISHOP PARKER de Antiquitate Eccles. Brit., speaking of Archbishop 
 Morton. G. W. 
 
 10 De Fresne is copious on caligae of several sorts, " Hoc item de Clericis, 
 presertim beneficiatis : caligis scacatis (chequered) rubeis, et viridibus pub- 
 lice utentibus dicimus esse censendum." Statut. Eccles. Tutel. The cheq- 
 uered boots seem to be the highland plaid stockings. "Burnetum, i.e. 
 Brunetum, pannus non ex lana nativi coloris confectus." "Sotularium, 
 i.e. subtalaris, quia sub talo est. Peculium genus, quibus maxime Monachi 
 nocte utebantur in aestate ; in hyeme vero Soccis." 
 
 This writer gives many quotations concerning Sotularia, which were not 
 to be made too shapely ; nor were the caligae to be laced on too nicely. 
 G. W. 
 
 11 "Men abhorred the offering of the Lord." i Sam. ii. 17. Strange 
 as this account may appear to modern delicacy, the author, when first in 
 orders, twice met with similar circumstances attending the sacrament at two 
 churches belonging to two obscure villages. In the first he found the inside 
 of the chalice covered with birds' dung ; and in the other the communion 
 cloth soiled with cabbage and the greasy drippings of a gammon of bacon. 
 The good dame at the great farmhouse, who was to furnish the cloth, 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 289 
 
 being a notable woman, thought it best to save her clean linen, and so sent 
 a foul cloth that had covered her own table for two or three Sundays 
 
 12 . . . " ne turpe toral, ne sordida mappa 
 Corruget nares : ne non et cantharus, et lanx 
 Ostendat tibi te." G. W. 
 
 LETTER XV 
 
 THOUGH Bishop Wykeham appears somewhat stern and 
 rigid in his visitatorial character towards the Priory of Sel- 
 borne, yet he was on the whole a liberal friend and benefactor 
 to that convent, which, like every society or individual that 
 fell in his way, partook of the generosity and benevolence of 
 that munificent prelate. 
 
 "In the year 1377 William of Wykeham, out of his mere 
 good will and liberality, discharged the whole debts of the 
 prior and convent of Selborne, to the amount of one hundred 
 and ten marks eleven shillings and sixpence; 1 and, a few 
 years before he died, he made a free gift of one hundred marks 
 to the same Priory : on which account the prior and convent 
 voluntarily engaged for the celebration of two masses a day 
 by two canons of the convent for ten years, for the bishop's 
 welfare, if he should live so long ; and for his soul if he should 
 die before the expiration of this term." 2 
 
 At this distance of time it seems a matter of great wonder 
 to us how these societies, so nobly endowed, and whose mem- 
 bers were exempt by their very institution from every means 
 of personal and family expense, could possibly run in debt 
 without squandering their revenues in a manner incompatible 
 with their function. 
 
 Religious houses might sometimes be distressed in their rev- 
 enues by fires among their buildings or large dilapidations from 
 storms, etc. ; but no such accident appears to have befallen 
 the Priory of Selborne. Those situate on public roads, or in 
 great towns where there were shrines of saints, were liable 
 to be intruded on by travellers, devotees, and pilgrims; and 
 were subject to the importunity of the poor, who swarmed at 
 their gates to partake of doles and broken victuals. Of these 
 
2QO WHITE 
 
 disadvantages some convents used to complain, and especially 
 those at Canterbury; but this Priory, from its sequestered 
 situation, could seldom be subject to either of these inconven- 
 iences, and therefore we must attribute its frequent debts 
 and embarrassments, well endowed as it was, to the bad con- 
 duct of its members, and a general inattention to the interests 
 of the institution. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Yet in ten years' time we find, by the " Notabilis Visitatio," that all 
 their relics, plate, vestments, title-deeds, etc., were in pawn. G. W. 
 
 2 Lowth's Life of Wykeham." G. W. 
 
 LETTER XVI 
 
 BEAUFORT was bishop of Winchester from 1405 to 1447 ; 
 and yet, notwithstanding this long episcopate, only torn. i. of 
 Beaufort's " Register " is to be found. This loss is much to 
 be regretted, as it must unavoidably make a gap in the history 
 of Selborne Priory, and perhaps in the list of its priors. 
 
 In 1410 there was an election for a prior, and again in 1411. 
 
 In Vol. I., p. 24, of Beaufort's " Register," is the instrument 
 of the election of John Wynchestre to be prior the sub- 
 stance as follows : 
 
 Richard Elstede, senior canon, signifies to the bishop that 
 brother Thomas Weston, the late prior, died October i8th, 
 1410, and was buried November nth. That the bishop's 
 license to elect having been obtained he and the whole con- 
 vent met in the chapter-house, on the same day about the hour 
 of vespers, to consider of the election ; that brother John Wyn- 
 chestre, then sub-prior, with the general consent, appointed 
 the 1 2th November, ad horam ejusdem diei capitular em> for 
 the business ; when they met in the chapter-house, post mis- 
 sam de sancto Spiritu, solemnly celebrated in the church ; 
 to wit, Richard Elstede, Thomas Halyborne, John Lemyng- 
 ton, sacrista ; John Stepe, cantor ; Walter Ff arnham, Richard 
 Putworth, celerarius ; Hugh London, Henry Brampton, alias 
 Brompton ; John Wynchestre, senior, John Wynchestre, jun- 
 ior; then "Proposito primitis verbo Dei," and then hymno 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 291 
 
 "Veni Creator Spiritus" being solemnly sung, cum "versi- 
 culo et oratione," as usual, and his letter of license, with the 
 appointment of the hour and place of election being read, alta 
 voce y in valvis of the chapter-house ; John Wynchestre, senior, 
 the sub-prior, in his own behalf and that of all the canons, 
 and by their mandate, " quasdam monicionem et protestacio- 
 nem in scriptis redactas fecit, legit, interposuit" that all 
 persons disqualified, or not having right to be present, should 
 immediately withdraw, and protesting against their voting, 
 etc. ; that then having read the constitution of the general 
 council " Quia propter," and explained the modes of proceed- 
 ing to election, they agreed unanimously to proceed " per viam 
 seu formam simplicis compromissi ; " when John Wynchestre, 
 sub-prior, and all the others (the commissaries under-named 
 excepted) named and chose brothers Richard Elstede, Thomas 
 Halyborne, John Lemyngton, the sacrist, John Stepe, chantor, 
 and Richard Putworth, canons, to be commissaries, who were 
 sworn each to nominate and elect a fit person to be prior, and 
 empowered by letters patent under the common seal, to be in 
 force only until the darkness of the night of the same day ; 
 that they, or the greater part of them, should elect for the 
 whole convent, within the limited time from their own number, 
 or from the rest of the convent ; that one of them should pub- 
 lish their consent in common before the clergy and people : 
 they then all promised to receive as prior the person these 
 five canons should fix on. These commissaries seceded from 
 the chapter-house to the refectory of the Priory, and were 
 shut in with Master John Penkester, bachelor of laws, and 
 John Couke and John Lynne, perpetual vicars of the parish 
 churches of Newton and Selborne, and with Sampson May- 
 cock, a public notary, where they treated of the election ; when 
 they unanimously agreed on John Wynchestre, and appointed 
 Thomas Halyborne to choose him in common for all, and to 
 publish the election as customary, and returned long before 
 it was dark to the chapter-house, where Thomas Halyborne 
 read publicly the instrument of election ; when all the brothers, 
 the new prior excepted, singing solemnly the hymn " Te Deum 
 laudamus,"/^r&/ deportari novum electum, by some of the 
 brothers from the chapter-house to the high altar of the 
 
2Q2 WHITE 
 
 church; 1 and the hymn being sung, dictisque versiculo et 
 oratione consuetis in hac parte, Thomas Halyborne, mox tune 
 ibidem, before the clergy and people of both sexes solemnly 
 published the election in vtilgari. Then Richard Elstede, and 
 the whole convent by their proctors and nuncios appointed 
 for the purpose, Thomas Halyborne and John Stepe, required 
 several times the assent of the elected; "et tandem post 
 diutinas interpellationes, et deliberationes, et deliberationem 
 providam penes se habitam, in hac parte divine nolens, ut 
 asseruit, resistere voluntati," within the limited time he signi- 
 fied his acceptance in the usual written form of words. The 
 bishop is then supplicated to confirm their election, and do 
 the needful, under common seal, in the chapter-house. No- 
 vember 1 4th, 1410. 
 
 The bishop, January 6th, 1410, apud Esher in camera infe- 
 riori, declared the election duly made, and ordered the new 
 prior to be inducted ; for this the archdeacon of Winchester 
 was written to ; " stallumque in choro, et locum in capitulo 
 juxta morem preteriti temporis," to be assigned to him, and 
 everything beside necessary to be done. 
 
 BEAUFORT'S " REGISTER," VOL. I 
 
 P. 2. Taxatio spiritualis Decanatus de Aulton, Ecclesia de 
 Selebourn, cum Capella, xxx marc, decima xlib. iii. fol. Vicaria 
 de Selebourn non taxatur propter exilitatem. 
 
 P. 9. Taxatio bonorum temporalium religiosorum in Archi- 
 diac. Wynton. 
 
 Prior de Selebourn habet meneria de 
 
 Bromdene taxat. ad xxx s. ii d. 
 
 Apud Schete ad xvii s. 
 
 P. Selebourne ad vi lib. 
 
 In civitate Wynton de reddit vi lib. viii ob. 
 
 Tannaria sua taxat ad x lib. s. 
 
 Summa tax. xxx viii lib. xiiii d. ob. Inde decima . vi lib. s. q. ob. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 It seems here as if the canons used to chair their new-elected prior from 
 the chapter-house to the high altar of their convent church. In Letter 
 XXL, on the same occasion it is said "et sic canentes dictum electum 
 ad majus altare ecclesie deduximus, ut apud nos moris est." G. W. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 293 
 
 LETTER XVII 
 
 INFORMATION being sent to Rome respecting the havoc and 
 spoil that was carrying on among the revenues and lands of 
 the Priory of Selborne, as we may suppose by the bishop of 
 Winchester, its visitor, Pope Martin, 1 as soon as the news 
 of these proceedings came before him, issued forth a bull, in 
 which he enjoins his commissary immediately to revoke all the 
 property that had been alienated. 
 
 In this instrument his holiness accuses the prior and canons 
 of having granted away (they themselves and their predeces- 
 sors) to certain clerks and laymen their tithes, lands, rents, 
 tenements, and possessions, to some of them for their lives, to 
 others for an undue term of years, and to some again for a 
 perpetuity, to the great and heavy detriment of the monas- 
 tery; and these leases were granted, he continues to add, under 
 their own hands, with the sanction of an oath and the renun- 
 ciation of all right and claims, and under penalties, if the right 
 was not made good. But it will be best to give an abstract 
 from the bull. 
 
 N. 298. Pope Martin's bull touching the revoking of cer- 
 taine things alienated from the Priory of Seleburne. Pontif. 
 sui ann. i. 
 
 " Martinus Eps. servus servorum Dei. Dilecto filio Priori de 
 Suthvale 2 Wyntonien, dioc. Salutem & apostolicam ben. Ad 
 audientiam nostram pervenit quam tarn dilecti filii prior et 
 conventus monasterii de Seleburn per Priorem soliti guber- 
 nari ordinis S u . Augustini Winton, dioc. quam de predeces- 
 sores eorum decimas, terras, redditus, domos, possessiones, 
 vineas, 3 et quedam alia bona ad monasterium ipsum spectan- 
 tia, datis super hoc litteris, interpositis juramentis, factis re- 
 nuntiationibus, et penis adjectis, in gravem ipsius monasterii 
 lesionem nonnullis clericis et laicis, aliquibus eorum ad vitam, 
 quibusdam vero ad non modicum tempus, & aliis perpetuo ad 
 firmam, vel sub censu annuo concesserunt ; quorum aliqui 
 dicunt super hiis a sede aplica in communi forma confirma- 
 tionis litteras impetrasse. Quia vero nostra interest lesis mo- 
 nasteriis subvenire [He the Pope here commands] ea ad jus 
 et proprietatem monasterii studeas legitime revocare," etc. 
 
294 WHITE 
 
 The conduct of the religious had now for some time been 
 generally bad. Many of the monastic societies, being very 
 opulent, were become voluptuous and licentious, and had 
 deviated entirely from their original institutions. The laity 
 saw with indignation the wealth and possessions of their pious 
 ancestors perverted to the service of sensuality and indul- 
 gence, and spent in gratifications highly unbecoming the 
 purposes for which they were given. A total disregard to 
 their respective rules and discipline drew on the monks and 
 canons a heavy load of popular odium. Some good men 
 there were who endeavored to oppose the general delin- 
 quency ; but their efforts were too feeble to stem the torrent 
 of monastic luxury. As far back as the year 1381, Wyclif's 
 principles and doctrines had made some progress, were well 
 received by men who wished for a reformation, and were 
 defended and maintained by them as long as they dared, till 
 the bishops and clergy began to be so greatly alarmed, that 
 they procured an act to be passed by which the secular arm 
 was empowered to support the corrupt doctrines of the 
 Church; but the first Lollard was not burnt until the year 
 1401. 
 
 The wits also of those times did not spare the gross morals 
 of the clergy, but boldly ridiculed their ignorance and prof- 
 ligacy. The most remarkable of these were Chaucer, and 
 his contemporary Robert Langelande, better known by the 
 name of Piers Plowman. The laughable tales of the former 
 are familiar to almost every reader ; while the visions of the 
 latter are but in few hands. With a quotation from the 
 " Passus Decimus "of this writer I shall conclude my letter ; 
 not only on account of the remarkable prediction therein 
 contained, which carries with it somewhat of the air of a 
 prophecy, but also as it seems to have been a striking picture 
 of monastic insolence and dissipation, and a specimen of one 
 of the keenest pieces of satire now perhaps subsisting in any 
 language, ancient or modern. 
 
 11 Now is religion a rider, a romer by streate ; 
 A leader of love-days, and a loud beggar ; 
 A pricker on a palfrey from maner to maner, 
 A heape of hounds at his arse, as he a lord were. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 295 
 
 And but if his knave kneel, that shall his cope bring, 
 He loureth at him, and asketh him who taught him curtesie, 
 Little had lords to done, to give lands from her heirs, 
 To religious that have no ruth if it rain on her altars. 
 In many places ther they persons be, by himself at ease : 
 Of the poor have they no pity, and that is her charitie ; 
 And they letten hem as lords, her lands lie so broad. 
 And there shal come a king, 4 and confess you religious ; 
 And beate you, as the bible telleth, for breaking your rule, 
 And amend monials, and monks, and chanons, 
 And put hem to her penaunce adpristinum statum ire. n 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Pope Martin V., chosen about 1417. He attempted to reform the 
 church, but died in 1431, just as he had summoned the Council of Basil. 
 
 G. W. 
 
 2 Should have been no doubt Southwick, a priory under Portsdown. 
 
 G. W. 
 
 8 Mr. Barrington is of opinion that anciently the English vinea was in 
 almost every instance an orchard ; not perhaps always of apples merely, 
 but of other fruits ; as cherries, plums, and currants. We still say a plum 
 or cherry orchard. See Archceologia, Vol. III. 
 
 In the instance above, the pope's secretary might insert vineas merely 
 because they were a species of cultivation familiar to him in Italy. G. W. 
 
 4 F. 1. a. " This prediction, although a probable conclusion concerning 
 a king who after a time would suppress the religious houses, is remarkable. 
 I imagined it might have been foisted into the copies in the reign of King 
 Henry VIII., but it is to be found in MSS. of this poem, older than the 
 year 1400." fol. 1. a. b. 
 
 "Again, where he, Piers Plowman, alludes to the Knights Templars, 
 lately suppressed, he says, 
 
 . . . "'Menofholiekirk 
 Shall turn as Templars did ; the tyme approacheth nere.' 
 
 "This, I suppose, was a favorite doctrine in WycliPs discourses." 
 WARTON'S Hist of English Poetry, Vol. I., p. 282. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XVIII 
 
 WILLIAM of Waynflete became bishop of Winchester in the 
 year 1447, and seems to have pursued the generous plan of 
 Wykeham in endeavoring to reform the Priory of Selborne. 
 
 When Waynflete came to the see he found Prior Stype, alias 
 
296 WHITE 
 
 Stepe, still living, who had been elected as long ago as the year 
 1411. 
 
 Among my documents I find a curious paper of the things 
 put into the custody of Peter Bernes, the sacrist, and especially 
 some relics : the title of this evidence is " No. 50, Indentura 
 prioris de Selborne quorundam tradit Petro Bernes, sacrista 
 ibidem, ann. Hen. VI. . . . una cum confiss. ejusdem Petri 
 script." The occasion of this catalogue, or list of effects, being 
 drawn between the prior and sacrist, does not appear, nor the 
 date when ; only that it happened in the reign of Hen. VI. 
 This transaction probably took place when Bernes entered on 
 his office ; and there is the more reason to suppose that to be 
 the case because the list consists of vestments and implements 
 and relics, such as belonged to the church of the Priory and 
 fell under the care of the sacrist. For the numerous items I 
 shall refer the curious reader to the Appendix, and shall just 
 mention the relics, although they are not all specified ; and 
 the state of the live-stock of the monastery at that juncture. 
 
 " Item 2. osculator. argent. 
 
 " Item i. osculatorium cum osse digiti auricular. Sti.Johan- 
 nis Baptists. 1 
 
 "Item i. parvam crucem cum V. reliquiis. 
 
 " Item i. anulum argent, et deauratum St. Edmundi? 
 
 " Item 2. osculat. de coper. 
 
 "Item i. junctorium St. Ricardi* 
 
 " Item i. pecten St. Ricardi"* 
 
 The staurum, or live-stock, is quite ridiculous, consisting only 
 of " 2 vacce, i sus, 4 hoggett. et 4 porcell." viz., two cows, one 
 sow, four porkers, and four pigs. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 How the convent came by the bone of the little finger of St. John the 
 Baptist does not appear: probably the founder, while in Palestine, pur- 
 chased it among the Asiatics, who were at that time great traders in relics. 
 We know from the best authority that as soon as Herod had cruelly be- 
 headed that holy man "his disciples came and took up the body and buried 
 it, and went and told Jesus." Matt. iv. 12. Farther would be difficult to 
 say. G. W. 
 
 a November 2oth in the calendar, Edmund, king and martyr, in the Qth 
 century. See also a Sanctus Edmundus in Godwin, among the archbishops 
 of Canterbury, in the I3th century; his surname Rich, in 1234. G. W. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 297 
 
 8 April 3rd, ibid. Richard, bishop of Chichester, in the I3th century; 
 his surname De la Wich, in 1245. 
 
 Junctorium, perhaps a joint or limb of St. Richard ; but what particular 
 joint the religious were not such osteologists as to specify. This barbarous 
 word was not to be found in any dictionary consulted by the author. G. W. 
 
 4 " Pecten inter ministeria sacra recensetur, quo scil. sacerdotes ac clerici, 
 antequam in ecclesiam procederent, crines pecterent. E quibus colligitur 
 monachos, tune temporis, non omnino tonsos fuisse." Du FRESNE. 
 
 The author remembers to have seen in great farmhouses a family comb 
 chained to a post for the use of the hinds when they came in to their meals. 
 G. W. 
 
 LETTER XIX 
 
 STEPE died towards the end of the year 1453, as we may 
 suppose pretty far advanced in life, having been prior forty- 
 four years. 
 
 On the very day that the vacancy happened, viz., January 
 26th, 1453-4, tne sub-prior and convent petitioned the visitor 
 " vos unicum levam en nostrum, et spem unanimiter roga- 
 mus, quatinus eligendum ex nobis unum confratrem de gremio 
 nostro, in nostra religione probatum et expertem, licenciam 
 vestram paternalem cum plena libertate nobis concedere dig- 
 nemini graciose." Reg. Waynflete, torn. I. 
 
 Instead of the license requested we find next a commission 
 " custodie prioratus de Selebourne durante vacatione," ad- 
 dressed to brother Peter Berne, canon regular of the Priory 
 of Selborne, and of the order of St. Augustine, appointing 
 him keeper of the said Priory, and empowering him to collect 
 and receive the profits and revenues and " alia bona " of the 
 said Priory ; and to exercise in every respect the full power 
 and authority of a prior ; but to be responsible to the visitor 
 finally, and to maintain this superiority during the bishop's 
 pleasure only. This instrument is dated from the bishop's 
 manor-house in Southwark, March 1st, 1453-4, an d the 
 seventh of his consecration. 
 
 After this transaction it does not appear that the chapter 
 of the Priory proceeded to any election; on the contrary, 
 we find that at six months' end from the vacancy the 
 visitor declared that a lapse had taken place ; and that there- 
 
298 WHITE 
 
 fore he did confer the priorship on canon Peter Berne 
 " Prioratum vacantem et ad nostram collationem, seu pro- 
 visionem jure ad nos in hac parte per lapsum temporis legitime 
 devoluto spectantem, tibi (sc. P. Berne) de legitimo matrimonio 
 procreato, etc., conf erimus," etc. This deed bears date July 
 28th, 1454. Reg. Waynflete, torn. I. p. 69. 
 
 On February 8th, 1462, the visitor issued out a power of 
 sequestration against the Priory of Selborne on account of 
 notorious dilapidations which threatened manifest ruin to the 
 roofs, walls, and edifices of the said convent ; and appointing 
 John Hammond, B.D., rector of the parish church of Hetlegh, 
 John Hylling, vicar of the parish church of Newton Valence, 
 and Walter Gorfin, inhabitant of the parish of Selborne, his 
 sequestrators, to exact, collect, levy, and receive all the profits 
 and revenues of the said convent : he adds " ac ea sub arcto, 
 et tuto custodiatis, custodirive faciatis ; " as they would answer 
 it to the bishop at their peril. 
 
 In consequence of these proceedings Prior Berne, on the last 
 day of February, and the next year, produced a state of the 
 revenues of the Priory, No. 381, called "A paper conteyning 
 the value of the manors and lands pertayning to the Priory of 
 Selborne, 4 Edward III., with a note of charges yssuing out 
 of it." 
 
 This is a curious document, and will appear in the Appendix. 
 From circumstances in this paper it is plain that the seques- 
 tration produced good effect ; for in it are to be found bills of 
 repairs to a considerable amount. 
 
 By this evidence also it appears that there were at that 
 juncture only four canons at the Priory; 1 and that these, and 
 their four household servants, during this sequestration for 
 their clothing, wages, and diet, were allowed per annum xxx 
 lib. ; and that the annual pension of the lord prior, reside where 
 he would, was to be x lib. 
 
 In the year 1468, Prior Berne, probably wearied out by the 
 dissensions and want of order that prevailed in the convent, 
 resigned his priorship into the hands of the bishop. Reg. 
 Waynflete, torn. I., pars i ma ., fol. 157. 
 
 March 28th, A.D. 1468. " In quadam alta camera juxta mag- 
 nam portam manerii of the Bishop of Wynton de Waltham 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 299 
 
 coram eodem rev. patre ibidem tune sedente, Peter Berne, 
 prior of Selborne, ipsum prioratum in sacras, et venerabiles 
 manus of the bishop, viva voce libere resignavit : and his 
 resignation was admitted before two witnesses and a notary 
 public. In consequence, March 29th, before the bishop, in 
 capella manerii sui ante dicti pro tribunali sedente, comparu- 
 erunt fratres " Peter Berne, Thomas London, William Wyn- 
 desor, and William Paynell, alias Stretford, canons regular of 
 the Priory, "capitulum, et conventum ejusdem ecclesie faci- 
 entes; ac jus et voces in electione futura prioris dicti prioratus 
 solum et in solidum, ut asseruerunt, habentes ; " and after the 
 bishop had notified to them the vacancy of a prior, with his 
 free license to elect, deliberated awhile, and then, by way of 
 compromise, as they affirmed, unanimously transferred their 
 right of election to the bishop, before witnesses. In conse- 
 quence of this the bishop, after full deliberation, proceeded, 
 April /th, "in capella manerii sui de Waltham," to the election 
 of a prior ; " et fratrem Johannem Morton, priorem' ecclesie 
 conventualis de Reygate dicti ordinis S u . Augustini Wynton. 
 dioc. in priorem vice et nomine omnium et singulorum canoni- 
 corum predictorum elegit, in ordine sacerdotali, et etate licita 
 constitutum, etc." And on the same day, in the same place, 
 and before the same witnesses, John Morton resigned to the 
 bishop the priorship of Reygate viva voce. The bishop then 
 required his consent to his own election : " qui licet in parte 
 renitens tanti reverendi patris se confirmans," obeyed, and 
 signified his consent oraculo vive vocis. Then was there a 
 mandate citing any one who would gainsay the said election 
 to appear before the bishop or his commissary in his chapel 
 at Farnham on the second day of May next. The dean of the 
 deanery of Aulton then appeared before the chancellor, his 
 commissary, and returned the citation or mandate dated April 
 22nd, 1468, with signification, in writing, of his having pub- 
 lished it as required, dated Newton Valence, May 1st, 1468. 
 This certificate being read, the four canons of Selborne ap- 
 peared and required the election to be confirmed ; et ex super 
 abundanti appointed William Long their proctor to solicit in 
 their name that he might be canonically confirmed. John 
 Morton also appeared, and proclamation was made ; and no 
 
300 WHITE 
 
 one appearing against him, the commissary pronounced all 
 absentees contumacious, and precluded them from objecting 
 at any other time ; and, at the instance of John Morton and 
 the proctor, confirmed the election by his decree, and directed 
 his mandate to the rector of Hedley and the vicar of Newton 
 Valence to install him in the usual form. 
 
 Thus, for the first time, was a person, a stranger to the 
 convent of Selborne, and never canon of that monastery, 
 elected prior; though the style of the petitions in former 
 elections used to run thus, " Vos . . . rogamus quatinus 
 eligendum ex nobis unum confratrem de gremio nostro, li- 
 centiam vestram, nobis concedere dignemini." 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 If Bishop Wykeham was so disturbed (see "Notab. Visitatio") to find 
 the number of canons reduced from fourteen to eleven, what would he have 
 said to have seen it diminished below one-third of that number? G. W. 
 
 LETTER XX 
 
 PRIOR MORTON dying in 1401, two canons, by themselves, 
 proceeded to election, and chose a prior ; but two more (one 
 of them Berne) complaining of not being summoned, objected 
 to the proceedings as informal ; till at last the matter was 
 compromised that the bishop should again, for that turn, nom- 
 inate as he had before. But the circumstances of this elec- 
 tion will be best explained by the following extract : 
 
 REG. WAYNFLETE, torn. II., pars i ma ., fol. 7 
 Memorandum. A.D. 1471. August 22nd 
 
 William Wyndesor, a canon regular of the Priory of Sel- 
 borne, having been elected prior on the death of brother John, 
 appeared in person before the bishop in his chapel at South 
 Waltham. He was attended on this occasion by Thomas 
 London and John Bromesgrove, canons, who had elected him. 
 Peter Berne and William Stratfeld, canons, also presented 
 themselves at the same time, complaining that in this busi- 
 ness they had been overlooked, and not summoned ; and that 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 3OI 
 
 therefore the validity of the election might with reason be 
 called in question, and quarrels and dissensions might prob- 
 ably arise between the newly chosen prior and the parties 
 thus neglected. 
 
 After some altercation and dispute they all came to an 
 agreement with the new prior, that what had been done should 
 be rejected and annulled ; and that they would again, for this 
 turn, transfer to the bishop their power to elect, order, and 
 provide them another prior, whom they promised unanimously 
 to admit. 
 
 The bishop accepted of this offer before witnesses ; and on 
 September 27th, in an inner chamber near the chapel above- 
 mentioned, after full deliberation, chose brother Thomas 
 Fairwise, vicar of Somborne, a canon regular of St. Augus- 
 tine in the Priory of Bruscough, in the diocese of Coventry 
 and Litchfield, to be prior of Selborne. The form is nearly 
 as above in the last election. The canons are again enumer- 
 ated ; W. Wyndesor, sub-prior, P. Berne, T. London, W. Strat- 
 feld, J. Bromesgrove, who had formed the chapter, and had 
 requested and obtained license to elect, but had unanimously 
 conferred their power on the bishop. In consequence of this 
 proceeding, the bishop taking the business upon himself, that 
 the Priory might not suffer detriment for want of a governor, 
 appoints the aforesaid T. Fairwise to be prior. A citation was 
 ordered as above for gainsayers to appear October 4th, before 
 the bishop or his commissaries at South Waltham ; but none 
 appearing, the commissaries admitted the said Thomas, or- 
 dered him to be installed, and sent the usual letter to the con- 
 vent to render him due obedience. 
 
 Thus did the bishop of Winchester a second time appoint a 
 stranger to be prior of Selborne, instead of one chosen out of 
 the chapter. For this seeming irregularity the visitor had no 
 doubt good and sufficient reasons, as probably may appear 
 hereafter. 
 
 LETTER XXI 
 
 WHATEVER might have been the abilities and disposition of 
 Prior Fairwise, it could not have been in his power to have 
 
302 WHITE 
 
 brought about any material reformation in the Priory of Sel- 
 borne, because he departed this life in the month of August, 
 1472, before he had presided one twelvemonth. 
 
 As soon as their governor was buried the chapter applied to 
 their visitor for leave to choose a new prior, which being 
 granted, after deliberating for a time they proceeded to an 
 election by a scrutiny. But as this mode of voting has not been 
 described but by the mere form in the Appendix, an extract 
 from the bishop's register, representing the manner more fully, 
 may not be disagreeable to several readers. 
 
 WAYNEFLETE REG. torn. II., pars i ma ., fol. 15 
 
 "Reverendo, etc., ac nostro patrono graciosissimo vestri 
 humiles, et devote obedientie filii," etc. 
 
 To the right reverend Father in God, and our most gracious 
 patron, we, your obedient and devoted sons, William Wyndesor, 
 president of the chapter of the Priory of Selborne, and the con- 
 vent of that place, do make known to your lordship, that our 
 priorship being lately vacant by the death of Thomas Fairwise, 
 our late prior, who died August nth, 1472, having committed 
 his body to decent sepulture, and having requested, according 
 to custom, leave to elect another, and having obtained it under 
 your seal, we, William Wyndesor, president of the convent on 
 the 29th August, in our chapter-house assembled, and making 
 a chapter, taking to us in this business Richard ap Jenkyn, and 
 Galfrid Bryan, chaplains, that our said priory might not by 
 means of this vacancy incur harm or loss, unanimously agreed 
 on August the last for the day of election ; on which day, hav- 
 ing first celebrated mass, " De sancto spiritu," at the high altar, 
 and having called a chapter by tolling a bell about ten o' the 
 clock, we, William Wyndesor, president, Peter Berne, Thomas 
 London, and William Stratfeld, canons, who alone had voices, 
 being the only canons, about ten o' the clock, first sung " Veni 
 Creator," the letters and license being read in the presence 
 of many persons there. Then William Wyndesor, in his own 
 name, and that of all the canons, made solemn proclamation, 
 enjoining all who had no right to vote to depart out of the 
 chapter-house. When all were withdrawn except Guyllery de 
 Lacuna, in decretis Baccalarius, and Robert Peverell, notary 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 303 
 
 public, and also the two chaplains, the first was requested to 
 stay, that he might direct and inform us in the mode of elec- 
 tion ; the other, that he might record and attest the transac- 
 tions ; and the two last that they might be witness to them. 
 
 Then, having read the constitution of the general council 
 " Quia propter," and the forms of elections contained in it 
 being sufficiently explained to them by De Lacuna, as well in 
 Latin as the vulgar tongue, and having deliberated in what 
 mode to proceed in this election, they resolved on that of 
 scrutiny. Three of the canons, Wyndesor, Berne, and London, 
 were made scrutators ; Berne, London, and Stratfeld, choosing 
 Wyndesor ; Wyndesor, London, and Stratfeld choosing Berne ; 
 Wyndesor, Berne, and Stratfeld choosing London. 
 
 They were empowered to take each other's vote, and then 
 that of Stratfeld ; " et ad inferiorem partem angularem " of the 
 chapter-house, "juxta ostium ejusdem declinentes," with the 
 other persons (except Stratfeld, who stayed behind), proceeded 
 to voting, two swearing, and taking the voice of the third, in 
 succession, privately. Wyndesor voted first; "Ego credo 
 Petrum Berne meliorem et utiliorem ad regimen istius ecclesie, 
 et in ipsum consentio, ac eum nomino," etc. Berne was next 
 sworn, and in like manner nominated Wyndesor ; London nom- 
 inated Berne ; Stratfeld was then called and sworn, and nomi- 
 nated Berne. 
 
 " Quibus in scriptis redactis," by the notary public, they 
 returned to the upper part of the chapter-house, where by 
 Wyndesor " sic purecta fecerunt in communi," and then sol- 
 emnly, in form written, declared the election of Berne ; when 
 all, "antedicto nostro electo excepto, approbantes et ratifi- 
 cantes, cepimus decantare solemniter *Te Deum laudamus? et 
 sic canentes dictum electum ad majusaltare ecclesie deduximus, 
 ut apud nos est moris. Then Wyndesor electionem clero et 
 populo infra chorum dicte ecclesie congregatis publicavit, et 
 personam electi publice et personaliter ostendit." We then 
 returned to the chapter-house, except our prior ; and Wyndesor 
 was appointed by the other two their proctor, to desire the 
 assent of the elected, and to notify what had been done to the 
 bishop ; and to desire him to confirm the election, and do what- 
 ever else was necessary. Then their proctor, before the wit- 
 
304 WHITE 
 
 nesses, required Berne's assent in the chapter-house; "qui 
 quidem instanciis et precibus multiplicatis devictus," consented, 
 " licet indignus electus," in writing. They therefore request 
 the bishop's confirmation of their election " sic canonice et so- 
 lemniter celebrata," etc., etc. Sealed with their common seal, 
 and subscribed and attested by the notary. Dat. in the chapter- 
 house September 5th, 1472. 
 
 In consequence, September nth, 1472, in the bishop's 
 chapel at Esher, and before the bishop's commissary, appeared 
 W. Wyndesor, and exhibited the above instrument, and a 
 mandate from the bishop for the appearance of gainsayers of 
 the election there on that day ; and no one appearing, the 
 absentees were declared contumacious and the election con- 
 firmed ; and the vicar of Aulton was directed to induct and 
 install the prior in the usual manner. 
 
 Thus did Canon Berne, though advanced in years, reassume 
 his abdicated priorship for the second time, to the no small 
 satisfaction, as it may seem, of the bishop of Winchester, who 
 professed, as will be shown not long hence, a high opinion of 
 his abilities and integrity. 
 
 LETTER XXII 
 
 As Prior Berne, when chosen in 1454, held his priorship 
 only to 1468, and then made a voluntary resignation, wearied 
 and disgusted, as we may conclude, by the disorder that pre- 
 vailed in his convent ; it is no matter of wonder that, when 
 re-chosen in 1472, he should not long maintain his station ; as 
 old age was then coming fast upon him, and the increasing 
 anarchy and misrule of that declining institution required un- 
 usual vigor and resolution to stem that torrent of profligacy 
 which was hurrying it on to its dissolution. We find, accord- 
 ingly, that in 1478 he resigned his dignity again into the hands 
 of the bishop. 
 
 WAYNFLETE REG. fol. 55 
 Resignatio Prioris de Seleborne 
 
 May I4th, 1478. Peter Berne resigned the priorship. May 
 i6th, the bishop admitted his resignation "in manerio suo de 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 305 
 
 Waltham," and declared the priorship void; "et priorat. sola- 
 cio destitutum esse ; " and granted his letters for proceeding 
 to a new election ; when all the religious, assembled in the 
 chapter-house, did transfer their power under their seal to the 
 bishop, by the following public instrument : 
 
 " In Dei nomine Amen," etc., A.D. 1478, Maii 19. In the 
 chapter-house for the election of a prior for that day, on the 
 free resignation of Peter Berne, having celebrated in the first 
 place mass at the high altar " De spiritu sancto," and having 
 called a chapter by tolling a bell, ut moris est ; in the presence 
 of a notary and witnesses appeared personally Peter Berne, 
 Thomas Ashford, Stephen Clydgrove, and John Ashton, pres- 
 byters, and Henry Canwood, 1 in chapter assembled; and after 
 singing the hymn " ' Veni Creator Spiritusj cum versiculo et 
 oratione 'Deus qui corda ; ' declaratque licentia Fundatoris et 
 patroni ; futurum priorem eligendi concessa, et constitutione 
 consilii generalis que incipit ' Quia propter' declaratis: viisque 
 per quas possent ad hanc electionem procedere," by the de- 
 cretorum doctorem, whom the canons had taken to direct them 
 they all and every one "dixerunt et affirmarunt se nolle ad 
 aliquam viam procedere ; " but for this turn only, renounced 
 their right, and unanimously transferred their power to the 
 bishop, the ordinary of the place, promising to receive whom 
 he should provide; and appointed a proctor to present the 
 instrument to the bishop under their seal ; and required their 
 notary to draw it up in due form, etc., subscribed by the 
 notary. 
 
 After the visitor had fully deliberated on the matter, he pro- 
 ceeded to the choice of a prior, and elected, by the following 
 instrument, John Sharp, alias Glastonbury. 
 
 Fol. 56. PROVISIO PRIORIS per EPM. 
 
 Willmus, etc., to our beloved brother in Christ, John Sharp, 
 alias Glastonbury, Ecclesie conventualis de Bruton, of the order 
 of St. Austin, in the diocese of Bath and Wells, canon regular 
 salutem, etc., " De tue circumspectionis industria plurimum 
 confidentes, te virum providum et discretum, iiterarum scientia, 
 et moribus merito commendandum," etc. do appoint you 
 
 91 
 
306 WHITE 
 
 prior under our seal. " Dat in manerio nostro de Suthwal- 
 tham, May 20," 1478, "et nostre Consec. 31." 
 
 Thus did the bishop, three times out of the four that he was 
 at liberty to nominate, appoint a prior from a distance, a stranger 
 to the place, to govern the convent of Selborne, hoping by this 
 method to have broken the cabal, and to have interrupted that 
 habit of mismanagement that had pervaded the society ; but he 
 acknowledges, in an evidence lying before us, that he never did 
 succeed to his wishes with respect to those late governors, 
 " quos tamen male se habuisse, et inutiliter administrare, et 
 administrasse usque ad presentia tempora post debitam inves- 
 tigationem, etc., invenit." The only time that he appointed 
 from among the canons, he made choice of Peter Berne, for 
 whom he had conceived the greatest esteem and regard. 
 
 When Prior Berne first relinquished his priorship, he re- 
 turned again to his former condition of canon, in which he 
 continued for some years ; but when he was re-chosen, and had 
 abdicated a second time, we find him in a forlorn state, and in 
 danger of being reduced to beggary, had not the bishop of 
 Winchester interposed in his favor, and with great humanity 
 insisted on a provision for him for life. The reason for this 
 difference seems to have been that, in the first case, though 
 in years, he might have been hale and capable of taking his 
 share in the duty of the convent ; in the second he was broken 
 with age, and no longer equal to the functions of a canon. 
 
 Impressed with this idea, the bishop very benevolently inter- 
 ceded in his favor, and laid his injunctions on the new-elected 
 prior in the following manner : 
 
 Fol. 56. " In Dei nomine Amen. Nos Willmus, etc., con- 
 siderantes Petrum Berne," late prior, "in administratione 
 spiritualium et temporalium prioratus laudabiliter vixisse et 
 rexisse ; ipsumque senio et corporis debilitate confractum ; ne 
 in opprobrium religionis mendicari cogatur ; eidem annuam 
 pensionem a Domino Johanne Sharpe, alias Glastonbury, 
 priore moderno," and his successors, and, from the priory or 
 church, to be paid every year during his life, "de voluntate et 
 ex consensu expressis " of the said John Sharp, " sub ea que 
 sequitur forma verborum assignamus : " 
 
 1st. That the said prior and his successors, for the time 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 307 
 
 being, honeste exhibebunt of the fruits and profits of the prior- 
 ship, "eidem esculenta et poculenta," while he remained in 
 the Priory, " sub consimili portione eorundem prout conveni- 
 entur priori," for the time being, ministrari contigerit ; and in 
 like manner uni famulo, whom he should choose to wait on 
 him, as to the servientibus of the prior. 
 
 Item. " Invenient seu exhibebunt eidem unam honestam 
 cameram," in the Priory, "cum socialibus necessariis seu oppor- 
 tunis ad eundem." 
 
 Item. We will, ordain, etc., to the said P. Berne an annual 
 pension of ten marks, from the revenue of the Priory, to be 
 paid by the hands of the prior quarterly. 
 
 The bishop decrees farther that John Sharp, and his suc- 
 cessors, shall take an oath to observe this injunction, and that 
 before their installation. 
 
 " Lecta et facta sunt haec in quodam alto oratorio," belong- 
 ing to the bishop at Suthwaltham, May 25th, 1478, in the pres- 
 ence of John Sharp, who gave his assent, and then took the 
 oath before witnesses, with the other oaths before the chan- 
 cellor, who decreed he should be inducted and installed, as 
 was done that same day. 
 
 How John Sharp, alias Glastonbury, acquitted himself in his 
 priorship, and in what manner he made a vacancy, whether by 
 resignation, or death, or whether he was removed by the visitor, 
 does not appear ; we only find that sometime in the year 1484 
 there was no prior, and that the bishop nominated Canon Ash- 
 ford to fill the vacancy. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 Here we see that all the canons were changed in six years ; and that 
 there was quite a new chapter, Berne excepted, between 1472 and 1478 ; for, 
 instead of Wyndesor, London, and Stratfeld, we find Ashford, Clydgrove, 
 Ashton, and Canwood, all new men, who were soon gone in their turn off 
 the stage, and are heard of no more. For, in six years after, there seem to 
 have been no canons at all. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XXIII 
 
 THIS Thomas Ashford was most undoubtedly the last prior 
 of Selborne ; and, therefore, here will be the proper place to 
 
308 WHITE 
 
 say something concerning a list of the priors, and to endeavor 
 to improve that already given by others. 
 
 At the end of Bishop Tanner's " Notitia Monastica," the 
 folio edition, among Brown Willis's " Principals of Religious 
 Houses," occur the names of eleven of the priors of Selborne, 
 with dates. But this list is imperfect, and particularly at the 
 beginning; for though the Priory was founded in 1232, yet it 
 commences with Nich. de Cantia, elected in 1262, so that, for 
 the first thirty years, no prior is mentioned ; yet there must have 
 been one or more. We were in hopes that the register of Peter 
 de Rupibus would have rectified this omission; but, when it was 
 examined, no information of the sort was to be found. From 
 the year 1410 the list is much corrected and improved, and the 
 reader may depend on its being thenceforward very exact. 
 
 A LIST OF THE PRIORS OF SELBORNE PRIORY, FROM BROWN 
 WILLIS'S "PRINCIPALS OF RELIGIOUS HOUSES," WITH 
 ADDITIONS WITHIN [ ] BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 [John .... was prior, sine dat.~] 1 
 
 Nich. de Cantia el 1262 
 
 [Peter was prior in I2 7 r ] 
 
 [Richard was prior in 1280] 
 
 Will. Basing was prior in I2 99 
 
 Walter de Insula el. in 1324 
 
 [Some difficulties and a devolution; but the 
 election confirmed by Bishop Stratford.] 
 
 John de Wint<?n 1339 
 
 Thomas Weston 1377 
 
 John Winchester [Wynchestre] 1410 
 
 [Elected by Bishop Beaufort " per viam vel 
 formam simplicis compromissi."] 
 
 [John Stype, alias Stepe, in 1411] 
 
 Peter Bene [alias Berne or Bernes, appointed 
 keeper, and, by lapse to Bishop Waynflete, 
 
 prior] in 1454 
 
 [He resigns in 1468.] 
 
 John Morton [prior of Reygate] in 1468 
 
 [The canons by compromise transfer the power of 
 election to the bishop.] 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 
 
 Will. Winsor [Wyndesor, prior for a few days] . . 1471 
 [But removed on account of an irregular elec- 
 tion.] 
 Thomas Farwill [Fairwise, vicar of Samborne] . 1471 
 
 [By compromise again elected by the bishop.] 
 [Peter Berne, re-elected by scrutiny in .... 1472] 
 
 [Resigns again in 1478.] 
 
 John Sharper [Sharp], alias Glastonbury . . . 1478 
 [Canon reg. of Bruton, elected by the bishop 
 
 by compromise.] 
 
 [Thomas Ashford, canon of Selborne, last prior 
 elected by the bishop of Winchester, some- 
 time in the year 1484 
 
 And deposed at the dissolution.] 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 See, in Letter XI. of these Antiquities the reason why Prior John, . . . 
 who had transactions with the Knights Templars, is placed in the list before 
 the year 1262. G. W. 
 
 LETTER XXIV 
 
 BISHOP WAYNFLETE'S efforts to continue the Priory still 
 proved unsuccessful ; and the convent, without any canons, 
 and for some time without a prior, was tending swiftly to its 
 dissolution. 
 
 When Sharp's, alias Glastonbury's, priorship ended does not 
 appear. The bishop says that he had been obliged to remove 
 some priors for maladministration ; but it is not well explained 
 how that could be the case with any unless with Sharp, because 
 all the others chosen during his episcopate died in their office, 
 viz., Morton and Fairwise, Berne only excepted, who re- 
 linquished twice voluntarily, and was, moreover, approved of 
 by Waynflete as a person of integrity. But the way to show 
 what ineffectual pains the bishop took, and what difficulties 
 he met with, will be to quote the words of the libel of his 
 proctor, Rudolphus Langley, who appeared for the bishop in 
 the process of the impropriation of the Priory of Selborne. 
 The extract is taken from an attested copy. 
 
310 WHITE 
 
 "Item that the said bishop, dicto prioratui et personis 
 ejusdem pie compatiens, sollicitudines pastorales, labores, et 
 diligentias gravissimas quam plurimas, tarn per se quam per 
 suos, pro reformatione premissorum impendebat ; et aliquando 
 illius loci prioribus, propter malam et inutilem administra- 
 tionem, et dispensationem bonorum predicti prioratus, suis 
 demeritis exigentibus, amotis ; alios priores in quorum circum- 
 spectione et diligentia confidebat, prefecit ; quos tamen male 
 se habuisse ac inutiliter administrare, et administrasse, usque 
 ad presentia tempora post debitam investigationem, &c., in- 
 venit." So that he despaired with all his care ; " statum ejus- 
 dem reparare vel restaurare ; et considerata temporis malicia, 
 et preteritis timendo et conjecturando, futura, de aliqua bona 
 et sancta religione ejusdem ordinis, &c., juxta piam intentionem 
 primevi fundatoris ibidem habend. desperatur." 
 
 William Wainfleet, bishop of Winchester, founded his col- 
 lege of St. Mary Magdalene, in the University of Oxford, in 
 or about the year 1459; but the revenues proving insuffi- 
 cient for so large and noble an establishment, the college sup- 
 plicated the founder to augment its income by putting it in 
 possession of the estates belonging to the Priory of Selborne, 
 now become a deserted convent, without canons or prior. The 
 president and fellows state the circumstances of their numer- 
 ous institutions and scanty provision, and the ruinous and 
 perverted condition of the Priory. The bishop appoints com- 
 missaries to inquire into the state of the said monastery ; and, 
 if found expedient, to confirm the appropriation of it to the 
 college, which soon after appoints attorneys to take posses- 
 sion, September 24th, 1484. But the way to give the reader a 
 thorough insight respecting this transaction will be to tran- 
 scribe a farther proportion of the process of the impropria- 
 tion, from the beginning, which will lay open the manner of 
 proceeding and show the consent of the parties. 
 
 IMPROPRIATIO SELBORNE, 1485 
 
 " Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis, &c. Ricardus Dei 
 gratia prior ecclesie conventualis de Novo Loco, &C., 1 ad uni- 
 versitatem vestre notitie deducimus, &c., quod coram nobis 
 commissario predicto in ecclesia parochiali S 1 ! Georgii de Esher 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 311 
 
 Diet. Winton. dioc. 3. die Augusti, A.D. 1485. Indictione 
 tertia pontificat. Innocenti 8 . ann. i mo . judicialiter comparuit 
 venerabilis vir Jacobus Preston, S.T.P. infrascriptus, et exhi- 
 buit literas comissionis quas quidem per magistrum Thomam 
 Somercotes notarium publicum, &c., legi fecimus, tenorem 
 sequentem in se continentes." The same as in No. 103, but 
 dated "In manerio nostro de Esher, Augusti i . A.D. 1485, 
 et nostre confec. anno. 39." [No. 103 is repeated in a book 
 containing the like process in the preceding year by the same 
 commissary, in the parish church of St. Andrew the Apostle, 
 at Farnham, Sept. 6th, anno 1434.] " Post quarum literarum 
 lecturam dictus magister Jacobus Preston, quasdam pro- 
 curatorias literas mag. Richardi Mayhewe presidents, ut 
 asseruit, collegii beate Marie Magdalene, &c., sigillo rotundo 
 communi, &c., in cera rubea_ impresso sigillatas realiter ex- 
 hibuit, &c., et pro eisdem dnis suis &c., fecit se partem, ac 
 nobis supplicavit ut juxta formam in eisdem traditam procedere 
 dignaremur," &c. After these proclamations no contradictor 
 or objector appearing " ad instantem petitionem ipsius mag. 
 Jac. Preston, procuratoris, &c., procedendum fore decrevimus 
 vocatis jure vocandis ; nee non mag. Tho. Somercotes, &c., in 
 actorum nostrorum scribam nominavimus. Consequenter et 
 ibidem tune comparuit magister Michael Clyff, &c., et exhibuit 
 in ea parte procuratorium suum," for the prior and convent 
 of the cathedral of Winton, " et fecit se partem_pro eisdem. 
 Deinde comperuit coram nobis, &c., honestus vir Willmus Cow- 
 per," proctor for the bishop as patron of the Priory of Selborne, 
 and exhibited his procuratorium, &c. After these were read 
 in the presence of Clyff and Cowper, " Preston, viva voce," 
 petitioned the commissary to annex and appropriate the Priory 
 of Selborne to the college " propter quod fructus, redditus, 
 et proventus ejusdem coll. adeo tenues sunt, et exiles, quod 
 ad sustentationem ejus, &c., non sufficiunt." The commissary, 
 " ad libellandum et articulandum in scriptis," adjourned the 
 court to the 5th August, then to be held again in the parish 
 church of Esher. 
 
 W. Cowper being then absent, Radulphus Langley appeared 
 for the bishop, and was admitted his proctor. Preston pro- 
 duced his libel or article in scriptis for the union, &c. ; " et 
 
312 WHITE 
 
 admitti petiit eundem cum effectu ; cujus libelli tenor sequitur. 
 In Dei nomine, Amen. Coram nobis venerabili in Christo 
 patre Richardo, priore, &c., de Novo Loco, &c., commissario," 
 &c. Part of the College of Magd. dicit. allegat, and in his 
 " scriptis proponit," &c. 
 
 "Imprimis that said college consists of a president and 
 eighty scholars, besides sixteen choristers, thirteen servientes 
 inibi altissimo famulantibus, et in scientiis plerisque liberali- 
 bus, presertim in sacra theologia studentibus, neduni ad ipso- 
 rum presidentis et scholarium pro presenti et imposterum, 
 annuente deo, incorporandorum in eodem relevamen ; verum 
 etiam ad omnium et singulorum tarn scholarium quam religio- 
 sorum cujuscunque ordinis undequaque illuc confluere pro 
 salubri doctrina volentium utilitatem multiplicem ad incre- 
 menta virtutis fideique catholice stabilimentum. Ita videlicet 
 quod omnes et singuli absque personarum seu nationum de- 
 lectu illuc accedere volentes, lecturas publicas et doctrinas 
 tarn in grammatica in loco ad collegium contiguo, ac philoso- 
 phiis morali, et naturali quam in sacra theologia in eodem col- 
 legio perpetuis temporibus continuandas libere atque gratis 
 audire valeant et possint, ad laudem gloriam et honorem Dei, 
 &c., extitit fundatum et stabilitum." 
 
 For the first item in this process see the beginning of this 
 letter. Then follows item the second " that the revenues 
 of the college non sufficiunt his diebus." "Item that the 
 premises are true, &c., et super eisdem laborarunt, et labo- 
 rante publica vox et fama. Unde facta fide petit pars eorun- 
 dem that the priory be annexed to the college : ita quod dicto 
 prioratu vacante liceat iis ex tune to take possession," &c. 
 This libel, with the express consent of the other proctors, we, 
 the commissary, admitted, and appointed the 6th August for 
 Proctor Preston to prove the premises. 
 
 Preston produced witnesses, W. Gyfford, S.T.P., John Nele, 
 A.M., John Chapman, chaplain, and Robert Baron, literatus, 
 who were admitted and sworn, when the court was prorogued 
 to the 6th August; and the witnesses, on the same 5th Au- 
 gust, were examined by the commissary, "in capella infra 
 manerium de Esher situata secrete et singillatim." Then 
 follow the"literae procuratoriae :" first that of the college, 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 3*3 
 
 appointing Preston and Langport their proctors, dated August 
 3Oth, 1484 ; then that of the prior and convent of the cathe- 
 dral of Winton, appointing David Husband and Michael 
 Cleve, dated September 4th, 1484, then that of the bishop, 
 appointing W. Gyfford, Radulphus Langley and Will. 
 Cowper, dated September 3rd, 1484. Consec. 38. " Quo 
 die adveniente in dicta ecclesia parochiali," appeared, "coram 
 nobis," James Preston to prove the contents of his libel, and 
 exhibited some letters testimonial with the seal of the bishop, 
 and these were admitted ; and consequenter Preston produced 
 two witnesses, viz., Dominum Thomam Ashforde, nuper 
 priorem dicti prioratus, et Willm. Rabbys, literatum, who 
 were admitted and sworn, and examined as the others, by the 
 commissary ; " tune & ibidem assistente scriba secrete & 
 singillatim ; " and their depositions were read and made pub- 
 lic, as follows : 
 
 Mr. W. Gyfford, S.T.P., aged 57, of the state of Magd. 
 Coll., etc., etc., as before. 
 
 Mr. John Nele, aged 57, proves the articles also. 
 
 Robert Baron, aged 56. 
 
 Johannes Chapman, aged 35, also affirmed all the five 
 articles. 
 
 Dompnus Thomas Ashforde, aged 72 years "dicit 2 dum . 
 3 um . 4 um . articulos in eodem libello contentos, concernentes 
 statum dicti prioratus de Selbourne, fuisse et esse veros." 
 
 W. Rabbys, aetat 40 ann., agrees with Gyfford, etc. 
 
 Then follows the letter from the bishop, " in subsidium pro- 
 bationis," above-mentioned "Willmus, &c., salutem, &c., 
 noverint universitas vestra, quod licet nos prioratui de Sel- 
 bourne, &c., pie compacientes sollicitudines pastorales, labores, 
 diligentias quam plurimas per nos & commissarios nostros pro 
 reformatione status ejus impenderimus, justicia id poscente; 
 nihilominus tamen," etc., as in the article to " desperatur," 
 dated " in manerio nostro de Esher, Aug. 3rd, 1485, & consec. 
 39." Then on the sixth August, Preston, in the presence of 
 the other proctors, required that they should be compelled to 
 answer; when they all allowed the articles, "fuisse & esse 
 vera ; " and the commissary, at the request of Preston, con- 
 cluded the business, and appointed Monday, August 8th, for 
 
314 WHITE 
 
 giving his decree in the same church of Esher, and it was 
 that day read, and contains a recapitulation, with the sentence 
 of union, etc., witnessed and attested. 
 
 As soon as the president and fellows of Magdalen College 
 had obtained the decision of the commissary in their favor, 
 they proceeded to supplicate the pope and to entreat his 
 holiness that he would give his sanction to the sentence of 
 union. Some difficulties were started at Rome; but they 
 were surmounted by the college agent, as appears by his 
 letters from that city. At length Pope Innocent VIII., by a 
 bull 2 bearing date 8th June, in the year of our Lord 1486, 
 and in the second year of his pontificate, confirmed what had 
 been done and suppressed the convent. 
 
 Thus fell the considerable and well-endowed Priory of Sel- 
 borne after it had subsisted about two hundred and fifty-four 
 years; about seventy-four years after the suppression of 
 priories alien by Henry V., and about fifty years before the 
 general dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII. The 
 founder, it is probable, had fondly imagined that the sacred- 
 ness of the institution, and the pious motives on which it was 
 established, might have preserved it inviolate to the end of 
 time yet it fell 
 
 " To teach us that God attributes to place 
 No sanctity, if none be thither brought 
 By men, who there frequent, or therein dwell." 
 
 MILTON'S Paradise Lost. 
 NOTES 
 
 1 Ecclesia Conventualis de Novo Loco was the monastery afterwards 
 called the New Minster, or Abbey of Hyde, in the city of Winchester. 
 Should any intelligent reader wonder to see that the prior of Hyde Abbey 
 was commissary to the bishop of Winton, and should conclude that there 
 was a mistake in titles and that the abbot must have been here meant, he 
 will be pleased to recollect that this person was the second in rank ; for, 
 " next under the abbot, in every abbey, was the prior." Pref. to Notit. 
 Monast., p. 29. Besides, abbots were great personages and too high in 
 station to submit to any office under the bishop. G. W. 
 
 2 There is nothing remarkable in this bull of Pope Innocent, except the 
 statement of the annual revenue of the Priory of Selborne, which is therein 
 estimated at 160 flor. auri ; whereas Bishop Godwin sets it at ^337 \$s. 6\d. 
 Now a florin, so named, says Camden, because made by Florentius, was a 
 gold coin of King Edward III., in value 6j., whereof 160 is not one-seventh 
 part of ^337 15*. 6\d. G. W. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 315 
 
 LETTER XXV 
 
 WAINFLEET did not long enjoy the satisfaction arising from 
 this new acquisition, but departed this life in a few months 
 after he had effected the union of the Priory with his late 
 founded college ; and was succeeded in the see of Winchester 
 by Peter Courtney, sometime towards the end of the year 
 1486. 
 
 In the beginning of the following year, the new bishop 
 released the president and fellows of Magdalen College from 
 all actions respecting the Priory of Selborne, and the Priory 
 and convent of St. Swithun, as the chapter of Winchester 
 cathedral confirmed the release. 1 
 
 N. 293. " Relaxatio Petri epi Wint5n, Ricardo Mayew, 
 President! omnium actionum occasione indempnitatis sibi 
 debite pro unione Prioratus de Selborne dicto collegio. Jan. 
 2, 1487, et translat. anno i." 
 
 N. 374. " Relaxatio prioris et conventus Sti. Swithini Win- 
 ton confirmans relaxationem Petri ep. Winton." 1487, Jan. 13.- 
 
 Ashforde, the deposed prior, who had appeared as an evi- 
 dence for the impropriation of the Priory, at the age of seventy- 
 two years, that he might not be destitute of a maintenance 
 was pensioned by the college to the day of his death ; and 
 was living on till 1490, as appears by his acquittances. 
 
 REG. A. ff. 46 
 
 " Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos presens scriptum per- 
 venerit, Richardus Mayew, presidens, &c., et scolares, salutem 
 in Domino. 
 
 " Noveritis nos prefatos presidentem et scolares, dedisse, 
 concessisse, et hoc presenti scripto confirmasse Thome Ash- 
 forde, capellano, quendam annualem redditum sex librarum 
 tresdecim solidorum et quatuor denariorum bone et legalis 
 monete Anglie ad terminum vite prefati Thome " to be 
 paid from the possessions of the college in Basingstoke. 
 " In cujus rei testimonium sigillum nostrum commune presen- 
 tibus apponimus. Dat. Oxon. in coll. nostro supra dicto primo 
 die mensis Junii anno regis Ricardi tertii secundo," viz. 1484. 
 
316 WHITE 
 
 The college, in their grant to Ashforde, style him only capel- 
 lanus ; but the annuitant very naturally, and with a becoming 
 dignity, asserts his late title in his acquittances, and identifies 
 himself by the addition of the nuper prior em, or late prior. 
 
 As, according to the persuasion of the times, the depriving 
 the founder and benefactors of the Priory of their masses and 
 services would have been deemed the most impious of frauds, 
 Bishop Wainfleet, having by statute ordained four obits for 
 himself to be celebrated in the chapel of Magdalen College, 
 enjoined in one of them a special collect for the anniversary 
 of Peter de Rupibus, with a particular prayer " Deus In- 
 dulgentiarum" 
 
 The college also sent Nicholas Langrish, who had been a 
 chantry priest at Selborne, to celebrate mass for the souls of 
 all that had been benefactors to the said Priory and college, 
 and for all the faithful who had departed this life. 
 
 N. 356. Thomas Knowles, presidens, etc. " damus et con- 
 cedimus Nicholao Langrish quandum capellaniam, vel sala- 
 rium, sive alio quocunque nomine censeatur, in prioratu quon- 
 dam de Selborne pro termino 40 annorum, si tarn diu vixerit. 
 Ubi dictus mag. Nicholaus celebrabit pro animabus omnium 
 benef actorum dicti prioratus et coll. nostri, et omnium fidelium 
 defunctorum. Insuper nos, &c., concedimus eidem ibidem cele- 
 branti in sustentationem suam quandam annualem pensionem 
 sive annuitatem octo librarum, &c. in dicta capella dicti 
 prioratus concedimus duas cameras contiguas ex parte bo- 
 reali dicte capelle, cum una coquina, et cum uno stabulo con- 
 veniente pro tribus equis, cum pomerio eidem adjacente voc. le 
 Orcheyard Preterea 26s. 8d. per ann. ad inveniendum unum 
 clericum ad serviendum sibi ad altare, et aliis negotiis neces- 
 sariis ejus." His wood to be granted him by the president 
 on the progress. He was not to absent himself beyond a 
 certain time ; and was to superintend the coppices, wood, and 
 hedges. Dat. 5 to . die Julii. an . Hen. VIII vi . 36." [viz: 
 1546.] 
 
 Here we see the Priory in a new light, reduced, as it were, 
 to the state of a chantry, without prior and without canons, 
 and attended only by a priest, who was also a sort of bailiff or 
 woodman, his assistant clerk, and his female cook. Owen 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 317 
 
 Oglethorpe, president, and Magd. Coll. in the fourth year of 
 Edward VI. , viz. 1551, granted an annuity of ten pounds a 
 a year for life to Nich. Langrish, who, from the preamble, 
 appears then to have been fellow of that society, but, being 
 now superannuated for business, this pension is granted him 
 for thirty years, if he should live so long. It is said of him 
 "cum jam sit provectioris etatis qua mut," etc. 
 
 Laurence Stubb, president of Magd. Coll., leased out the 
 Priory lands to John Sharp, husbandman, for the term of twenty 
 years, as early as the seventeenth year of Henry VIII., viz., 
 1526 : and it appears that Henry Newlyn had been in posses- 
 sion of the lease before, probably towards the end of the reign 
 of Henry VII. Sharp's rent was vi u . perann. Regist. B.,p.43. 
 
 By an abstract from a lease lying before me, it appears that 
 Sharp found a house, two barns, a stable, and a duf-house 
 [dove-house] built, and standing on the south side of the old 
 Priory, and late in the occupation of Newlyn. In this abstract 
 also are to be seen the names of all the fields, many of which 
 continue the same to this day. 2 Of some of them I shall take 
 notice, where anything singular occurs. 
 
 And here first we meet with Paradyss [Paradise] mede. 
 Every convent had its paradise ; which probably was an en- 
 closed orchard, pleasantly laid out, and planted with fruit trees. 
 Tyle-house grove, so distinguished from having a tiled house 
 near it. 3 Butt-wood close; here the servants of the priory and 
 the village swains exercised themselves with their long-bows, 
 and shot at a mark against a butt, or bank. 4 Cundyth [con- 
 duit] wood : the engrosser of the lease not understanding this 
 name, has made a strange barbarous word of it. Conduit wood 
 was and is a steep, rough cow-pasture, lying above the Priory, 
 at about a quarter of a mile to the south-west. In the side of 
 this field there is a spring of water that never fails ; at the 
 head of which a cistern was built which communicated with 
 leaden pipes that conveyed water to the monastery. When 
 this reservoir was first constructed does not appear ; we only 
 know that it underwent a repair in the episcopate of Bishop 
 Wainfleet about the year 1462* Whether these pipes only 
 conveyed the water to the Priory for common and culinary 
 purposes, or contributed to any matters of ornament and ele- 
 
318 WHITE 
 
 gance, we shall not pretend to say ; nor when artists and me- 
 chanics first understood anything of hydraulics, and that water 
 confined in tubes would rise to its original level. There is a 
 person now living who had been employed formerly in digging 
 for these pipes, and once discovered several yards, which they 
 sold for old lead. 
 
 There was also a plot of ground called Tan-house garden : 
 and " Tannaria sua," a tanyard of their own, has been men- 
 tioned in Letter XVI. This circumstance I just take notice 
 of, as an instance that monasteries had trades and occupations 
 carried on within themselves. 6 
 
 Registr. B., p. 112. Here we find a lease of the parsonage 
 of Selborne to Thomas Sylvester and Miles Arnold, husband- 
 men of the tythes of all manner of corne pertaining to the 
 parsonage with the offerings at the chapel of Whaddon 
 belonging to the said parsonage. Dat. June i. 27 th . Hen. 8 th . 
 [viz. 1536.] 
 
 As the chapel of Whaddon has never been mentioned till 
 now, and as it is not noticed by Bishop Tanner in his " Notitia 
 Monastica," some more particular account of it will be proper 
 in this place. Whaddon was a chapel of ease to the mother 
 church of Selborne, and was situated in the tithing of Oak- 
 hanger, at about two miles' distance from the village. The 
 farm and field whereon it stood are still called Chapel Farm and 
 Field : 7 but there are no remains or traces of the building itself, 
 the very foundations having been destroyed before the memory 
 of man. In the farmyard at Oakhanger we remember a large 
 hollow stone, of a close substance, which had been used as a 
 hog-trough, but was then broken. This stone, tradition said, 
 had been the baptismal font of Whaddon chapel. The chapel 
 had been in a very ruinous state in old days ; but was new 
 built at the instance of Bishop Wainfleet, about the year 1463, 
 during the first priorship of Berne, in consequence of a seques- 
 tration issued forth by that visitor against the Priory on 
 account of notorious and shameful dilapidations. 8 
 
 The Selborne rivulet becomes of some breadth at Oak- 
 hanger, and, in very wet seasons, swells to a large flood. 
 There is a bridge over the stream at this hamlet of consider- 
 able antiquity and peculiar shape, known by the name of Tun- 
 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 319 
 
 bridge : it consists of one single blunt Gothic arch, so high 
 and sharp as to render the passage not very convenient or 
 safe. Here was also, we find, a bridge in very early times ; 
 for Jacobus de Hochangre, the first benefactor to the Priory 
 of Selborne, held his estate at Hochangre by the service of 
 providing the king one foot-soldier for forty days, and by build- 
 ing this bridge. " Jacobus de Hochangre tenet Hochangre in 
 com. Southampton, per Serjantiam, 9 inveniendi unum valectum 
 in exercitu Domini regis [scil. Henrici III Ui .] per 40 dies; et 
 ad faciendum pontem de Hochangre : et valet per ann. C. s." 
 Blount's "Ancient Tenures," p. 84. 
 
 A dove-house was a constant appendant to a manorial dwell- 
 ing : of this convenience more will be said hereafter. 
 
 A corn-mill was also esteemed a necessary appendage of 
 every manor ; and therefore was to be expected of course at 
 the Priory of Selborne. 
 
 The prior had secta molendini, or ad molendinum a power 
 of compelling his vassals to bring their corn to be ground at 
 his mill according to an old custom. He had also, according 
 to Bishop Tanner, secta molendini de strete ; but the purport 
 of strete, we must confess, we do not understand. Strete, in 
 old English, signifies a road or highway, as Watling Strete, etc., 
 therefore the prior might have some mill on a high-road. The 
 Priory had only one mill originally at Selborne ; but, by grants 
 of lands, it came possessed of one at Durton, and one at Oak- 
 hanger, and probably some on its other several manors. 11 The 
 mill of the Priory was in use within the memory of man, and 
 the ruins of the mill-house were standing within these thirty 
 years : the pond and dam and miller's dwelling still remain. 
 As the stream was apt to fail in very dry summers, the tenants 
 found their situation very distressing, for want of water, and 
 so were forced to abandon the spot. This inconvenience was 
 probably never felt in old times, when the whole district was 
 nothing but wood-lands : and yet several centuries ago there 
 seem to have been two or three mills between Well Head and 
 the Priory. For the reason of this assertion, see Letter XXIX. 
 to Mr. Barrington. 
 
 Occasional mention has been made of the many privileges 
 and immunities enjoyed by the convent and its priors ; but a 
 
320 WHITE 
 
 more particular state seems to be necessary. The author, 
 therefore, thinks this the proper place, before he concludes 
 these Antiquities, to introduce all that has been collected by 
 the judicious Bishop Tanner, respecting the Priory and its 
 advantages, in his " Notitia Monastica," a book now seldom 
 seen, on account of the extravagance of its price, and being 
 but in few hands cannot be easily consulted. 12 He also adds 
 a few of its many privileges from other authorities the 
 account is as follows. Tanner, p. 166. 
 
 SELBURNE 
 
 A priory of black canons, founded by the often-mentioned 
 Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester, A.D. 1233, and dedi- 
 cated to the blessed Virgin Mary; but was suppressed, and 
 granted to William Wainfleet, bishop of Winchester, who 
 made it part of the endowment of St. Mary Magdalene Col- 
 lege in Oxford. The bishops of Winchester were patrons of 
 it. [Pat. 17, Edward II.] Vide. Mon. Ang., torn II., p. 343. 
 " Cartam fundationis ex ipso autographo in archivis Coll. 
 Magd. Oxon. ubi etiam conservata sunt registra, cartae, rental! 
 et alia munimenta ad hunc prioratum spectantia. 
 
 "Extracta quaedam e registro MSS. in bibl. Bodl. Dod- 
 worth, vol. 89, f. 140. 
 
 "Cart antiq. N. N. n. 33. P. P. n. 48. et. 71. Q. Q. n. 40. 
 plac. coram justit. itin. [Southampton] 20. Hen. rot. 25. De 
 eccl. de Basing & Basingstoke. Plac. de juratis apud Win- 
 ton. 40 Hen. III. rot. Protecta molendini de Strete. Cart. 54. 
 Hen. III. m. 3. [De mercatu, & feria apud Seleborne, a mis- 
 take.] Pat. 9. Edw. I. m. Pat. 30. Edw. I. m. Pat. 33. 
 Edw. I. p. i. m. Pat. 35. Edw. I. m. - Pat. i. Edw. II. p. i. 
 m. 9. Pat. 5. Edw. II. p. i. m. 21. De terris in Achanger. 
 Pat. 6. Edw. II. p. i. m. 7. de. eisdem. Brev. in Scacc. 6. Edw. 
 
 II. Pasch. rot. 8. Pat. 17. Edw. II. p. i. m. Cart. 10. Edw. 
 
 III. n. 24. Quod terrae suae in Seleburn, Achangre, Norton, 
 Basings, Basingstoke, & Nately, sint de afforestatae, and pro 
 aliis libertatibus. Pat. 12. Edw. III. p. 3. m. 3. Pat. 10. 
 Edw. III. p. i. m. Cart. 18. Edw. III. n. 24." 
 
 " N. N. 33. Rex concessit quod prior, et canonici de Sele- 
 burn habeant per terras suas de Seleburne, Achangre, Nor- 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 321 
 
 ton, Brompden, Basinges, Basingstoke, & Nately, diversas 
 libertates. 
 
 " P. P. 48. Quod prior de Seleburne, habeat terras suas 
 quietas de vasto, et regardo." Extracts from Ayloffe's Cal- 
 endars of Ancient Charters. 
 
 " Placita de juratis & assis coram Salom de Roff, & sociis 
 suis justic. itiner. apud Wynton in comitatu Sutht. anno 
 regni R. Edwardi filii reg. Henr. octavo. Et Por de Sele- 
 born ht in Selebr. fure, thurset. pillory, emendasse panis, & 
 suis." [cerevisae.] Chapter-hotise, Westminster. 
 
 "Placita Foreste apud Wynton in com. Sutham. Anno 
 reg. Edwardi octavo coram Rog. de Clifford, &c. Justic. ad 
 eadem placita audienda et tminand. assigtis. 
 
 " Carta Pror_de Seleburn, H. Dei gra. rex. angl. &c. Con- 
 cessim, prior, see. Marie de_ Seleburn. et canonicis ibidem Deo 
 
 servient. q ipi et oes hoies sui in pdcis terris suis et 
 
 tenementis manentes sint in ppetum quieti de sectis Swane- 
 motor. et omnium alior. placitor. for. et de espeltamentis 
 canum. et de omnibus submonitoibz. placitis querelis et 
 exaccoibus et occoibz. ad for. et for. et viridar. et eor. min- 
 istros ptinentibz." Chapter-house, Westminster. 
 
 " Plita Forestarum in com. Sutht. apud Suthamton 
 
 anno regni regis Edwardi tcii post consequentum quarto coram 
 Johz Mantvers. &c., justic. itinand., &c. 
 
 " De hiis qui clamant libtates infra Forestas in com. Sutht. 
 
 " Prior de Selebourne clamat esse quietus erga dnm regem 
 de omnibus finibus et amerciamentis p tnsgr. et omnibus, ex- 
 accoibe ad Dom. regem vel hered. suos ptinent. pret. pUta 
 corone reg. 
 
 " Item clamat q d si aliquis hominum suorum de terris et ten 
 p. deliciato suo vitam aut membrum debeat amittere velfugiat, 
 & judico stare noluerit vel aliud delictum fecit pro quo debeat 
 catella sua amittere, ubicuncq ; justitia fieri debeat omnia 
 catella ilia sint ptci Prioris et successor, suor. Et liceat eidem 
 priori et ballis suis ponere se in seisinam in hujusmodi catall. 
 in casibus pdcis sine disturbacone ballivor. dni. reg. quorum- 
 cunque. 
 
 " Item clam, quod licet aliqua libtatum p dnm regem con- 
 cessar, pcessu temporis quocunq; casu contingente usi non 
 
 22 
 
322 WHITE 
 
 fuerint, nlominus postea eadm libtate uti possit. Et pdcus 
 prior quesitus p justic. quo waranto clamat omn. terr. et ten. 
 sua in Seleburne, Norton, Basynges, Basyngestoke, & Nattele. 
 que prior domus pdte huit & tenuit X mo . die April anno regni 
 dni Hen. reg. nue XVIII. imppm effe quieta de vasto et re- 
 gardo, et visu forestarior. et viridarior. regardator. et omnium 
 ministrorum foreste." etc., etc. Chapter-house, Westminster. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 I The bishops of Winchester were patrons of the Priory. G. W. 
 
 z It may not be amiss to mention here that various names of tithings, 
 farms, fields, woods, etc., which appear in the ancient deeds, and evidences 
 of several centuries standing, are still preserved in common use with little 
 or no variation : as Norton, Southington, Durton, Achangre, Blackmore, 
 Bradshot, Rood, Plestor, etc., etc. At the same time it should be acknowl- 
 edged that other places have entirely lost their original titles, as le Buri and 
 Trucstede in this village ; and la Liege, or la Lyge, which was the name of 
 the original site of the Priory, etc. G. W. 
 
 3 Men at first heaped sods, or fern, or heath, on their roofs to keep off 
 the inclemencies of weather ; and then by degrees laid straw or haum. The 
 first refinements on roofing were shingles, which are very ancient. Tiles 
 are a late and imperfect covering, and were not much in use till the beginning 
 of the sixteenth century. The first tiled house at Nottingham was in 1503. 
 G. W. 
 
 4 There is also a Butt-close just at the back of the village. G. W. 
 
 6 N. 381. " Clausure terre abbatie ecclesie parochiali de Seleburne, ix.r. 
 \\i\d. Reparacionibus domorum predicti prioratus iiii. lib. xlr. Aque conduct, 
 ibidem. xxinW." G. W. 
 
 6 There is still a wood near the Priory, called Tanner's Wood. G. W. 
 
 7 This is a manor-farm, at present the property of Lord Stawell ; and 
 belonged probably in ancient times to Jo. de Venur, or Venuz, one of the 
 first benefactors to the Priory. G. W. 
 
 8 See Letter XIX. of these Antiquities. "Summa total, solut. de novis 
 edificationibus, et raparacionibus per idem tempus, ut patet per comput." 
 
 "Videlicet de nova edificat. Capelle Marie de Wadden. xiiii. lib. vs. 
 viii. d. Reparacionibus ecclesie Prioratus, canceller, et capellar. ecclesia- 
 rum et capellarum de Selborne, et Estworhlam," etc., etc. G. W. 
 
 9 Sargentia, a sort of tenure of doing something for the king. G. W. 
 
 10 " Servitium, quo feudatorii grana sua ad Domini molendinum, ibi 
 molenda perferre, ex consuetudine, astringuntur." G. W. 
 
 II Thomas Knowles, president, etc., ann. Hen. 8vi. xxiii . [1532] demised 
 to J. Whitelie their mills, etc., for twenty years. Rent xxiiLr. iu\d. Ac- 
 cepted Frewen, president, etc., ann. Caroli xv. [viz., 1640] demised to Jo. 
 Hook and Elizabeth his wife, the said mills. Rent as above. G. W. 
 
 12 A few days after this was written a new edition of this valuable work 
 was announced, in the month of April of the year 1787, as published by 
 Mr. Nasmith. G. W. 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 323 
 
 LETTER XXVI 
 
 THOUGH the evidences and documents of the Priory and 
 parish of Selborne are now at an end, yet as the author has 
 still several things to say respecting the present state of that 
 convent and its Grange, and other matters, he does not see 
 how he can acquit himself of the subject without trespassing 
 again on the patience of the reader by adding one supplement- 
 ary letter. 
 
 No sooner did the Priory (perhaps much out of repair at the 
 time) become an appendage to the college, but it must at once 
 have tended to swift decay. Magdalen College wanted now 
 only two chambers for the chantry priest and his assistant ; 
 and therefore had no occasion for the hall, dormitory, and 
 other spacious apartments belonging to so large a foundation. 
 
 The roofs, neglected, would soon become the possession of 
 daws and owls ; and, being rotted and decayed by the weather, 
 would fall in upon the floors, so that all parts must have 
 hastened to speedy dilapidation and a scene of broken ruins. 
 Three full centuries have now passed since the dissolution 
 a series of years that would craze the stoutest edifices. But, 
 besides the slow hand of time, many circumstances have con- 
 tributed to level this venerable structure with the ground, of 
 which nothing now remains but one piece of wall about ten 
 feet long and as many feet high, which probably was a part 
 of an out-house. As early as the latter end of the reign of 
 Henry VII., we find that a farmhouse and two barns were 
 built to the south of the Priory, and undoubtedly out of its 
 materials. Avarice again has much contributed to the over- 
 throw of this stately pile, as long as the tenants could make 
 money of its stones or timbers. Wantonness, no doubt, has 
 had a share in the demolition ; for boys love to destroy what 
 men venerate and admire. A remarkable instance of this pro- 
 pensity the writer can give from his own knowledge. When 
 a schoolboy, more than fifty years ago, he was eye-witness, 
 perhaps a party concerned, in the undermining a portion of 
 that fine old ruin at the north end of Basingstoke town, well 
 known by the name of Holy Ghost Chapel. Very providen- 
 
324 WHITE 
 
 tially the vast fragment which these thoughtless little engi- 
 neers endeavored to sap did not give way so soon as might 
 have been expected ; but it fell the night following, and with 
 such violence that it shook the very ground, and, awakening 
 the inhabitants of the neighboring cottages, made them start 
 up in their beds as if they had felt an earthquake. The mo- 
 tive for this dangerous attempt does not so readily appear ; 
 perhaps the more danger the more honor thought the boys, 
 and the notion of doing some mischief gave a zest to the 
 enterprise. As Dryden says upon another occasion 
 
 " It looked so like a sin it pleased the more." 
 
 Had the Priory been only levelled to the surface of the 
 ground, the discerning eye of an antiquary might have ascer- 
 tained its ichnography, and some judicious hand might have 
 developed its dimensions. But besides other ravages, the very 
 foundations have been torn up for the repair of the highways ; 
 so that the site of this convent is now become a rough, rugged 
 pasture-field, full of hillocks and pits, choked with nettles and 
 dwarf elder, and trampled by the feet of the ox and the heifer. 
 
 As the tenant at the Priory was lately digging among the 
 foundations for material to mend the highways, his laborers 
 discovered two large stones, with which the farmer was so 
 pleased that he ordered them to be taken out whole. One of 
 these proved to be a large Doric capital, worked in good taste ; 
 and the other a base of a pillar, both formed out of the soft 
 freestone of this district. These ornaments, from their dimen- 
 sions, seemed to have belonged to massive columns, and show 
 that the church of this convent was a large and costly edifice. 
 They were found in the space which has always been supposed 
 to have contained the south transept of the priory church. 
 Some fragments of large pilasters were also found at the 
 same time. The diameter of the capital was two feet three 
 inches and a half, and of the column, where it had stood on 
 the base, eighteen inches and three-quarters. 
 
 Two years ago, some laborers, digging again among the 
 ruins, sounded a sort of rude thick vase or urn of soft stone, 
 containing about two gallons in measure, on the verge of the 
 brook, in the very spot which tradition has always pointed 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 325 
 
 out as having been the site of the convent kitchen. This 
 clumsy utensil, 1 whether intended for holy water or whatever 
 purpose, we were going to procure, but found that the laborers 
 had just broken it in pieces and carried it out on the high- 
 ways. 
 
 The Priory of Selborne had possessed in this village a 
 grange, an usual appendage to manorial estates, where the 
 fruits of their lands were stowed and laid up for use, at a time 
 when men took the natural produce of their estates in kind. 
 The mansion of this spot is still called the Grange, and is the 
 manor-house of the convent possessions in this place. The 
 author has conversed with very ancient people who remem- 
 bered the old, original Grange, but it has long given place to 
 a modern farmhouse. Magdalen College holds a court-leet 
 and court-baron 2 in the great wheat-barn of the said Grange, 
 annually, where the president usually superintends, attended 
 by the bursar and steward of the college. 3 
 
 The following uncommon presentment at the court is not 
 unworthy of notice. There is on the south side of the King's 
 Field (a large common field, so called) a considerable tumulus, 
 or hillock, now covered with thorns and bushes, and known by 
 the name of Kite's Hill, which is presented, year by year, in 
 court as not ploughed. Why this injunction is still kept up 
 respecting this spot, which is surrounded on all sides by arable 
 land, may be a question not easily solved, since the usage has 
 long survived the knowledge of the intention thereof. We 
 can only suppose that as the prior, besides thurset and pillory, 
 had also furcas, a power of life and death, he might have 
 reserved this little eminence as the place of execution for de- 
 linquents. And there is the more reason to suppose so, since 
 a spot just by is called Gaily (Gallows) Hill. 
 
 The lower part of the village, next the Grange, in which is 
 a pond and a stream, is well known by the name of Gracious 
 Street, an appellation not at all understood. There is a lake 
 in Surrey, near Cobham, called also Gracious Pond; and 
 another, if we mistake not, near Hedleigh, in the county of 
 Hants. This strange denomination we do not at all compre- 
 hend, and conclude that it may be a corruption from some 
 Saxon word, itself perhaps forgotten. 
 
326 WHITE 
 
 It has been observed already that Bishop Tanner was mis- 
 taken when he refers to an evidence of Dodsworth, " De mer- 
 cante feria de Seleburne." Selborne never had a chartered 
 fair; the present fair was set up since the year 1681, by a set 
 of jovial fellows who had found in an old almanac that there 
 had been a fair here in former days on the ist August and 
 were desirous to revive so joyous a festival. Against this 
 innovation the vicar set his face, and persisted in crying it 
 down, as the probable occasion of much intemperance. How- 
 ever, the fair prevailed, but was altered to the 2Qth May, 
 because the former day often interfered with wheat-harvest. 
 On that day it still continues to be held, and is become a 
 useful mart for cows and calves. Most of the lower house- 
 keepers brew beer against this holiday, which is dutied by 
 the exciseman, and their becoming victuallers for the day 
 without a license is overlooked. 
 
 Monasteries enjoyed all sorts of conveniences within them- 
 selves. Thus, at the Priory, a low and moist situation, there 
 were ponds and stews for their fish ; at the same place also, 
 and at the Grange in Culver 4 Croft, there were dove-houses ; 
 and on the hill opposite to the Grange the prior had a warren, 
 as the names of the Coneycrofts and Coneycroft Hanger 
 plainly testify. 6 
 
 Nothing has been said, as yet, respecting the tenure or hold- 
 ing of the Selborne estates. Temple and Norton are manor 
 farms and freeholds; as is the manor of Chapel, near Oak- 
 hanger, and also the estate at Oakhanger House and Black- 
 moor. The Priory and Grange are leasehold under Magdalen 
 College, for twenty-one years, renewable every seven ; all the 
 smaller estates in and round the village are copyhold of inheri- 
 tance under the college, except the little remains of the Gur- 
 don Manor, which had been of old leased out upon lives, but 
 have been freed of late by their present lord, as fast as those 
 lives have dropped. 
 
 Selborne seems to have, derived much of its prosperity from 
 the near neighborhood of the Priory. For monasteries were 
 of considerable advantage to places where they had their sites 
 and estates, by causing great resort, by procuring markets and 
 fairs, by freeing them from the cruel oppression of forest laws, 
 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 
 
 and by letting their lands at easy rates. But, as soon as the 
 convent was suppressed, the town which it had occasioned 
 began to decline, and the market was less frequented ; the 
 rough and sequestered situation gave a check to resort, and 
 the neglected roads rendered it less and less accessible. 
 
 That it had been a considerable place for size, formerly, 
 appears from the largeness of the church, which much exceeds 
 those of the neighboring villages; by the ancient extent of the 
 burying-ground, which, from human bones occasionally dug 
 up, is found to have been much encroached upon ; by giving a 
 name to the hundred; by the old foundations and ornamented 
 stones and tracery of windows that have been discovered on the 
 north-east side of the village ; and by the many vestiges of dis- 
 used fish-ponds still to be seen around it. For ponds and stews 
 were multiplied in the times of popery, that the affluent might 
 enjoy some variety at their tables on fast-days ; therefore, the 
 more they abounded the better probably was the condition of 
 the inhabitants. 
 
 MORE PARTICULARS RESPECTING THE OLD FAMILY TORTOISE, 
 OMITTED IN THE NATURAL HlSTORY 
 
 Because we call this creature an abject reptile, we are too 
 apt to undervalue his abilities and depreciate his powers of 
 instinct. Yet he is, as Mr. Pope says of his lord, 
 
 ..." Much too wise to walk into a well : " 
 
 and has so much discernment as not to fall down a ha-ha, but 
 to stop and withdraw from the brink with the readiest precau- 
 tion. 
 
 Though he loves warm weather he avoids the hot sun ; be- 
 cause his thick shell, when once heated, would, as the poet says 
 of solid armor, " scald with safety." He therefore spends the 
 more sultry hours under the umbrella of a large cabbage-leaf, 
 or amidst the waving forest of an asparagus bed. 
 
 But, as he avoids heat in the summer, so, in the decline of 
 the year, he improves the faint autumnal beams by getting 
 within the reflection of a fruit wall ; and, though he never has 
 read that planes inclining to the horizon receive a greater share 
 
328 WHITE 
 
 of warmth, 6 he inclines his shell, by tilting it against the wall, 
 to collect and admit every feeble ray. 
 
 Pitiable seems the condition of this poor embarrassed rep- 
 tile ; to be cased in a suit of ponderous armor, which he can- 
 not lay aside ; to be imprisoned, as it were, within his own 
 shell, must preclude, we should suppose, all activity and dis- 
 position for enterprise. Yet there is a season of the year 
 (usually the beginning of June) when his exertions are remark- 
 able. He then walks on tiptoe, and is stirring by five in the 
 morning ; and, traversing the garden, examines every wicket 
 and interstice in the fences, through which he will escape if 
 possible ; and often has eluded the care of 'the gardener, and 
 wandered to some distant field. The motives that impel him 
 to undertake these rambles seem to be of the amorous kind ; 
 his fancy then becomes intent on sexual attachments, which 
 transport him beyond his usual gravity and induce him to for- 
 get for a time his ordinary solemn deportment. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 A judicious antiquary who saw this vase observed that it possibly might 
 have been a standard measure between the monastery and its tenants. The 
 Priory we have mentioned claimed the assize of bread and beer in Selborne 
 manor, and probably the adjustment of dry measures for grain, etc. G. W. 
 
 2 The time when this court is held is the mid-week between Easter and 
 Whitsuntide. G. W. 
 
 8 Owen Oglethorpe, president, etc., an. Edw. Sexti, primo [viz., 1547] 
 demised to Robert Arden Selborne Grange for twenty years. Rent vi 11 . 
 Index of Leases. G. W. 
 
 4 Culver, as has been observed before, is Saxon for a pigeon. G. W. 
 
 5 A warren was an usual appendage to a manor. G. W. 
 
 6 Several years ago a book was written entitled " Fruit Walls Improved 
 by Inclining them to the Horizon : " in which the author has shown, by 
 calculation, that a much greater number of the rays of the sun will fall on 
 such walls than on those which are perpendicular. G. W. 
 
OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 VARIOUS PARTS OF NATURE 
 
 FROM MR. WHITE'S MSS. 
 WITH REMARKS BY MR. MARK WICK 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE 8VO EDITION, PUBLISHED IN l8O2, EDITED BY JOHN 
 WHITE, THE BROTHER OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 " The favorable reception with which the works on natural 
 history of my late respected relation, the Rev. Gilbert White 
 of Selborne, have been honored by the persons best qualified 
 to judge of their merit, has induced me to present them to 
 the public in a collected and commodious form, free from the 
 encumbrance of any extraneous matter. His largest work, 
 entitled 'The Natural History of Selborne/ has probably 
 been supposed by many to be formed upon a more local and 
 confined plan than it really is. In fact, the greater part 
 of the observations are applicable to all that portion of the 
 island in which he resided, and were indeed made in various 
 places. Almost the only matter absolutely local is the account 
 of the antiquities of the village of Selborne ; and this seemed 
 to stand so much apart, that, however well calculated to gratify 
 the lovers of topographical studies, it was thought that its 
 entire omission would be considered no loss to the work, con- 
 sidered as a publication on natural history. Its place is oc- 
 cupied by the 'Naturalists' Calendar and Miscellaneous 
 Observations/ which appeared in a separate volume since the 
 author's decease, extracted from his papers by Dr. Aitkin. 
 That gentleman has also made some farther selections from 
 the papers, which are now all in my possession ; and has 
 undertaken the revision and arrangement of the whole. A 
 very valuable addition to the calendar and observations has 
 been obtained from the kindness of William Markwick, Esq., 
 F.L.S.,well known as an accurate observer of nature, whose 
 parallel calendar, kept in the county of Sussex, is given upon 
 the opposite columns. 
 
 "The Editor flatters himself that the publication in its 
 present form will prove an acceptable addition to the library 
 of the naturalist ; and will in particular be useful in inspiring 
 young persons, and those who pass their time in retirement, 
 with a taste for the very pleasing branch of knowledge on 
 which it treats. J. W. 
 
 "FLEET STREET, 1802." 
 
 330 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 
 
 BIRDS IN GENERAL. In severe weather fieldfares, red- 
 wings, skylarks, and titlarks resort to watered meadows for 
 food ; the latter wades up to its belly in pursuit of the pupae 
 of insects, and runs along upon the floating grass and weeds. 
 Many gnats are on the snow near the water; these support the 
 birds in part. 
 
 Birds are much influenced in their choice of food by color, 
 for though white currants are a much sweeter fruit than red, 
 yet they seldom touch the former till they have devoured every 
 bunch of the latter. 
 
 Redstarts, fly-catchers, and blackcaps arrive early in April. 
 If these little delicate beings are birds of passage (as we have 
 reason to suppose they are, because they are never seen in 
 winter), how could they, feeble as they seem, bear up against 
 such storms of snow and rain, and make their way through 
 such meteorous turbulences, as one should suppose would 
 embarrass and retard the most hardy and resolute of the 
 winged nation ? Yet they keep their appointed times and 
 seasons ; and in spite of frosts and winds return to their sta- 
 tions periodically as if they had met with nothing to obstruct 
 them. The withdrawing and appearance of the short-winged 
 summer birds is a very puzzling circumstance in natural history. 
 
 When the boys bring me wasps' nests, my bantam fowls fare 
 deliciously, and when the combs are pulled to pieces, devour 
 the young wasps in their maggot state with the highest glee 
 and delight. Any insect-eating bird would do the same ; and 
 therefore I have often wondered that the accurate Mr. Ray 
 should call one species of buzzard buteo apivorus sive vespivo- 
 rus, or the honey buzzard, because some combs of wasps hap- 
 
 33' 
 
332 WHITE 
 
 pened to be found in one of their nests. The combs were 
 conveyed thither doubtless for the sake of the maggots or 
 nymphs, and not for their honey, since none is to be found in 
 the combs of wasps. Birds of prey occasionally feed on in- 
 sects ; thus have I seen a tame kite picking up the female 
 ants full of eggs, with much satisfaction. WHITE. 
 
 That redstarts, fly-catchers, blackcaps, and other slender- 
 billed insectivorous small birds, particularly the swallow tribe, 
 make their first appearance very early in the spring, is a well- 
 known fact ; though the fly-catcher is the latest of them all in 
 its visit (as this accurate naturalist observes in another place), 
 for it is never seen before the month of May. If these deli- 
 cate creatures come to us from a distant country, they will 
 probably be exposed in their passage, as Mr. White justly 
 remarks, to much greater difficulties from storms and tem- 
 pests than their feeble powers appear to be able to surmount : 
 on the other hand, if we suppose them to pass the winter in a 
 dormant state in this country, concealed in caverns or other 
 hiding-places sufficiently guarded from the extreme cold of 
 our winter to preserve their life, and that at the approach of 
 spring they revive from their torpid state and reassume their 
 usual powers of action, it will entirely remove the first diffi- 
 culty arising from the storms and tempests they are liable to 
 meet with in their passage ; but how are we to get over the 
 still greater difficulty of their revivification from their torpid 
 state ? What degree of warmth in the temperature of the air 
 is necessary to produce that effect, and how it operates on the 
 functions of animal life, are questions not easily answered. 
 
 How could Mr. White suppose that Ray named this species 
 the honey buzzard, because it fed on honey, when he not only 
 named it in Latin buteo apivorus et vespivorus, but expressly 
 says that " it feeds on insects, and brings up its young with 
 the maggots or nymphs of wasps ? " 
 
 That birds of prey, when in want of their proper food, flesh, 
 sometimes feed on insects I have little doubt, and I think I 
 have observed the common buzzard, falco buteo, to settle on 
 the ground and pick up insects of some kind or other. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 333 
 
 ROOKS. Rooks are continually fighting and pulling each 
 other's nests to pieces : these proceedings are inconsistent with 
 living in such close community. And yet if a pair offer to 
 build on a single tree, the nest is plundered and demolished 
 at once. Some rooks roost on their nest trees. The twigs 
 which the rooks drop in building supply the poor with brush- 
 wood to light their fires. Some unhappy pairs are not per- 
 mitted to finish any nest till the rest have completed their 
 building. As soon as they get a few sticks together, a party 
 comes and demolishes the whole. As soon as rooks have fin- 
 ished their nests and before they lay, the cocks begin to feed 
 the hens, who receive their bounty with a fondling tremulous 
 voice and fluttering wings, and all the little blandishments that 
 are expressed by the young while in a helpless state. This 
 gallant deportment of the males is continued through the 
 whole season of incubation. These birds do not copulate on 
 trees, nor in their nests, but on the ground in the open fields. 
 WHITE. 
 
 After the first brood of rooks is sufficiently fledged, they all 
 leave their nest trees in the day-time, and resort to some dis- 
 tant place in search of food, but return regularly every even- 
 ing, in vast flights, to their nest trees, where, after flying round 
 several times with much noise and clamor till they are all as- 
 sembled together, they take up their abode for the night. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 THRUSHES. Thrushes during long droughts are of great 
 service in hunting out shell snails, which they pull to pieces 
 for their young, and are thereby very serviceable in gardens. 
 Missel-thrushes do not destroy the fruit in gardens like the 
 other species of turdi, but feed on the berries of mistletoe, and 
 in the spring on ivy berries, which then begin to ripen. In the 
 summer, when their young become fledged, they leave neigh- 
 borhoods and retire to sheep-walks and wild commons. 
 
 The magpies, when they have young, destroy the broods of 
 missel-thrushes, though the dams are fierce birds and fight 
 boldly in defence of their nests. It is probably to avoid such 
 insults that this species of thrush, though wild at other times, 
 
334 WHITE 
 
 delights to build near houses and in frequented walks and 
 gardens. WHITE. 
 
 Of the truth of this I have been an eye-witness, having seen 
 the common thrush feeding on the shell snail. 
 
 In the very early part of this spring (1797) a bird of this 
 species used to sit every morning on the top of some high 
 elms close by my windows, and delight me with its charming 
 song, attracted thither, probably, by some ripe ivy berries that 
 grew near the place. 
 
 I have remarked something like the latter fact, for I re- 
 member, many years ago, seeing a pair of these birds fly up 
 repeatedly and attack some larger bird, which I suppose dis- 
 turbed their nest in my orchard, uttering at the same time 
 violent shrieks. Since writing the above, I have seen more 
 than once a pair of these birds attack some magpies that had 
 disturbed their nest with great violence and loud shrieks. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 POULTRY. Many creatures are endowed with a ready dis- 
 cernment to see what will turn to their own advantage and 
 emolument : and often discover more sagacity than could be 
 expected. Thus my neighbor's poultry watch for wagons 
 loaded with wheat, and running after them, pick up a num- 
 ber of grains which are shaken from the sheaves by the agita- 
 tion of the carriages. Thus, when my brother used to take 
 down his gun to shoot sparrows, his cats would run out before 
 him to be ready to catch up the birds as they fell. 
 
 The earnest and early propensity of gallinae to roost on high 
 is very observable, and discovers a strong dread impressed on 
 their spirits respecting vermin that may annoy them on the 
 ground during the hours of darkness. Hence poultry, if left 
 to themselves and not housed, will perch the winter through 
 on yew-trees and fir-trees ; turkeys and guinea fowls, heavy as 
 they are, get up into apple-trees; pheasants also in woods 
 sleep on trees to avoid foxes ; x while peafowls climb to the 
 tops of the highest trees round their owner's house for secu- 
 rity, let the weather be ever so cold or blowing. Partridges, 
 it is true, roost on the ground, not having the faculty of perch- 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 335 
 
 ing ; but then the same fear prevails in their minds ; for, 
 through apprehension from polecats and stoats, they never 
 trust themselves to coverts, but nestle together in the midst 
 of large fields, far removed from hedges and coppices, which 
 they love to haunt in the day, and where at that season they 
 can skulk more secure from the ravages of rapacious birds. 
 
 As to ducks and geese, their awkward splay web-feet forbid 
 them to settle on trees : they therefore, in the hours of dark- 
 ness and danger, betake themselves to their own element, the 
 water, where amidst large lakes and pools, like ships riding 
 at anchor, they float the whole night long in peace and security. 
 WHITE. 
 
 Guinea fowls not only roost on high, but in hard weather 
 resort, even in the day-time, to the very tops of the highest 
 trees. Last winter, when the ground was covered with snow, 
 I discovered all my guinea fowls, in the middle of the day, 
 sitting on the highest boughs of some very tall elms, chatter- 
 ing and making a great clamor : I ordered them to be driven 
 down lest they should be frozen to death in so elevated a 
 situation, but this was not effected without much difficulty ; 
 they being very unwilling to quit theif lofty abode, notwith- 
 standing one of them had its feet so much frozen that we were 
 obliged to kill it. I know not how to account for this, unless 
 it was occasioned by their aversion to the snow on the ground, 
 they being birds that come originally from a hot climate. 
 
 Notwithstanding the awkward splay web-feet (as Mr. White 
 calls them) of the duck genus, some of the foreign species 
 have the power of settling on the boughs of trees apparently 
 with great ease ; an instance of which I have seen in the Earl 
 of Ashburnham's menagerie, where the summer duck, anas 
 sponsa, flew up and settled on the branch of an oak-tree in 
 my presence : but whether any of them roost on trees in the 
 night, we are not informed by any author that I am acquainted 
 with. I suppose not, but that, like the rest of the genus, they 
 sleep on the water, where the birds of this genus are not 
 always perfectly secure, as will appear from the following cir- 
 cumstance which happened in this neighborhood a few years 
 since, as I was credibly informed. A female fox was found 
 
336 WHITE 
 
 in the morning drowned in the same pond in which were sev- 
 eral geese, and it was supposed that in the night the fox swam 
 into the pond to devour the geese, but was attacked by the 
 gander, which, being most powerful in its own element, buf- 
 feted the fox with its wings about the head till it was drowned. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 HEN PARTRIDGE. A hen partridge came out of a ditch 
 and ran along shivering with her wings and crying out as if 
 wounded and unable to get from us. While the dam acted 
 this distress, the boy who attended me saw her brood, that 
 was small and unable to fly, run for shelter into an old fox- 
 earth under the bank. So wonderful a power is instinct. 
 WHITE. 
 
 It is not uncommon to see an old partridge feign itself 
 wounded and run along on the ground fluttering and crying 
 before either dog or man, to draw them away from its help- 
 less unfledged young ones. I have seen it often, and once in 
 particular I saw a remarkable instance of the old bird's solici- 
 tude to save its brood. As I was hunting a young pointer, 
 the dog ran on a brood of very small partridges : the old bird 
 cried, fluttered, and ran tumbling along just before the dog's 
 nose till she had drawn him to a considerable distance, when 
 she took wing and flew still farther off, but not out of the 
 field : on this the dog returned to me, near which place the 
 young ones lay concealed in the grass, which the old bird no 
 sooner perceived than she flew back again to us, settled just 
 before the dog's nose again, and by rolling and tumbling 
 about, drew off his attention from her young, and thus pre- 
 served her brood a second time. I have also seen, when a 
 kite has been hovering over a covey of young partridges, the 
 old birds fly up at the bird of prey, screaming and fighting 
 with all their might to preserve their brood. MARKWICK. 
 
 A HYBRID PHEASANT. Lord Stawell sent me from the 
 great lodge in the Holt a curious bird for my inspection. It was 
 found by the spaniels of one of his keepers in a coppice, and 
 shot on the wing. The shape, air, and habit of the bird, and 
 the scarlet ring round the eyes, agreed well with the appear- 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 337 
 
 ance of a cock pheasant ; but then the head, and neck, and 
 breast, and belly were of a glossy black : and though it 
 weighed three pounds three ounces and a half, 2 the weight 
 of a full-grown cock pheasant, yet there were no signs of 
 any spurs on the legs, as is usual with all grown cock pheas- 
 ants who have long ones. The legs and feet were naked 
 of feathers, and therefore it could be nothing of the grouse 
 kind. In the tail were no bending feathers, such as cock 
 pheasants usually have and are characteristic of the sex. 
 The tail was much shorter than the tail of a hen pheasant, 
 and blunt and square at the end. The back, wing, feathers, 
 and tail were all of a pale russet curiously streaked some- 
 what like the upper parts of a hen partridge. I returned it 
 with my verdict that it was probably a spurious or hybrid 
 hen bird, bred between a cock pheasant and some domestic 
 fowl. When I came to talk with the keeper who brought it, 
 he told me that some peahens had been known last summer 
 to haunt the coppices and coverts where this mule was found. 
 
 Mr. Elmer, of Farnham, the famous game painter, was 
 employed to take an exact copy of this curious bird. 
 
 N.B. It ought to be mentioned that some good judges 
 have imagined this bird to have been a stray grouse or black- 
 cock; it is however to be observed, that Mr. W. remarks 
 that its legs and feet were naked, whereas those of the grouse 
 are feathered to the toes. WHITE. 
 
 Mr. Latham observes that " peahens, after they have done 
 laying, sometimes assume the plumage of the male bird," 
 and has given a figure of the male-feathered peahen now to 
 be seen in the Leverian Museum ; and M. Salerne remarks, 
 that "the hen pheasant, when she has done laying and sit- 
 ting, will get the plumage of the male." May not this hybrid 
 pheasant (as Mr. White calls it) be a bird of this kind ? that 
 is, an old hen pheasant which had just begun to assume the 
 plumage of the cock. MARKWICK. 
 
 LANDRAIL A man brought me a landrail, or daker-hen, 
 a bird so rare in this district that we seldom see more than 
 one or two in a season, and those only in autumn. 3 This is 
 23 
 
338 WHITE 
 
 deemed a bird of passage by all the writers; yet from its 
 formation seems to be poorly qualified for migration; for 
 its wings are short, and placed so forward and out of the 
 centre of gravity, that it flies in a very heavy and embarrassed 
 manner, with its legs hanging down; and can hardly be 
 sprung a second time, as it runs very fast and seems to 
 depend more on the swiftness of its feet than on its flying. 
 
 When we came to draw it, we found the entrails so soft 
 and tender in appearance, they might have been dressed like 
 the ropes of a woodcock. The craw or crop was small and 
 lank, containing a mucus ; the gizzard thick and strong, and 
 filled with small shell snails, some whole, and many ground 
 to pieces through the attrition which is occasioned by the 
 muscular force and motion of that intestine. We saw no 
 gravels among the food : perhaps the shell snails might per- 
 form the functions of gravels or pebbles, and might grind 
 one another. Landrails used to abound formerly, I remem- 
 ber, in the low wet bean-fields of Christian Malford in North 
 Wilts, and in the meadows near Paradise Gardens at Oxford, 
 where I have often heard them cry crex, crex. The bird 
 mentioned above weighed seven and a half ounces, was fat 
 and tender, and in flavor like the flesh of a woodcock. The 
 liver was very large and delicate. WHITE. 
 
 Landrails are more plentiful with us than in the neighbor- 
 hood of Selborne. I have found four brace in an afternoon, 
 and a friend of mine lately shot nine in two adjoining fields ; 
 but I never saw them in any other season than the autumn. 
 
 That it is a bird of passage there can be little doubt, though 
 Mr. White thinks it poorly qualified for migration, on account 
 of the wings being short and not placed in the exact centre of 
 gravity ; how that may be I cannot say, but I know that its 
 heavy sluggish flight is not owing to its inability of flying faster, 
 for I have seen it fly very swiftly, although in general its actions 
 are sluggish. Its unwillingness to rise proceeds, I imagine, 
 from its sluggish disposition and its great timidity, for it will 
 sometimes squat so close to the ground as to suffer itself to be 
 taken up by the hand, rather than rise ; and yet it will at times 
 run very fast. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 339 
 
 What Mr. White remarks respecting the small shell snails 
 found in its gizzard confirms my opinion that it frequents corn- 
 fields, seed clover, and brakes or fern, more for the sake of 
 snails, slugs, and other insects which abound in such places, 
 than for the grain or seeds ; and that it is entirely an insectivo- 
 rous bird. MARKWICK. 
 
 FOOD OF THE RING-DOVE. One of my neighbors shot a 
 ring-dove on an evening as it was returning from feed and 
 going to roost. When his wife had picked and drawn it, she 
 found its craw stuffed with the most nice and tender tops of 
 turnips. These she washed and boiled, and so sat down to a 
 choice and delicate plate of greens, culled and provided in this 
 extraordinary manner. 
 
 Hence we may see that graminivorous birds, when grain fails, 
 can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reason to 
 suppose that they would not long be healthy without ; for tur- 
 keys, though corn fed, delight in a variety of plants, such as 
 cabbage, lettuce, endive, etc., and poultry pick much grass; 
 while geese live for months together on commons by grazing 
 
 alone. 
 
 " Naught is useless made ; . . . 
 . . . On the barren heath 
 The shepherd tends his flock that daily crop 
 Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf 
 Sufficient : after them the cackling goose, 
 Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want." 
 
 PHILIPS'S Cyder. 
 WHITE. 
 
 That many graminivorous birds feed also on the herbage or 
 leaves of plants, there can be no doubt : partridges and larks 
 frequently feed on the green leaves of turnips, which give a 
 peculiar flavor to their flesh, that is, to me, very palatable : the 
 flavor also of wild-ducks and geese greatly depends on the 
 nature of their food ; and their flesh frequently contracts a 
 rank unpleasant taste, from their having lately fed on strong, 
 marshy, aquatic plants, as I suppose. 
 
 That the leaves of vegetables are wholesome and conducive 
 to the health of birds seems probable, for many people fat 
 their ducks and turkeys with the leaves of lettuce chopped 
 small. MARKWICK. 
 
340 WHITE 
 
 HEN HARRIER. A neighboring gentleman sprung a pheas- 
 ant in a wheat stubble, and shot at it ; when, notwithstanding 
 the report of the gun, it was immediately pursued by the blue 
 hawk, known by the name of the hen harrier, but escaped into 
 some covert. He then sprung a second, and a third, in the 
 same field, that got away in the same manner ; the hawk hov- 
 ering round him all the while that he was beating the field, 
 conscious no doubt of the game that lurked in the stubble. 
 Hence we may conclude that this bird of prey was rendered 
 very daring and bold by hunger, and that hawks cannot always 
 seize their game when they please. We may farther observe, 
 that they cannot pounce their quarry on the ground where it 
 might be able to make a stout resistance, since so large a fowl 
 as a pheasant could not but be visible to the piercing eye of a 
 hawk, when hovering over the field. Hence that propensity 
 of cowering and squatting till they are almost trod on, which 
 no doubt was intended as a mode of security ; though long 
 rendered destructive to the whole race of gallinae by the in- 
 vention of nets and guns. WHITE. 
 
 Of the great boldness and rapacity of birds of prey when 
 urged on by hunger, I have seen several instances ; particu- 
 larly when shooting in the winter in company with two friends 
 a woodcock flew across us, closely pursued by a small hawk ; 
 we all three fired at the woodcock instead of the hawk, which, 
 notwithstanding the report of three guns close by it, continued 
 its pursuit of the woodcock, struck it down, and carried it off, 
 as we afterwards discovered. 
 
 At another time, when partridge-shooting with a friend, we 
 saw a ring-tail hawk rise out of a pit with some large bird in 
 its claws ; though at a great distance we both fired and obliged 
 it to drop its prey, which proved to be one of the partridges 
 which we were in pursuit of ; and lastly, in an evening, I shot 
 at and plainly saw that I had wounded a partridge, but it being 
 late, was obliged to go home without finding it again. The 
 next morning I walked round my land without any gun, but a 
 favorite old spaniel followed my heels. When I came near 
 the field where I wounded the bird the evening before, I heard 
 the partridges call, and seeming to be much disturbed. On 
 

 RING DOVE (Columba Palumbus). 
 From the collection of Chicago Academy of Sciences. 
 
 
 
WHITE 
 
 HEN HARRIER. A neighboring gentleman sprung a pheas- 
 ant in a wheat stubble, and shot at it ; when, notwithstanding 
 the report of the gun, it was immediately pursued by the blue 
 hawk, known by the name of the hen harrier, but escaped into 
 some covert. He then sprung a second, and a third, in the 
 same field, that got away in the same manner ; the hawk hov- 
 ering round him all the while that he was beating the field, 
 conscious no doubt of the game that lurked in the stubble. 
 Hence we may conclude that this bird of prey was rendered 
 very daring and bold by hunger, and that hawks cannot always 
 seize their game when they please. We way farther observe, 
 that they cannot pounce their quarry on the ground where 
 might be able to make a stout resistance, sinrr so large a fowl 
 as a pheasant could not but -be visible to the parang eye of a 
 hawk, when hovering over the field. Hmm ih&i propensity 
 of cowering and squatting tilt they are almost irod on, which 
 no doubt was intended * a mode #f security ; though long 
 r*rterij*uiAtti'.' U#jl U>-\lt< '-t*iWtt : -v^hQ4 gallinae by the in- 
 
 Au Y\ AMv\vv -Yf \S\ * * 
 
 ogfnirD to noib^llo'j sril mo-fl 
 
 Of the great boldness *;xi rapacity of birds of prey whe 
 urged on by hunger, I have seen several instances ; partic 
 larly when shooting in the winter in company with two friend 
 a woodcock flew across us, closely pursued by a small hawk 
 we all three fired at the woodcock instead of the hawk, whic 
 notwithstanding the report, of three guns close by it, continue 
 its pursuit of the woodcock, struck it down, and carried it o 
 as we afterwards discovered 
 
 At another time, when i ^trifle-shooting with a friend, w 
 saw a ring-tail hawk rise out of a pit with some large bird i 
 its claws ; though at a great distance we both fired and ob 1 
 it to drop its prey, which proved to be one of the partr 
 which we were in pursuit of; and lastly,' in an evening, 1 
 at and plainly saw that I had wounded a partridge, but it I 
 late, was obliged to go home without finding it again. 
 next morning I walked round my land without any gun, 
 favorite old spaniel followed my heels. When I came 
 the field where I wounded the bird the evening before, I 
 the partridges call, and seeming to be much distur v 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 34* 
 
 my approaching the bar-way, they all rose, some on my right 
 and some on my left hand ; and just before and over my head 
 I perceived (though indistinctly from the extreme velocity of 
 their motion) two birds fly directly against each other, when 
 instantly, to my great astonishment, down dropped a partridge 
 at my feet ; the dog immediately seized it, and on examination 
 I found the blood flow very fast from a flesh wound in the 
 head, but there was some dry clotted blood on its wings and 
 side ; whence I concluded that a hawk had singled out my 
 wounded bird as the object of his prey, and had struck it 
 down the instant that my approach had obliged the birds to 
 rise on the wing ; but the space between the hedges was so 
 small, and the motion of the birds so instantaneous and 
 quick, that I could not distinctly observe the operation. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 GREAT SPECKLED DIVER OR LOON. As one of my 
 neighbors was traversing Wolmer Forest from Bramshot 
 across the moors, he found a large uncommon bird fluttering 
 in the heath, but not wounded, which he brought home alive. 
 On examination it proved to be colymbus glacialis, Linn., the 
 great speckled diver, or loon, which is most excellently de- 
 scribed in Willughby's " Ornithology." 
 
 Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably 
 adapted to its mode of life, that in no instance do we see the 
 wisdom of God in the creation to more advantage. The head 
 is sharp and smaller than the part of the neck adjoining, in 
 order that it may pierce the water ; the wings are placed for- 
 ward, and out of the centre of gravity, for a purpose which 
 shall be noticed hereafter ; the thighs quite at the podex, in 
 order to facilitate diving ; and the legs are quite flat, and as 
 sharp backwards almost as the edge of a knife, that in strik- 
 ing they may easily cut the water ; while the feet are pal- 
 mated, and broad for swimming, yet so folded up when 
 advanced forward to take a fresh stroke, as to be full as 
 narrow as the shank. The two exterior toes of the feet are 
 longest; the nails flat and broad, resembling the human, 
 which give strength and increase the power of swimming. 
 The foot, when expanded, is not at right angles to the leg or 
 
342 WHITE 
 
 body of the bird : but the exterior part inclining towards the 
 head forms an acute angle with the body, the intention 
 being not to give motion in the line of the legs themselves, 
 but by the combined impulse of both in an intermediate line, 
 the line of the body. 
 
 Most people know, that have observed at all, that the swim- 
 ming of birds is nothing more than a walking in the water, 
 where one foot succeeds the other as on the land ; yet no one, 
 as far as I am aware, has remarked that diving fowls, while 
 under water, impel and row themselves forward by a motion 
 of their wings, as well as by the impulse of their feet : but 
 such is really the case, as any person may easily be con- 
 vinced who will observe ducks, when hunted by dogs, in a 
 clear pond. Nor do I know that any one has given a reason 
 why the wings of diving fowls are placed so forward : doubt- 
 less, not for the purpose of promoting their speed in flying, 
 since that position certainly impedes it, but probably for the 
 increase of their motion under water, by the use of four oars 
 instead of two ; yet were the wings and feet nearer together, 
 as in land birds, they would, when in action, rather hinder 
 than assist one another. 
 
 This colymbus was of considerable bulk, weighing only 
 three drams short of three pounds avoirdupois. It meas- 
 ured in length from the bill to the tail (which was very short) 
 two feet, and to the extremities of the toes four inches more ; 
 and the breadth of the wings expanded was forty-two inches. 
 A person attempted to eat the body, but found it very strong 
 and rancid, as is the flesh of all birds living on fish. Divers, 
 or loons, though bred in the most northerly parts of Europe, 
 yet are seen with us in very severe winters ; and on the Thames 
 they are called sprat loons, because they prey much on that 
 sort of fish. 
 
 The legs of the colymbi and mergi are placed so very back- 
 ward, and so out of all centre of gravity, that these birds can- 
 not walk at all. They are called by Linnaeus compedes, because 
 they move on the ground as if shackled or fettered. WHITE. 
 
 These accurate and ingenious observations, tending to set 
 forth in a proper light the wonderful works of God in the crea- 
 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 343 
 
 tion, and to point out His wisdom in adapting the singular 
 form and position of the limbs of this bird to the particular 
 mode in which it is destined to pass the greatest part of its life 
 in an element much denser than the air, do Mr. White credit, 
 not only as a naturalist, but as a man, and as a philosopher, 
 in the truest sense of the word, in my opinion ; for were we 
 enabled to trace the works of nature minutely and accurately, 
 we should find, not only that every bird, but every creature, 
 was equally well adapted to the purpose for which it was in- 
 tended ; though this fitness and propriety of form is more 
 striking in such animals as are destined to any uncommon 
 mode of life. 
 
 I have had in my possession two birds, which, though of a 
 different genus, bear a great resemblance to Mr. White's colym- 
 bus, in their manner of life, which is spent chiefly in the water, 
 where they swim and dive with astonishing rapidity, for which 
 purpose their fin-toed feet, placed far behind, and very short 
 wings, are particularly well adapted, and show the wisdom of 
 God in the creation as conspicuously as the bird before-men- 
 tioned. These birds were the greater and lesser crested grebe, 
 podiceps cristatus et auritus. What surprised me most was 
 that the first of these birds was found alive on dry ground, 
 about seven miles from the sea, to which place there was no 
 communication by water. How did it get so far from the sea ? 
 its wings and legs being so ill adapted either to flying or walk- 
 ing. The lesser crested grebe was also found in a fresh-water 
 pond which had no communication with other water, at some 
 miles' distance from the sea. MARKWICK. 
 
 STONE-CURLEW. On the 27th February, 1788, stone-cur- 
 lews were heard to pipe : and on March ist, after it was dark, 
 some were passing over the village, as might be perceived by 
 their quick short note, which they use in their nocturnal excur- 
 sions by way of watchword, that they may not stray and lose 
 their companions. 
 
 Thus we see that, retire whithersoever they may in the win- 
 ter, they return again early in the spring, and are, as it now 
 appears, the first summer birds that come back. Perhaps the 
 mildness of the season may have quickened the emigration of 
 the curlews this year. 
 
344 WHITE 
 
 They spend the day in high elevated fields and sheep-walks, 
 but seem to descend in the night to streams and meadows, 
 perhaps for water, which their upland haunts do not afford 
 them. WHITE. 
 
 On the 3 1 st January, 1 792, 1 received a bird of this species 
 which had been recently killed by a neighboring farmer, who 
 said he had frequently seen it in his fields during the former 
 part of the winter : this perhaps was an occasional straggler, 
 which by some accident was prevented from accompanying its 
 companions in their migration. MARKWICK. 
 
 THE SMALLEST UNCRESTED WILLOW- WREN. The small- 
 est uncrested willow-wren, or chiff-chaff, is the next early sum- 
 mer bird which we have remarked ; it utters two sharp piercing 
 notes, so loud in hollow woods as to occasion an echo, and is 
 usually first heard about the 2Oth March. WHITE. 
 
 This bird, which Mr. White calls the smallest willow-wren or 
 chiff-chaff, makes its appearance very early in the spring, and 
 is very common with us ; but I cannot make out the three differ- 
 ent species of willow-wrens which he assures us he has discov- 
 ered. Ever since the publication of his " History of Selborne " 
 I have used my utmost endeavors to discover his three birds, 
 but hitherto without success. I have frequently shot the bird 
 which " haunts only the tops of trees, and makes a sibilous 
 noise," even in the very act of uttering that sibilous note, but 
 it always proved to be the common willow-wren or his chiff- 
 chaff. In short, I never could discover more than one species, 
 unless my greater petty-chaps, sylvia hortensis of Latham, is 
 his greatest willow- wren. MARKWICK. 
 
 FERN-OWL, OR GOAT-SUCKER. The country-people have a 
 notion that the fern-owl, or churn-owl or eve-jarr, which they 
 also call a puckeridge, is very injurious to weanling calves, by 
 inflicting as it strikes at them the fatal distemper known to 
 cow-leeches by the name of puckeridge. 4 Thus does this harm- 
 less ill-fated bird fall under a double imputation which it by no 
 means deserves in Italy, of sucking the teats of goats, whence 
 it is C3\\Q&caprimulgus ; and with us, of communicating a deadly 
 disorder to cattle. But the truth of the matter is, the malady 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 345 
 
 above-mentioned is occasioned by the astrus bovis, a dipterous 
 insect, which lays its eggs along the chines of kine, where the 
 maggots, when hatched, eat their way through the hide of the 
 beast into the flesh, and grow to a very large size. I have 
 just talked with a man who says he has more than once 
 stripped calves who have died of the puckeridge ; that the ail 
 or complaint lay along the chine, where the flesh was much 
 swelled and filled with purulent matter. Once I myself saw 
 a large rough maggot of this sort squeezed out of the back of 
 a cow. 
 
 These maggots in Essex are called wornils. 
 
 The least observation and attention would convince men 
 that these birds neither injure the goatherd nor the grazier, 
 but are perfectly harmless, and subsist alone, being night 
 birds, on night insects, such as scarab cei and phalcence ; and 
 through the month of July mostly on the scarabceus solstitialis, 
 which in many districts abounds at that season. Those that 
 we have opened have always had their craws stuffed with 
 large night moths and their eggs, and pieces of chaffers : nor 
 does it anywise appear how they can, weak and unarmed as 
 they seem, inflict any harm upon kine, unless they possess the 
 powers of animal magnetism and can affect them by fluttering 
 over them. 
 
 A fern-owl this evening (August 2/th) showed off in a 
 very unusual and entertaining manner, by hawking round and 
 round the circumference of my great spreading oak for twenty 
 times following, keeping mostly close to the grass, but occa- 
 sionally glancing up amidst the boughs of the tree. This 
 amusing bird was then in pursuit of a brood of some particular 
 phalaena belonging to the oak, of which there are several 
 sorts ; and exhibited on the occasion a command of wing 
 superior, I think, to that of the swallow itself. 
 
 When a person approaches the haunt of fern-owls in an 
 evening, they continue flying round the head of the obtruder ; 
 and by striking their wings together above their backs, in the 
 manner that the pigeons called smiters are known to do, make 
 a smart snap ; perhaps at that time they are jealous for their 
 young, and their noise and gesture are intended by way of 
 menace. 
 
346 WHITE 
 
 Fern-owls have attachment to oaks, no doubt on account of 
 food ; for the next evening we saw one again several times 
 among the boughs of the same tree ; but it did not skim round 
 its stem over the grass, as on the evening before. In May 
 these birds find the scarabcsus melolontha on the oak, and the 
 scarabceus solstitialis at midsummer. These peculiar birds can 
 only be watched and observed for two hours in the twenty- 
 four ; and then in dubious twilight an hour after sunset and 
 an hour before sunrise. 
 
 On this day (July I4th, 1789), a woman brought me two 
 eggs of a fern-owl, or evening jarr, which she found on the 
 verge of the Hanger, to the left of the hermitage under a 
 beechen shrub. This person, who lives just at the foot of the 
 Hanger, seems well acquainted with these nocturnal swallows, 
 and says she has often found their eggs near that place, and 
 that they lay only two at a time on the bare ground. The 
 eggs were oblong, dusky, and streaked somewhat in the man- 
 ner of the plumage of the parent bird, and were equal in size 
 at each end. The dam was sitting on the eggs when found, 
 which contained the rudiments of young, and would have been 
 hatched perhaps in a week. From hence we may see the time 
 of their breeding, which corresponds pretty well with that of 
 the swift, as does also the period of their arrival. Each species 
 is usually seen about the beginning of May. Each breeds 
 but once in a summer; each lays only two eggs. 
 
 July 4th, 1790. The woman who brought me two fern-owl's 
 eggs last year on July I4th, on this day produced me two more, 
 one of which had been laid this morning, as appears plainly, 
 because there was only one in the nest the evening before. 
 They were found, as last July, on the verge of the down above 
 the hermitage under a beechen shrub, on the naked ground. 
 Last year those eggs were full of young, just ready to be 
 hatched. 
 
 These circumstances point out the exact time when these 
 curious, nocturnal migratory birds lay their eggs and hatch 
 their young. Fern-owls, like snipes, stone-curlews, and some 
 other birds, make no nest. Birds that build on the ground do 
 not make much of nests. WHITE. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 347 
 
 No author that I am acquainted with has given so accurate 
 and pleasing an account of the manners and habits of the goat- 
 sucker as Mr. White, taken entirely from his own observations. 
 Its being a nocturnal bird, has prevented my having many 
 opportunities of observing it. I suspect that it passes the day 
 in concealment amidst the dark and shady gloom of deep- 
 wooded dells, or as they are called here gills ; having more 
 than once seen it roused from such solitary places by my dogs, 
 when shooting in the day-time. I have also sometimes seen it 
 in an evening, but not long enough to take notice of its habits 
 and manners. I have never seen it but in summer, between 
 the months of May and September. MARKWICK. 
 
 SAND-MARTINS. March 23rd, 1788. A gentleman who 
 was this week on a visit at Waverley took the opportunity of 
 examining some of the holes in the sandbanks with which 
 that district abounds. As these are undoubtedly bored by bank- 
 martins, and are the places where they avowedly breed, he was 
 in hopes that they might have slept there also, and that he 
 might have surprised them just as they were awaking from 
 their winter slumbers. When he had dug for some time, he 
 found the holes were horizontal and serpentine, as I had ob- 
 served before ; and that the nests were deposited at the inner 
 end, and had been occupied by broods in former summers, but 
 no torpid birds were to be found. He opened and examined 
 about a dozen holes. Another gentleman made the same 
 search many years ago, with as little success. 
 
 These holes were in depth about two feet. 
 
 March 2ist, 1790. A single bank or sand martin was seen 
 hovering and playing round the sandpit at Short Heath, where 
 in the summer they abound. 
 
 April Qth, 1793. A sober hind assures us that this day, on 
 Wishhanger Common between Hedleigh and Frinsham, he saw 
 several bank-martins playing in and out, and hanging before 
 some nest-holes in a sandhill, where these birds usually 
 nestle. 
 
 The incident confirms my suspicions, that this species of 
 hirundo is to be seen first of any ; and gives great reason to 
 suppose that they do not leave their wild haunts at all, but 
 
348 WHITE 
 
 are secreted amidst the clefts and caverns of those abrupt 
 cliffs, where they usually spend their summers. 
 
 The late severe weather considered, it is not very probable 
 that these birds should have migrated so early from a tropical 
 region, through all these cutting winds and pinching frosts ; 
 but it is easy to suppose that they may, like bats and flies, have 
 been awakened by the influence of the sun, amidst their secret 
 latebrse, where they have spent the uncomfortable, foodless 
 months in a torpid state and the profoundest of slumbers. 
 
 There is a large pond at Wishhanger, which induces these 
 sand-martins to frequent that district. For I have ever re- 
 marked that they haunt near great waters, either rivers or 
 lakes. WHITE. 
 
 Here, and in many other passages of his writings, this very 
 ingenious naturalist savors the opinion that part, at least, of 
 the swallow tribe pass their winter in a torpid state in the same 
 manner as bats and flies, and revive again on the approach of 
 spring. 
 
 I have frequently taken notice of all these circumstances, 
 which induced Mr. White to suppose that some of these hirun- 
 dines lie torpid during winter. I have seen so late as Novem- 
 ber, on a finer day than usual at that season of the year, two 
 or three swallows flying backwards and forwards under a warm 
 hedge, or on the sunny side of some old building ; nay, I once 
 saw on the 8th December two martins flying about very briskly, 
 the weather being mild. I had not seen any considerable num- 
 ber either of swallows or martins for a considerable time be- 
 fore ; from whence, then, could these few birds come, if not 
 from some hole or cavern where they had laid themselves up 
 for the winter ? Surely it will not be asserted that these birds 
 migrate back again from some distant tropical region, merely 
 on the appearance of a fine day or two, at this late season 
 of the year. Again, very early in the spring, and sometimes 
 immediately after very cold severe weather, on its growing a 
 little warmer, a few of these birds suddenly make their appear- 
 ance, long before the generality of them are seen. These 
 appearances certainly favor the opinion of their passing the 
 winter in a torpid state, but do not absolutely prove the fact ; 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 349 
 
 for who ever saw them reviving of their own accord from,their 
 torpid state, without being first brought to the fire, and, as it 
 were, forced into life again; soon after which revivification 
 they constantly die. MARKWICK. 
 
 SWALLOWS, CONGREGATING AND DISAPPEARANCE OF. 
 During the severe winds that often prevail late in the spring, 
 it is not easy to say how the hirundines subsist ; for they with- 
 draw themselves, and are hardly ever seen, nor do any insects 
 appear for their support. That they can retire to rest, and 
 sleep away these uncomfortable periods, as bats do, is a mat- 
 ter rather to be suspected than proved ; or do they not rather 
 spend their time in deep and sheltered vales near waters, 
 where insects are more likely to be found ? Certain it is, that 
 hardly any individuals of this genus have at such times been 
 seen for several days together. 
 
 September I3th, 1/91. The congregating flocks of hirun- 
 dines on the church and tower are very beautiful and amusing ! 
 When they fly off together from the roof, on any alarm, they 
 quite swarm in the air. But they soon settle in heaps, and 
 preening their feathers, and lifting up their wings to admit the 
 sun, seem highly to enj oy the warm situation. Thus they spend 
 the heat of the day, preparing for their emigration, and, as it 
 were, consulting when and where they are to go. The flight 
 about the church seems to consist chiefly of house-martins, 
 about 400 in number ; but there are other places of rendez- 
 vous about the village frequented at the same time. 
 
 It is remarkable that though most of them sit on the battle- 
 ments and roof, yet many hang or cling for some time by their 
 claws against the surface of the walls, in a manner not prac- 
 tised by them at any other time of their remaining with us. 
 
 The swallows seem to delight more in holding their assem- 
 blies on trees. 
 
 November 3rd, 1789. Two swallows were seen this morn- 
 ing at Newton vicarage-house, hovering and settling on the 
 roofs and out-buildings. None have been observed at Sel- 
 borne since October nth. It is very remarkable, that after 
 the hirundines have disappeared for some weeks, a few are 
 occasionally seen again; sometimes, in the first week in 
 
 s 
 
350 WHITE 
 
 November, and that only for one day. Do they not with- 
 draw and slumber in some hiding-place in the interval ? For 
 we cannot suppose they had emigrated to warmer climes and 
 so returned again for one day. Is it not more probable that 
 they are awakened from sleep, and like the bats are come forth 
 to collect a little food ? Bats appear at all seasons through 
 the autumn and spring months, when the thermometer is at 
 50, because then phalaenae and moths are stirring. 
 These swallows looked like young ones. WHITE. 
 
 Of their migration the proofs are such as will scarcely admit 
 of a doubt. Sir Charles Wager and Captain Wright saw vast 
 flocks of them at sea, when on their passage from one country 
 to another. Our author, Mr. White, saw what he deemed the 
 actual migration of these birds, and which he has described at 
 p. 184 of his " History of Selborne ; " and of their congregat- 
 ing together on the roofs of churches and other buildings, and 
 on trees, previous to their departure, many instances occur ; 
 particularly I once observed a large stock of house-martins on 
 the roof of the church here at Catsfield, which acted exactly 
 in the manner here described by Mr. White, sometimes preen- 
 ing their feathers and spreading their wings to the sun, and 
 then flying off all together, but soon returning to their former 
 1 situation. The greatest part of these birds seem to be young 
 ones. MARKWICK. 
 
 WAGTAILS. While the cows are feeding in the moist low 
 pastures, broods of wagtails, white and gray, run round them, 
 close up to their noses, and under their very bellies, availing 
 themselves of the flies that settle on their legs, and probably 
 finding worms and larvae that are roused by the trampling of 
 their feet. Nature is such an economist, that the most incon- 
 gruous animals can avail themselves of each other ! 
 
 Interest makes strange friendships. WHITE. 
 
 Birds continually avail themselves of particular and unusual 
 circumstances to procure their food ; thus wagtails keep play- 
 ing about the noses and legs of cattle as they feed, in quest 
 of flies and other insects which abound near those animals ; 
 and great numbers of them will follow close to the plough to 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 35 1 
 
 devour the worms, etc., that are turned up by that instrument. 
 The redbreast attends the gardener when digging his borders ; 
 and will, with great familiarity and tameness, pick out the 
 worms, almost close to his spade, as I have frequently seen. 
 Starlings and magpies very often sit on the backs of sheep and 
 deer to pick out their ticks. MARKWICK. 
 
 WRYNECK. These birds appear on the grass plots and 
 walks ; they walk a little as well as hop, and thrust their bills 
 into the turf, in quest, I conclude, of ants, which are their 
 food. While they hold their bills in the grass, they draw out 
 their prey with their tongues, which are so long as to be coiled 
 round their heads. WHITE. 
 
 GROSSBEAK. Mr. B. shot a cock grossbeak which he had 
 observed to haunt his garden for more than a fortnight. I 
 began to accuse this bird of making sad havoc among the buds 
 of the cherries, gooseberries, and wall fruit of all the neighbor- 
 ing orchards. Upon opening its crop or craw no buds were 
 to be seen, but a mass of kernels of the stones of fruits. Mr. 
 B. observed that this bird frequented the spot where plum- 
 trees grow, and that he had seen it with somewhat hard in its 
 mouth, which it broke with difficulty ; these were the stones 
 of damsons. The Latin ornithologists call this bird cocco- 
 thraustes, i.e. berry-breaker, because with its large horny beak 
 it cracks and breaks the shells of stone fruits for the sake of 
 the seed or kernel. Birds of this sort are rarely seen in Eng- 
 land, and only in winter. WHITE. 
 
 I have never seen this rare bird but during the severest cold 
 of the hardest winters; at which season of the year I have had 
 in my possession two or three that were killed in this neighbor- 
 hood in different years. MARKWICK. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1 The pheasants run into equal danger when they roost in the trees ; for, 
 although they are secure from ground vermin, yet do they often fall victims 
 to the poacher, who can see them plainly against the sky. G. C. D. 
 
 2 Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces. G. W. 
 
 3 The landrail is common in Shropshire, and I have found three or four 
 nests in a single hayfield. One of these birds was once brought in, in a 
 
352 WHITE 
 
 load of hay, and when discovered feigned to be dead. It was laid aside, 
 and recovered so quickly, that it made good its escape with remarkable 
 speed. G. C. D. 
 
 4 The goat-sucker, like other birds, finds insects in attendance on cattle ; 
 hence its apparent "striking at them." Magpies and starlings will coolly 
 perch on the backs of animals and leisurely make their meal. G. C. D. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS 
 
 SHEEP. The sheep on the downs this winter (1769) are 
 very ragged, and their coats much torn ; the shepherds say 
 they tear their fleeces with their own mouths and horns, and 
 they are always in that way in mild wet winters, being teased 
 and tickled with a kind of lice. 
 
 After ewes and lambs are shorn, there is great confusion 
 and bleating, neither the dams nor the young being able to 
 distinguish one another as before. This embarrassment seems 
 not so much to arise from the loss of the fleece, which may 
 occasion an alteration in their appearance, as from the defect 
 of that notus odor, discriminating each individual personally ; 
 which also is confounded by the strong scent of pitch and tar 
 wherewith they are newly marked ; for the brute creation recog- 
 nize each other more from the smell than the sight ; and in 
 matters of identity and diversity appeal much more to their 
 noses than their eyes. After sheep have been washed there 
 is the same confusion, from the reason given above. WHITE. 
 
 RABBITS. Rabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for 
 they not only bite closer than larger quadrupeds, but they 
 allow no bents to rise ; hence warrens produce much the most 
 delicate turf for gardens. Sheep never touch the stalks of 
 grasses. WHITE. 
 
 CAT AND SQUIRRELS. A boy has taken three young squir- 
 rels in their nest or drey as it is called in these parts. These 
 small creatures he put under the care of a cat who had lately 
 lost her kittens, and finds that she nurses and suckles them 
 with the same assiduity and affection as if they were her own 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS 353 
 
 offspring. This circumstance corroborates my suspicion, that 
 the mention of exposed and deserted children being nurtured 
 by female beasts of prey who had lost their young, may not 
 be so improbable an incident as many have supposed ; and 
 therefore may be a justification of those authors who have 
 gravely mentioned what some have deemed to be a wild and 
 improbable story. 
 
 So many people went to see the little squirrels suckled by 
 a cat, that the foster mother became jealous of her charge, and 
 in pain for their safety ; and therefore hid them over the ceil- 
 ing, where one died. This circumstance shows her affection 
 for these fondlings, and that she supposes the squirrels to be 
 her own young. Thus hens, when they have hatched duck- 
 lings, are equally attached to them as if they were their own 
 chickens. WHITE. 
 
 HORSE. An old hunting mare, which ran on the common, 
 being taken very ill, ran down into the village, as it were to 
 implore the help of men, and died the night following in the 
 street. WHITE. 
 
 HOUNDS. The king's staghounds came down to Alton, 
 attended by a huntsman and six yeoman prickers with horns, 
 to try for the stag that has haunted Harteley Wood for so long 
 a time. Many hundreds of people, horse and foot, attended 
 the dogs to see the deer unharbored; but though the hunts- 
 men drew Harteley Wood, and Long Coppice, and Shrub Wood, 
 and Temple Hangers, and on their way back Harteley and 
 Ward le Ham Hangers, yet no stag could be found. 
 
 The royal pack, accustomed to have the deer turned out 
 before them, never drew the coverts with any address and 
 spirit, as many people that were present observed ; and this 
 remark the event has proved to be a true one. For as a per- 
 son was lately pursuing a pheasant that was wing-broken in 
 Harteley Wood, he stumbled upon the stag by accident, and 
 ran in upon him as he lay concealed amidst a thick brake of 
 brambles and bushes. WHITE. 
 
 24 
 
354 WHITE 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND 
 VERMES 
 
 INSECTS IN GENERAL. The day and night insects occupy 
 the annuals alternately; the papilios, muscas, and apes are 
 succeeded at the close of day by phalaenae, ear-wigs, wood-lice, 
 etc. In the dusk of the evening, when beetles begin to buzz, 
 partridges begin to call ; these two circumstances are exactly 
 coincident. 
 
 Ivy is the last flower that supports the hymenopterous and 
 dipterous insects. On sunny days quite on to November they 
 swarm on trees covered with this plant ; and when they dis- 
 appear, probably retire under the shelter of its leaves, con- 
 cealing themselves between its fibres and the trees which it 
 entwines. 1 WHITE. 
 
 This I have often observed, having seen bees and other 
 winged insects swarming about the flowers of the ivy, very 
 late in the autumn. MARKWICK. 
 
 Spiders, wood-lice, lepismae in cupboards and among sugar, 
 some empedes, gnats, flies of several species, some phalaenae 
 in hedges, earthworms, etc., are stirring at all times when 
 winters are mild ; and are of great service to those soft-billed 
 birds that never leave us. 
 
 On every sunny day the winter through, clouds of insects 
 usually called gnats (I suppose tipulae and empedes) appear 
 sporting and dancing over the tops of the evergreen trees in 
 the shrubbery, and striking about as if the business of gen- 
 eration was still going on. Hence it appears that these dip- 
 tera (which by their sizes appear to be of different species) 
 are not subject to a torpid state in the winter, as most winged 
 insects are. At night, and in frosty weather, and when it 
 rains and blows, they seem to retire into those trees. They 
 often are out in a fog. WHITE. 
 
 This I have also seen, and have frequently observed swarms 
 of little winged insects playing up and down in the air in the 
 middle of winter, even when the ground has been covered 
 with snow. MARKWICK. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES 355 
 
 HUMMING IN THE AIR. There is a natural occurrence to 
 be met with upon the highest part of our down in hot summer 
 days, which always amuses me much, without giving me any 
 satisfaction with respect to the cause of it ; and that is, a loud 
 audible humming of bees in the air, though not one insect is 
 to be seen. The sound is to be heard distinctly the whole 
 common through, from the Money Dells to Mr. White's avenue 
 gate. Any person would suppose that a large swarm of bees 
 was in motion, and playing about over his head. This noise 
 was heard last week, on June 28th. 
 
 " Resounds the living surface of the ground, 
 Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum 
 To him who muses ... at noon. 
 
 " Thick in yon stream of light a thousand ways. 
 Upward and downward, thwarting and convolved, 
 The quivering nations sport." THOMSON'S Seasons. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 CHAFFERS. Cock-chaffers seldom abound of tener than once 
 in three or four years; when they swarm, they deface the 
 trees and hedges. Whole woods of oaks are stripped bare by 
 them. 
 
 Chaffers are eaten by the turkey, the rook, and the house- 
 sparrow. 
 
 The scarab&us solstitialis first appears about June 26th : 
 they are very punctual in their coming out every year. They 
 are a small species, about half the size of the May-chaffer, 
 and are known in some parts by the name of the fern-chaffer. 
 WHITE. 
 
 A singular circumstance relative to the cock-chaffer, or, as 
 it is called here, the May-bug, scarab&us melolontha, hap- 
 pened this year (1800). My gardener, in digging some 
 ground, found, about six inches under the surface, two of 
 these insects alive and perfectly formed, so early as the 24th 
 March. When he brought them to me, they appeared to be 
 as perfect, and as much alive, as in the midst of summer, 
 crawling about as briskly as ever ; yet I saw no more of this 
 insect till the 22nd May, when it began to make its appear- 
 ance. How comes it, that though it was perfectly formed so 
 
356 WHITE 
 
 early as the 24th March, it did not show itself above ground 
 till nearly two months afterwards ? MARKWICK. 
 
 PTINUS PECTINICORNIS. Those maggots that make worm- 
 holes in tables, chairs, bedposts, etc., and destroy wooden fur- 
 niture, especially where there is any sap, are the larvae of the 
 ptinus pectinicornis. This insect, it is probable, deposits its 
 eggs on the surface, and the worms eat their way in. 
 
 In their holes they turn into their pupae state, and so come 
 forth winged in July ; eating their way through the valances 
 or curtains of a bed, or any other furniture that happens to 
 obstruct their passage. 
 
 They seem to be most inclined to breed in beech : hence 
 beech will not make lasting utensils or furniture. If their 
 eggs are deposited on the surface, frequent rubbing will pre- 
 serve wooden furniture. WHITE. 
 
 BLATTA ORIENTALIS ; COCKROACH. A neighbor com- 
 plained that her house was overrun with a kind of black 
 beetle, or, as she expressed herself, with a kind of black bob, 
 which swarmed in her kitchen when they got up in a morn- 
 ing before daybreak. 
 
 Soon after this account, I observed an unusual insect in 
 one of my dark chimney-closets, and find since, that in the 
 night, they swarm also in my kitchen. On examination I 
 soon ascertained the species to be the blatta orientalis of 
 Linnaeus, and the blatta molendinaria of Mouffet. The male 
 is winged ; the female is not, but shows somewhat like the 
 rudiments of wings, as if in the pupa state. 
 
 These insects belonged originally to the warmer parts of 
 America, and were conveyed from thence by shipping to the 
 East Indies ; and by means of commerce begin to prevail in 
 the more northern parts of Europe, as Russia, Sweden, etc. 
 How long they have abounded in England I cannot say ; but 
 have never observed them in my house till lately. 
 
 They love warmth, and haunt chimney-closets and the backs 
 of ovens. Poda says that these and house-crickets will not 
 associate together; but he is mistaken in that assertion, as 
 Linnaeus suspected he was. They are altogether night insects, 
 , never coming forth till the rooms are dark and still, 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES 357 
 
 and escaping away nimbly at the approach of a candle. Their 
 antennae are remarkably long, slender, and flexile. 
 
 October 1790. After the servants are gone to bed, the 
 kitchen hearth swarms with young crickets, and young blatta 
 molendinaria of all sizes, from the most minute growth to 
 their full proportions. They seem to live in a friendly man- 
 ner together, and not to prey the one on the other. 
 
 August 1792. After the destruction of many thousands of 
 blattce molendinarice, we find that at intervals a fresh detach- 
 ment of old ones arrives, and particularly during this hot 
 season ; for the windows being left open in the evenings, the 
 males come flying in at the casements from the neighboring 
 houses, which swarm with them. How the females, that 
 seem to have no perfect wings that they can use, can contrive 
 to get from house to house, does not so readily appear. 
 These, like many insects, when they find their present abodes 
 overstocked, have powers of migrating to fresh quarters. 
 Since the blattce have been so much kept under, the crickets 
 have greatly increased in number. WHITE. 
 
 GRYLLUS DOMESTICUS ; HOUSE-CRICKET. November. 
 After the servants are gone to bed, the kitchen hearth swarms 
 with minute crickets not so large as fleas, which must have 
 been lately hatched. So that these domestic insects, cherished 
 by the influence of a constant large fire, regard not the season 
 of the year, but produce their young at a time when their 
 congeners are either dead, or laid up for the winter, to pass 
 away the uncomfortable months in the profoundest slumbers 
 and a state of torpidity. 
 
 When house-crickets are out and running about in a room 
 in the night, if surprised by a candle they give two or three 
 shrill notes, as it were for a signal to their fellows, that they 
 may escape to their crannies and lurking holes to avoid 
 danger. WHITE. 
 
 CIMEX LINEARIS. August 1 2th, 1775. Cimices lineares 
 are now in high copulation on ponds and pools. The females, 
 who vastly exceed the males in bulk, dart and shoot along on 
 the surface of the water with the males on their backs. 
 When a female chooses to be disengaged, she rears, and 
 
358 WHITE 
 
 jumps, and plunges, like an unruly colt ; the lover thus dis- 
 mounted, soon finds a new mate. The females, as fast as 
 their curiosities are satisfied, retire to another part of the lake, 
 perhaps to deposit their foetus in quiet ; hence the sexes are 
 found separate, except where generation is going on. From 
 the multitude of minute young of all gradations of sizes, these 
 insects seem without doubt to be viviparous. WHITE. 
 
 PHAL^ENA QUERCUS. Most of our oaks are naked of 
 leaves, and even the Holt in general, having been ravaged by 
 the caterpillars of a small phalaena which is of a pale yellow 
 color. These insects, though a feeble race, yet, from their 
 infinite numbers, are of wonderful effect, being able to destroy 
 the foliage of whole forests and districts. At this season they 
 leave their aurelia, and issue forth in their fly state, swarming 
 and covering the trees and hedges. 
 
 In a field at Greatham, I saw a flight of swifts busied in 
 catching their prey near the ground ; and found they were 
 hawking after these phalaenae. The aureliae of this moth is 
 shining and as black as jet; and lies wrapped up in a leaf of 
 the tree, which is rolled round it, and secured at the ends by 
 a web, to prevent the maggot from falling out. WHITE. 
 
 I suspect that the insect here meant is not the phalcetia 
 guercus, but the phal&na viridata, concerning which I find 
 the following note in my "Naturalist's Calendar" for the 
 year 1785. 
 
 About this time, and for a few days last past, I observed 
 the leaves of almost all the oak-trees in Denn copse to be 
 eaten and destroyed, and, on examining more narrowly, saw 
 an infinite number of small, beautiful, pale green moths flying 
 about the trees; the leaves of which that were not quite 
 destroyed were curled up, and withinside were the exuviae or 
 remains of the chrysalis, from whence I suppose the moths 
 had issued, and whose caterpillar had eaten the leaves. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 EPHEMERA CAUDA BISETA; MAY-FLY. June loth, 1771. 
 Myriads of May-flies appear for the first time on the Aires- 
 ford stream. The air was crowded with them, and the surface 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES 359 
 
 of the water covered. Large trouts sucked them in as they 
 lay struggling on the surface of the stream, unable to rise till 
 their wings were dried. 
 
 This appearance reconciled me in some measure to the 
 wonderful account that Scopoli gives of the quantities emerg- 
 ing from the rivers of Carniola. Their motions are very 
 peculiar, up and down for many yards almost in a perpendic- 
 ular line. WHITE. 
 
 I once saw a swarm of these insects playing up and down 
 over the surface of a pond in Denn Park, exactly in the man- 
 ner described by this accurate naturalist. It was late in the 
 evening of a warm summer's day when I observed them. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 SPHINX OCELLATA. A vast insect appears after it is dusk, 
 flying with a humming noise, and inserting its tongue into the 
 bloom of the honey-suckle ; it scarcely settles upon the plants, 
 but feeds on the wing in the manner of humming-birds. 
 WHITE. 
 
 I have frequently seen the large bee moth, sphinx stellata- 
 rum, inserting its long tongue or proboscis into the centre of 
 flowers, and feeding on their nectar, without settling on them, 
 but keeping constantly on the wing. MARKWICK. 
 
 WILD BEE. There is a sort of wild bee frequenting the 
 garden-campion for the sake of its tomentum, which prob- 
 ably it turns to some purpose in the business of nidincation. 
 It is very pleasant to see with what address it strips off the 
 pubes, running from the top to the bottom of a branch, and 
 shaving it bare with all the dexterity of a hoop-shaver. When 
 it has got a vast bundle, almost as large as itself, it flies away, 
 holding it secure between its chin and its fore-legs. 
 
 There is a remarkable hill on the downs near Lewes in 
 Sussex, known by the name of Mount Carburn, which over- 
 looks that town and affords a most engaging prospect of all 
 the country round, besides several views of the sea. On the 
 very summit of this exalted promontory, and amidst the 
 trenches of its Danish camp, there haunts a species of wild 
 bee, making its nest in the chalky soil. When people ap- 
 
360 WHITE 
 
 proach the place, these insects begin to be alarmed, and, with 
 a sharp and hostile sound, dash and strike round the heads 
 and faces of intruders. I have often been interrupted myself 
 while contemplating the grandeur of the scenery around me, 
 and have thought myself in danger of being stung. WHITE. 
 
 WASPS. Wasps abound in woody wild districts far from 
 neighborhoods ; they feed on flowers, and catch flies and cater- 
 pillars to carry to their young. Wasps make their nests with 
 the raspings of sound timber ; hornets, with what they gnaw 
 from decayed : these particles of wood are kneaded up with 
 a mixture of saliva from their bodies and moulded into combs. 
 
 When there is no fruit in the gardens, wasps eat flies, and 
 suck the honey from flowers, from ivy blossoms and um- 
 bellated plants; they carry off also flesh from butchers' 
 shambles. WHITE. 
 
 In the year 1775, wasps abounded so prodigiously in this 
 neighborhood that, in the month of August, no less than 
 seven or eight of their nests were ploughed up in one field : 
 of which there were several instances, as I was informed. 
 
 In the spring, about the beginning of April, a single wasp 
 is sometimes seen, which is of a larger size than usual ; this 
 I imagine is the queen, or female wasp, the mother of the 
 future swarm. MARKWICK. 
 
 CESTRUS CURVICAUDA. This insect lays its nits or eggs on 
 horses' legs, flanks, etc., each on a single hair. The maggots, 
 when hatched, do not enter the horses' skins, but fall to the 
 ground. It seems to abound most in moist moorish places, 
 though sometimes seen in the uplands. WHITE. 
 
 NOSE-FLY. About the beginning of July a species of fly 
 (mused) obtains, which proves very tormenting to horses, try- 
 ing still to enter their nostrils and ears, and actually laying 
 their eggs in the latter of those organs, or perhaps in both. 
 When these abound, horses in wood-land districts become very 
 impatient at their work, continually tossing their heads, and 
 rubbing their noses on each other, regardless of the driver, so 
 that accidents often ensue. In the heat of the day, men are 
 often obliged to desist from ploughing. Saddle-horses are. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES 361 
 
 also very troublesome at such seasons. Country-people call 
 this insect the nose-fly. WHITE. 
 
 Is not this insect the oestrus nasalis of Linnaeus, so well 
 described by Mr. Clark in the third volume of the " Linnsean 
 Transactions," under the name of oestrus veterinus ? MARK- 
 WICK. 
 
 ICHNEUMON FLY. I saw lately a small ichneumon fly 
 attack a spider much larger than itself on a grass-walk. 
 When the spider made any resistance, the ichneumon applied 
 her tail to him and stung him with great vehemence, so that 
 he soon became dead and motionless. The ichneumon then 
 running backward drew her prey very nimbly over the walk 
 into the standing grass. This spider would be deposited in 
 some hole where the ichneumon would lay some eggs ; and 
 as soon as the eggs were hatched, the carcass would afford 
 ready food for the maggots. 
 
 Perhaps some eggs might be injected into the body of the 
 spider, in the act of stinging. Some ichneumons deposit their 
 eggs in the aurelia of moths and butterflies. WHITE. 
 
 In my "Naturalist's Calendar" for 1795, July 2ist, I find 
 the following note : 
 
 It is not uncommon for some of the species of ichneumon 
 flies to deposit their eggs in the chrysalis of a butterfly ; some 
 time ago I put two of the chrysalises of a butterfly into a box, 
 and covered it with gauze, to discover what species of butter- 
 fly they would produce; but instead of a butterfly, one of them 
 produced a number of small ichneumon flies. 
 
 There are many instances of the great service these little 
 insects are to mankind in reducing the number of noxious 
 insects, by depositing their eggs in the soft bodies of their 
 larvae ; but none more remarkable than that of the ichneumon 
 tipulce, which pierces the tender bodies and deposits its eggs 
 in the larva of the tipula tritici, an insect which, when it 
 abounds greatly, is very prejudicial to the grains of wheat. 
 This operation I have frequently seen it perform with wonder 
 and delight. MARKWICK. 
 
362 WHITE 
 
 BOMBYLIUS MEDIUS. The bombylius medius is much about 
 in March and the beginning of April, and soon seems to retire. 
 It is a hairy insect, like a bumble-bee, but with only two wings, 
 and a long straight beak, with which it sucks the early flowers. 
 The female seems to lay its eggs as it poises on its wings, by 
 striking its tail on the ground, and against the grass that 
 stands in its way, in a quick manner, for several times 
 together. WHITE. 
 
 I have often seen this insect fly with great velocity, stop on 
 a sudden, hang in the air in a stationary position for some 
 time, and then fly off again ; but do not recollect having ever 
 seen it strike its tail against the ground, or any other sub- 
 stance. MARKWICK. 
 
 MUSC.E ; FLIES. In the decline of the year, when the 
 mornings and evenings become chilly, many species of flies 
 (muscce) retire into houses, and swarm in the windows. 
 
 At first they are very brisk and alert ; but as they grow 
 more torpid, one cannot help observing that they move with 
 difficulty, and are scarce able to lift their legs, which seem 
 as if glued to the glass ; and by degrees many do actually 
 stick on till they die in the place. 
 
 It has been observed that divers flies, besides their sharp 
 hooked nails, have also skinny palms, or flaps to their feet, 
 whereby they are enabled to stick on the glass and other 
 smooth bodies, and to walk on ceilings with their backs down- 
 ward, by means of the pressure of the atmosphere on those 
 flaps; the weight of which they easily overcome in warm 
 weather, when they are brisk and alert. But in the decline 
 of the year, this resistance becomes too mighty for their 
 diminished strength; and we see flies laboring along, and 
 lugging their feet in windows as if they stuck to the glass, 
 and it is with the utmost difficulty they can draw one foot 
 after another, and disengage their hollow caps from the slip- 
 pery surface. 
 
 Upon the same principle that flies stick and support them- 
 selves, do boys, by way of play, carry heavy weights by only 
 a piece of wet leather at the end of a string clapped close on 
 the surface of a stone. WHITE. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES 363 
 
 TIPUL^E, OR EMPEDES. May. Millions of empedes or 
 tipulce come forth at the close of day, and swarm to such a 
 degree as to fill the air. At this juncture they sport and cop- 
 ulate ; as it grows more dark they retire. All day they hide 
 in the hedges. As they rise in a cloud they appear like 
 smoke. 
 
 I do not remember to have seen such swarms, except in the 
 fens of the Isle of Ely. They appear most over grass grounds. 
 WHITE. 
 
 APHIDES. On the i st August, about half an hour after three 
 in the afternoon, the people of Selborne were surprised by a 
 shower of aphides which fell in these parts. They who were 
 walking in the streets at that time found themselves covered 
 with these insects, which settled also on the trees and gardens, 
 and blackened all the vegetables where they alighted. These 
 armies, no doubt, were then in a state of emigration, and shift- 
 ing their quarters ; and might perhaps come from the great 
 hop-plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being that day at 
 north. They were observed at the same time at Farnham, and 
 all along the vale to Alton. WHITE. 
 
 ANTS. August 23rd. Every ant-hill about this time is a 
 strange hurry and confusion ; and all the winged ants, agitated 
 by some violent impulse, are leaving their homes, and, bent 
 on emigration, swarm by myriads in the air, to the great emolu- 
 ment of the hirundines, which fare luxuriously. Those that 
 escape the swallows return no more to their nests, but looking 
 out for fresh settlements, lay a foundation for future colonies. 
 All the females at this time are pregnant; the males that escape 
 being eaten, wander away and die. 
 
 October 2nd. Flying-ants, male and female, usually swarm 
 and migrate on hot sunny days in August and September: but 
 this day a vast emigration took place in my garden, and myriads 
 came forth, in appearance from the drain which goes under 
 the fruit wall, filling the air and the adjoining trees and shrubs 
 with their numbers. The females were full of eggs. This 
 late swarming is probably owing to the backward wet season. 
 The day following, not one flying-ant was to be seen. 
 
 Horse-ants travel home to their nests laden with flies which 
 
364 WHITE 
 
 they have caught, and the aureliae of smaller ants, which they 
 seize by violence. WHITE. 
 
 In my "Naturalist's Calendar" for the year 1777, on Sep- 
 tember 6th, I find the following note to the article Flying Ants. 
 
 I saw a prodigious swarm of these ants flying about the top 
 of some tall elm-trees (close by my house) ; some were continu- 
 ally dropping to the ground, as if from the trees, and others 
 rising up from the ground; many of them were joined together 
 in copulation ; and I imagine their life is but short, for as soon 
 as produced from the egg by the heat of the sun, they propa- 
 gate their species, and soon after perish. They were black, 
 somewhat like the small black ant, and had four wings. I saw 
 also, at another place, a large sort, which were yellowish. On 
 the 8th September, 1785, I again observed the same circum- 
 stance of a vast number of these insects flying near the tops 
 of the elms and dropping to the ground. 
 
 On the 2nd March, 1777, I saw great numbers of ants come 
 out of the ground. MARKWICK. 
 
 GLOWWORMS. By observing two glowworms which were 
 brought from the field to the bank in the garden, it appeared 
 to us that these little creatures put out their lamps between 
 eleven and twelve, and shine no more for the rest of the 
 night. 
 
 Little glowworms, attracted by the light of the candles, 
 come into the parlor. WHITE. 
 
 EARTHWORMS. Earthworms make their casts most in 
 mild weather, about March and April ; they do not lie torpid 
 in winter, but come forth when there is no frost ; they travel 
 about in rainy nights, as appears from their sinuous tracks on 
 the soft muddy soil, perhaps in search of food. 
 
 When earthworms lie out a-nights on the turf, though they 
 extend their bodies a great way, they do not leave their holes, 
 but keep the ends of their tails fixed therein, so that on the 
 least alarm they can retire with precipitation under the earth. 
 Whatever food falls within their reach when thus extended, 
 they seem to be content with, such as blades of grass, straws, 
 fallen leaves, the ends of which they often draw into their 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES 365 
 
 holes ; even in copulation their hinder parts never quit their 
 holes ; so that no two, except they lie within reach of each 
 other's bodies, can have any commerce of that kind ; but as 
 every individual is an hermaphrodite, there is no difficulty in 
 meeting with a mate, as would be the case were they of dif- 
 ferent sexes. WHITE. 
 
 SNAILS AND SLUGS. The shell-less snails called slugs are 
 in motion all the winter in mild weather, and commit great 
 depredations on garden plants, and much injure the green 
 wheat, the loss of which is imputed to earthworms ; while the 
 shelled snail, the fapeoi/cos, does not come forth at all till about 
 April loth, and not only lays itself up pretty early in autumn, 
 in places secure from frost, but also throws out round the 
 mouth of its shell a thick operculum formed from its own 
 saliva; so that it is perfectly secured and corked up, as it 
 were, from all inclemencies. The cause why the slugs are 
 able to endure the cold so much better than shell-snails is, 
 that their bodies are covered with slime, as whales are with 
 blubber. 
 
 Snails copulate about midsummer ; and soon after deposit 
 their eggs in the mould by running their heads and bodies 
 under ground. Hence the way to be rid of them is to kill as 
 many as possible before they begin to breed. 
 
 Large, gray, shell-less cellar-snails lay themselves up about 
 the same time with those that live abroad ; hence it is plain 
 that a defect of warmth is not the only cause that influences 
 their retreat. WHITE. 
 
 SNAKE'S SLOUGH. 
 
 " . . " There the snake throws her enamelled skin." 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Mids. Nights Dream. 
 
 About the middle of this month (September) we found in a 
 field near a hedge the slough of a large snake, which seemed 
 to have been newly cast. From circumstances it appeared as 
 if turned wrong side outward, and as drawn off backward, like 
 a stocking or woman's glove. Not only the whole skin, but 
 scales from the very eyes are peeled off, and appear in the 
 head of the slough like a pair of spectacles. The reptile, at 
 
366 WHITE 
 
 the time of changing his coat, had entangled himself intricately 
 in the grass and weeds, so that the friction of the stalks and 
 blades might promote this curious shifting of his exuviae. 
 
 . . . " Lubrica serpens 
 Exuit in spinis vestem." LUCRET. 
 
 It would be a most entertaining sight could a person be an 
 eye-witness to such a feat, and see the snake in the act of 
 changing his garment. As the convexity of the scales of the 
 eyes in the slough is now inward, that circumstance alone is 
 a proof that the skin has been turned; not to mention that 
 now the present inside is much darker than the outer. If you 
 look through the scales of the snake's eyes from the concave 
 side, viz., as the reptile used them, they lessen objects much. 
 Thus it appears from what has been said, that snakes crawl 
 out of the mouth of their own sloughs, and quit the tail part 
 last, just as eels are skinned by a cook maid. While the scales 
 of the eyes are growing loose, and a new skin is forming, the 
 creature in appearance must be blind, and feel itself in an 
 awkward, uneasy situation. WHITE. 
 
 I have seen many sloughs or skins of snakes entire, after 
 they have cast them off ; and once in particular I remember 
 to have found one of these sloughs so intricately interwoven 
 amongst some brakes that it was with difficulty removed with- 
 out being broken ; this undoubtedly was done by the creature 
 to assist in getting rid of its encumbrance. 
 
 I have great reason to suppose that the eft, or common lizard, 
 also casts its skin or slough, but not entire like the snake ; for 
 on the 3Oth March, 1777, I saw one with something ragged 
 hanging to it, which appeared to be part of its old skin. 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 The ivy is haunted at night by swarms of moths and other insects. I 
 have seen an ivy bush, on a warm summer night, literally moving with the 
 number of moths which were feeding on it. The eyes of the larger ones 
 glowed like sparks of fire. G. C. D. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES 
 
 TREES, ORDER OF LOSING THEIR LEAVES. One of the 
 first trees that becomes naked is the walnut ; the mulberry, 
 the ash, especially if it bears many keys, and the horse- 
 chestnut come next. All lopped trees, while their heads are 
 young, carry their leaves a long while. Apple-trees and 
 peaches remain green very late, often till the end of Novem- 
 ber: young beeches never cast their leaves till spring, till 
 the new leaves sprout and push them off ; in the autumn the 
 beechen leaves turn of a deep chestnut color. Tall beeches 
 cast their leaves about the end of October. WHITE. 
 
 SIZE AND GROWTH. Mr. Mar sham of Stratton, near Nor- 
 wich, informs me by letter thus : " I became a planter early ; 
 so that an oak which I planted in 1 720 is become now, at one 
 foot from the earth, twelve feet six inches in circumference, 
 and at fourteen feet (the half of the timber length) is eight 
 feet two inches. So if the bark was to be measured as timber, 
 the tree gives i i6J feet, buyer's measure. Perhaps you never 
 heard of a larger oak while the planter was living. I flatter 
 myself that I increased the growth by washing the stem, and 
 digging a circle as far as I supposed the roots to extend, and 
 by spreading sawdust, etc., as related in the " Phil. Trans." I 
 wish I had begun with beeches (my favorite trees as well as 
 yours); I might then have seen very large trees of my own 
 raising. But I did not begin with beech till 1741, and then by 
 seed ; so that my largest is now, at five feet from the ground, 
 six feet three inches in girth, and with its head spreads a cir- 
 cle of twenty yards' diameter. This tree was also dug round, 
 washed, etc." Stratton, July 24^, 1790. 
 
 The circumference of trees planted by myself, at one foot 
 from the ground ( 1 790) : 
 
 Oak in 
 
 I73O 
 
 A ft 
 
 Sin. 
 
 Ash 
 
 I71Q 
 
 4. 
 
 M* 
 
 64 
 
 Great fir 
 
 I7CI 
 
 
 o 
 
 Greatest beech 
 
 I7CT 
 
 
 o 
 
 Elm 
 
 I7CO 
 
 I 
 
 7 
 
 Lime 
 
 I7?6 
 
 1 
 
 ( 
 
368 WHITE 
 
 The great oak in the Holt, which is deemed by Mr. Marsham 
 to be the biggest in this island, at seven feet from the ground, 
 measures in circumference thirty-four feet. It has in old 
 times lost several of its boughs, and is tending to decay. 
 Mr. Marsham computes, that at fourteen feet length this oak 
 contains 1000 feet of timber. 
 
 It has been the received opinion that trees grow in height 
 only by their annual upper shoot. But my neighbor over the 
 way, whose occupation confines him to one spot, assures me 
 that trees are expanded and raised in the lower parts also. 
 The reason that he gives is this : the point of one of my firs 
 began for the first time to peep over an opposite roof at the 
 beginning of summer; but before the growing season was 
 over, the whole shoot of the year, and three or four joints of 
 the body beside, became visible to him as he sits on his form 
 in his shop. According to this supposition, a tree may ad- 
 vance in height considerably, though the summer shoot should 
 be destroyed every year. WHITE. 
 
 FLOWING OF SAP. If the bough of a vine is cut late in 
 the spring, just before the shoots push out, it will bleed con- 
 siderably ; but after the leaf is cut, any part may be taken off 
 without the least inconvenience. So oaks may be barked 
 while the leaf is budding ; but as soon as they are expanded, 
 the bark will no longer part from the wood, because the sap 
 that lubricates the bark and makes it part, is evaporated off 
 through the leaves. WHITE. 
 
 RENOVATION OF LEAVES. When oaks are quite stripped 
 of their leaves by chaffers, they are clothed again soon after 
 midsummer with a beautiful foliage ; but beeches, horse- 
 chestnuts, and maples, once defaced by those insects, never 
 recover their beauty again for the whole season. WHITE. 
 
 ASH-TREES. Many ash-trees bear loads of keys every 
 year, others never seem to bear any at all. The prolific ones 
 are naked of leaves and unsightly; those that are sterile 
 abound in foliage, and carry their verdure a long while, and 
 are pleasing objects. WHITE. 
 
 BEECH. Beeches love to grow in crowded situations, and 
 will insinuate themselves through the thickest covert, so as to 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES 369 
 
 surmount it all : are therefore proper to mend thin places in 
 tall hedges. WHITE. 
 
 SYCAMORE. May I2th. The sycamore or great maple 
 is in bloom, and at this season makes a beautiful appearance, 
 and affords much pabulum for bees, smelling strongly like 
 honey. The foliage of this tree is very fine and very orna- 
 mental to outlets. All the maples have saccharine juices. 
 WHITE. 
 
 GALLS OF LOMBARDY POPLAR. The stalks and ribs of 
 the leaves of the Lombardy poplar are embossed with large 
 tumors of an oblong shape, which by incurious observers 
 have been taken for the fruit of the tree. These galls are 
 full of small insects, some of which are winged, and some 
 not. The parent insect is of the genus of cynips. Some 
 poplars in the garden are quite loaded with these excres- 
 cences. WHITE. 
 
 CHESTNUT TIMBER. John Carpenter brings home some old 
 chestnut-trees which are very long ; in several places the wood- 
 peckers had begun to bore them. The timber and bark of 
 these trees are so very like oak, as might easily deceive an 
 indifferent observer, but the wood is very shaky, and towards 
 the heart cup-shaky (that is to say, apt to separate in round 
 pieces like cups), so that the inward parts are of no use. 
 They are bought for the purpose of cooperage, but must make 
 but ordinary barrels, buckets, etc. Chestnut sells for half the 
 price of oak; but has sometimes been sent into the king's 
 docks and passed off instead of oak. WHITE. 
 
 LIME BLOSSOMS. Dr. Chandler tells that in the south of 
 France an infusion of the blossoms of the lime-tree, tilia, is 
 in much esteem as a remedy for coughs, hoarsenesses, fevers, 
 etc., and that at Nismes he saw an avenue of limes that was 
 quite ravaged and torn to pieces by people greedily gathering 
 the bloom, which they dried and kept for these purposes. 
 
 Upon the strength of this information we made some tea of 
 lime blossoms, and found it a very soft, well-flavored, pleas- 
 ant, saccharine julep, in taste much resembling the juice of 
 licorice. WHITE. 
 25 
 
3/0 WHITE 
 
 BLACKTHORN. This tree usually blossoms while cold north- 
 east winds blow ; so that the harsh rugged weather obtaining 
 at this season is called by the country-people blackthorn 
 winter. WHITE. 
 
 IVY BERRIES. Ivy berries form a noble and providential 
 supply for birds in winter and spring ; for the first severe frost 
 freezes and spoils all the haws, sometimes by the middle of 
 November ; ivy berries do not seem to freeze. WHITE. 
 
 HOPS. The culture of Virgil's vines corresponds very 
 exactly with the modern management of hops. I might in- 
 stance in the perpetual diggings and hoeings, in the tying to 
 the stakes and poles, in pruning the superfluous shoots, etc., 
 but lately I have observed a new circumstance, which was 
 a neighboring farmer's harrowing between the rows of hops 
 with a small triangular harrow, drawn by one horse, and 
 guided by two handles. This occurrence brought to my 
 mind the following passage : 
 
 . . . "ipsa 
 Flectere luctantes inter vineta juvencos." GEORG. 
 
 Hops are dioecious plants ; hence perhaps it might be proper, 
 though not practised, to leave purposely some male plants in 
 every garden, that their farina might impregnate the blossoms. 
 The female plants without their male attendants are not in 
 their natural state : hence we may suppose the frequent fail- 
 ure of crop so incident to hop grounds ; no other growth, cul- 
 tivated by man, has such frequent and general failures as hops. 
 
 Two hop gardens much injured by a hail-storm, June 5th, 
 show now (September 2nd) a prodigious crop, and larger and 
 fairer hops than any in the parish. The owners seem now to 
 be convinced that the hail, by beating off the tops of the binds, 
 has increased the side-shoots, and improved the crop. Query. 
 Therefore should not the tops of hops be pinched off when 
 the binds are very gross and strong ? WHITE. 
 
 SEED LYING DORMANT. The naked part of the Hanger 
 is now covered with thistles of various kinds. The seeds of 
 these thistles may have lain probably under the thick shade 
 of the beeches for many years, but could not vegetate till the 
 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES 
 
 sun and air were admitted. When old beech-trees are cleared 
 away, the naked ground in a year or two becomes covered 
 with strawberry plants, the seeds of which must have lain in 
 the ground for an age at least. One of the slidders or trenches 
 down the middle of the Hanger, close covered over with lofty 
 beeches near a century old, is still called "strawberry slidder," 
 though no strawberries have grown there in the memory of 
 man. That sort of fruit did once, no doubt, abound there, 
 and will again when the obstruction is removed. WHITE. 
 
 BEANS SOWN BY BIRDS. Many horse-beans sprang up in 
 my field-walks in the autumn, and are now grown to a consid- 
 erable height. As the Ewel was in beans last summer, it is 
 most likely that these seeds came from thence ; but then the 
 distance is too considerable for them to have been conveyed 
 by mice. It is most probable, therefore, that they were brought 
 by birds, and in particular by jays and pies, who seem to have 
 hid them among the grass and moss, and then to have forgotten 
 where they had stowed them. Some peas are growing also 
 in the same situation, and probably under the same circum- 
 stances. WHITE. 
 
 CUCUMBERS SET BY BEES. If bees, who are much the best 
 setters of cucumbers, do not happen to take kindly to the 
 frames, the best way is to tempt them by a little honey put 
 on the male and female bloom. When they are once induced 
 to haunt the frames, they set all the fruit, and will hover with 
 impatience round the lights in a morning till the glasses are 
 opened. Probatum est. WHITE. 
 
 WHEAT. A notion has always obtained that in England 
 hot summers are productive of fine crops of wheat ; yet in the 
 years 1780 and 1781, though the heat was intense, the wheat 
 was much mildewed and the crop light. Does not severe 
 heat, while the straw is milky, occasion its juices to exude, 
 which, being extravasated, occasion spots, discolor the stems 
 and blades, and injure the health of the plants ? WHITE. 
 
 TRUFFLES. August. A truffle-hunter called on us, hav- 
 ing in his pocket several large truffles found in this neighbor- 
 hood. He says these roots are not to be found in deep woods, 
 
372 WHITE 
 
 but in narrow hedgerows and the skirts of coppices. Some 
 truffles, he informed us, lie two feet within the earth, and some, 
 quite on the surface; the latter, he added, have little or no 
 smell, and are not so easily discovered by the dogs as those 
 that lie deeper. Half a crown a pound was the price which 
 he asked for this commodity. Truffles never abound in wet 
 winters and springs. They are in season, in different situ- 
 ations, at least nine months in the year. WHITE. 
 
 TREMELL A NOSTOC. Though the weather may have been 
 ever so dry and burning, yet after two or three wet days this 
 jelly-like substance abounds on the walks. WHITE. 
 
 FAIRY RINGS. The cause, occasion, call it what you will, 
 of fairy rings, subsists in the turf, and is conveyable with it : l 
 for the turf of my garden-walks, brought from the down above, 
 abounds with those appearances, which vary their shape and 
 shift situation continually, discovering themselves now in circles, 
 now in segments, and sometimes in irregular patches and spots. 
 Wherever they obtain, puffballs abound, the seeds of which 
 were doubtless brought in the turf. WHITE. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 1 Fairy rings are caused by certain fungi which throw their seeds out- 
 wards, so that a gradually increasing circle is formed of greener and brighter 
 vegetation. G. C. D. 
 
 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 
 
 BAROMETER. November 22nd, 1768. A remarkable fall 
 of the barometer all over the kingdom. At Selborne we had 
 no wind, and not much rain ; only vast, swagging, rock-like 
 clouds appeared at a distance. WHITE. 
 
 PARTIAL FROST. The country-people, who are abroad in 
 winter mornings long before sunrise, talk much of hard frosts 
 in some spots, and none in others. The reason of these par- 
 tial frosts is obvious, for there are at such times partial fogs 
 about ; where the fog obtains, little or no frost appears ; but 
 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 373 
 
 where the air is clear, there it freezes hard. So the frost 
 takes place either on hill or in dale, wherever the air happens 
 to be clearest and freest from vapor. WHITE. 
 
 THAW. Thaws are sometimes surprisingly quick, consid- 
 ering the small quantity of rain. Does not the warmth at 
 such times come from below ? The cold in still severe sea- 
 sons seems to come down from above; for the coming over 
 of a cloud in severe nights raises the thermometer abroad at 
 once full ten degrees. The first notices of thaws often seem 
 to appear in vaults, cellars, etc. 
 
 If a frost happens, even when the ground is considerably 
 dry, as soon as a thaw takes place, the paths and fields are 
 all in a batter. Country-people say that the frost draws moist- 
 ure. But the true philosophy is, that the steam and vapors 
 continually ascending from the earth are bound in by the 
 frost, and not suffered to escape till released by the thaw. 
 No wonder then that the surface is all in a float ; since the 
 quantity of moisture by evaporation that arises daily from 
 every acre of ground is astonishing. WHITE. 
 
 FROZEN SLEET. January 2Oth. Mr. H.'s man says that 
 he caught this day in a lane near Hackwood Park many rooks, 
 which, attempting to fly, fell from the trees with their wings 
 frozen together by the sleet, that froze as it fell. There were, 
 he affirms, many dozen so disabled. WHITE. 
 
 MIST, CALLED LONDON SMOKE. This is a blue mist which 
 has somewhat the smell of coal smoke, and as it always comes 
 to us with a north-east wind, is supposed to come from London. 
 It has a strong smell, and is supposed to occasion blights. 
 When such mists appear they are usually followed by dry 
 weather. WHITE. 
 
 REFLECTION OF FOG. When people walk in a deep white 
 fog by night with a lantern, if they will turn their backs to 
 the light, they will see their shades impressed on the fog in rude 
 gigantic proportions. This phenomenon seems not to have 
 been attended to, but implies the great density of the meteor 
 at that juncture. WHITE. 
 
 HONEY-DEW. June 4th, 1783. Fast honey-dews this 
 
374 WHITE 
 
 week. The reason of these seems to be that in hot days the 
 effluvia of flowers are drawn up by a brisk evaporation, and 
 then in the night fall down with the dews with which they 
 are entangled. 
 
 This clammy substance is very grateful to bees, who gather 
 it with great assiduity, but it is injurious to the trees on which 
 it happens to fall, by stopping the pores of the leaves. The 
 greatest quantity falls in still close weather ; because winds 
 disperse it, and copious dews dilute it, and prevent its ill effects. 
 It falls mostly in hazy warm weather. WHITE. 
 
 MORNING CLOUDS. After a bright night and vast dew, 
 the sky usually becomes cloudy by eleven or twelve o'clock 
 in the forenoon, and clear again towards the decline of the 
 day. The reason seems to be that the dew, drawn up by 
 evaporation, occasions the clouds; which, towards evening, 
 being no longer rendered buoyant by the warmth of the sun, 
 melt away, and fall down again in dews. If clouds are watched 
 in a still warm evening, they will be seen to melt away and 
 disappear. WHITE. 
 
 DRIPPING WEATHER AFTER DROUGHT. No one that has 
 not attended to such matters, and taken down remarks, can 
 be aware how much ten days' dripping weather will influence 
 the growth of grass or corn after a severe dry season. This 
 present summer, 1 776, yielded a remarkable instance : for till 
 the 30th May the fields were burnt up and naked, and the 
 barley not half out of the ground ; but now, June loth, there 
 is an agreeable prospect of plenty. WHITE. 
 
 AURORA BOREALIS. November ist, 1787. The north au- 
 rora made a particular appearance, forming itself into a broad, 
 red, fiery belt, which extended from east to west across the 
 welkin : but the moon rising at about ten o'clock in unclouded 
 majesty, in the east, put an end to this grand but awful 
 meteorous phenomenon. WHITE. 
 
 BLACK SPRING, 1771. Dr. Johnson says that "in 1771 
 the season was so severe in the island of Skye, that it is remem- 
 bered by the name of the 'black spring.' The snow, which 
 seldom lies at all, covered the ground for eight weeks, many 
 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 375 
 
 cattle died, and those that survived were so emaciated that 
 they did not require the male at the usual season." The case 
 was just the same with us here in the south; never were so 
 many barren cows known as in the spring following that dread- 
 ful period. Whole dairies missed being in calf together. 
 
 At the end of March the face of the earth was naked to a 
 surprising degree. Wheat hardly to be seen, and no signs of 
 any grass ; turnips all gone, and sheep in a starving way. All 
 provisions rising in price. Farmers cannot sow for want of 
 rain. WHITE. 
 
 ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY, WARM WEATHER 
 
 OCCASIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS 
 
 Th' imprisoned winds slumber within their caves 
 Fast bound : the fickle vane, emblem of change, 
 Wavers no more, long-settling to a point. 
 
 All nature nodding seems composed : thick steams 
 From land, from flood up-drawn, dimming the day, 
 " Like a dark ceiling stand : " slow thro' the air 
 Gossamer floats, or stretched from blade to blade 
 The wavy net-work whitens all the field. 
 
 Pushed by the weightier atmosphere, up springs 
 The ponderous Mercury, from scale to scale 
 Mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube. 1 
 
 While high in air, and poised upon his wings 
 Unseen, the soft, enamored wood-lark runs 
 Thro' all his maze of melody ; the brake 
 Loud with the blackbird's bolder note resounds. 
 
 Soothed by the genial warmth, the cawing rook 
 Anticipates the spring, selects her mate, 
 Haunts her tall nest-trees, and with sedulous care 
 Repairs her wicker eyry, tempest torn. 
 
 The ploughman inly smiles to see upturn 
 His mellow glebe, best pledge of future crop : 
 
3/6 WHITE 
 
 With glee the gardener eyes his smoking beds : 
 E'en pining sickness feels a short relief. 
 
 The happy school-boy brings transported forth 
 His long-forgotten scourge, and giddy gig : 
 O'er the white paths he whirls the rolling hoop, 
 Or triumphs in the dusty fields of taw. 
 
 Not so the museful sage : abroad he walks 
 Contemplative, if haply he may find 
 What cause controls the tempest's rage, or whence 
 Amidst the savage season winter smiles. 
 
 For days, for weeks, prevails the placid calm. 
 At length some drops prelude a change : the sun 
 With ray refracted bursts the parting gloom ; 
 When all the chequered sky is one bright glare. 
 
 Mutters the wind at eve : th' horizon round 
 With angry aspect scowls : down rush the showers, 
 And float the deluged paths, and miry fields. 
 
 NOTE 
 1 The barometer. G. W. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Affection of birds for young, 7, 124, 
 
 Ants, 363. 
 
 Aphides, 213, 316. 
 
 Ash, 368. See also Pollard-ash and 
 
 Shrew-ash. 
 Auk, 83. 
 Aurora borealis, 374. 
 
 Barn-owl. See Owl. 
 
 Barometer, 372. 
 
 Bat, habit of feeding, 29, 65, 178 ; size, 
 
 79- 
 
 Bean, sown by birds, 371. 
 
 Bean's pond, 20. 
 
 Beaufort, Bishop, 290. 
 
 Bees, deafness of, 182 ; humming of, 
 355 ; wild, 359; set cucumbers, 371. 
 
 Birds, celibacy of, 70 ; migration of, 
 115, 136, 331 ; congregation of, 121 ; 
 flight of, 191 ; note of, 193 ; nests 
 of, 217 ; food of, 331 ; of passage, 
 smaller, 41 ; summer, 95 ; winter, 
 97 ; singing , night, 98 ; summer, 
 loo ; spring, 100 ; early breeding , 
 102 ; soft-billed , 33, 36, 72, 88 ; 
 non-migratory , 97; long-billed 
 , 107 ; night-flying -, 223. See 
 also under names of species. 
 
 Black cap, migration of, 26 ; song of, 
 87. 
 
 Black spring, 374. 
 
 Blackthorn, 370. 
 
 Blowfly. See Fly. 
 
 Bombylius medius, 362. 
 
 Brimstone lodge, 19. 
 
 Bulfinch, 38, 83. 
 
 Bunting, 35. 
 Bustard, 102. 
 
 Butcher bird, food of, 50 ; variety of, 
 82. 
 
 Canons of Selborne priory, 283, 285. 
 
 Carp, 86. 
 
 Cat, 352. 
 
 Chaffers, 355. 
 
 Chaffinches, 34, 113. 
 
 Chapel field, 267. 
 
 Chestnut timber, 369. 
 
 Chinese dog, 221. 
 
 Church, of Selborne, 245, 250 ; yard, 
 
 251. 
 
 Cimex linearis, 357. 
 Clouds, morning, 374. 
 Cobweb, 155. 
 Coccus vitis viniferae, 211. 
 Cockroach, 356. 
 Cock's comb, 8. 
 Coins, 241. 
 Coot, 192. 
 
 Cornua ammonis, 8. 
 Crane, flight of, 192 ; note of, 193. 
 Cricket, field , 200 ; house , 203, 
 
 356 ; mole , 204. 
 Crossbill, 28. 
 Crow, in pairs, 82 ; note of, 193 ; flight 
 
 of, 191 ; gray , see Royston. 
 Cuckoo, nest of, 104; eggs of, 105, 
 
 107, in ; note of, 118 ; anatomy of, 
 
 168. 
 
 Cuckoo-pint, 39. 
 Cucumbers, 371. 
 Curlew, 65. See also Stone-curlew. 
 
 377 
 
378 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 Daw, breeding place, 52 ; flight of, 
 
 191. 
 
 Dogs, 221. See also Chinese Dog. 
 Dove, ring , food of, 339. See also 
 
 Pigeon. 
 
 Dripping weather after drought, 374. 
 Duck, note of, 193 ; wild , note of, 
 
 193. 
 
 Eagle, 193. 
 Echo, 180, 224. 
 Elm, 6. 
 Empedes, 363. 
 
 Fair of Selborne, 326. 
 
 Fairy-rings, 392. 
 
 Falco, 28. 
 
 Falcon, peregrine, 219. 
 
 Fallow deer, 37. 
 
 Fernchafer, 86. 
 
 Fern-owl. See Goatsucker. 
 
 Fieldfare, breeding of, 63 ; roosting 
 
 place of, 66 ; migration of, 1 14 ; 
 
 nidification of, 114. 
 Field mouse. See Mouse. 
 Fish of Selborne, 29. See also under 
 
 under names of species. 
 Flycatcher, 26, 87. 
 Fly, 362 ; blow , 76 ; ichneumon , 
 
 361 ; May , 358 ; nose , 360 ; 
 
 side , 129 ; turnip , 77. 
 Fog, effect of, 237 ; reflection of, 373. 
 Food, influence of, on color, 38, 83. 
 Fossils of Selborne, 8 ; wood, 223. 
 Freestone, 9. 
 
 Frog, breeding of, 43 ; growth of, 44. 
 Frost, effect of, 107, 226, 232 ; origin 
 
 of, 228 ; partial, 372. 
 
 Geography of Selborne, I. 
 Geology of Selborne, 4. 
 Glow-worm. See Worm. 
 Goatsucker, history of, 55 ; flight of, 
 
 192 ; food of, 79, 344 ; anatomy of, 
 
 169 ; note of, 193. 
 
 Goldfish, 213. 
 
 Goose, flight of, 192 ; note of, 193. 
 Grange, the, 325. 
 Grasshopper-lark, 84. 
 Grasshopper warbler, 26. 
 Grossbeak, 28 ; food of, 351. 
 Gurdon, Adam, 264, 268. 
 
 Hanger, i. 
 
 Harvest-bug, 76. 
 
 Hawk, note of, 193 ; sparrow , habi- 
 tat of, 85 ; food of, 91 ; ringtail , 
 169 ; blue , see Hen-harrier. 
 
 Heat, 235. 
 
 Hedge-hog, 66. 
 
 Heliotrope, 196. 
 
 Hellebore, 88. 
 
 Hen-harrier, 85, 340. 
 
 Heron, 191. 
 
 Himantopus, 206. 
 
 Hippoboscae hirundinis, 129. 
 
 Hirundo, characteristics of, 128 ; mi- 
 gration of, 153 ; hyberna, 73 ; mel- 
 ba, 75. See also Martin, Swallow, 
 and Swift. 
 
 Hog, 171. 
 
 Holt, the, 23. 
 
 Honey-buzzard, 91. 
 
 Honey-dew, 235, 373. 
 
 Hoopoe, 28. 
 
 Hops, 370. 
 
 Horse, 353. 
 
 House-martin. See Martin. 
 
 Ichneumon-fly. See Fly. 
 Insects, 354. 
 Ivy-berries, 370. 
 
 Jay, 191. 
 
 Kestrel, 191. 
 Kingfisher, 191. 
 Kite, 191. 
 
 Knights Templars, 273. 
 
INDEX 
 
 379 
 
 Lakes in Wolmer forest, 21. 
 Land-rail, 337. 
 Lanes, geology of, n. 
 Lapwing, 83. 
 Lime-blossoms, 369. 
 Linnet, 35. 
 Lizard, 51, 54. 
 Loach, 47. 
 Loon, 341. 
 
 Magpie, 191. 
 
 Martin, first brood, 25 ; house , mi- 
 gration of, 29, 80, 209, 215 ; young 
 of, 73 ; history of, 129, 131 ; Sand 
 , history of, 143 ; hibernation of, 
 347 ; black , see Swift. 
 
 May-fly. See Fly. 
 
 Missel-bird, 82. 
 
 Missel- thrush, 154. 
 
 Mist, 373. 
 
 Moor-hen, 192. 
 
 Moose, 68, 71. 
 
 Mouse, field , size of, 31 ; nest of, 
 31 ; weight of, 36 ; hybernaculum 
 of, 36, 126 : food of, 218. 
 
 Nautilus, 9. 
 
 Nidification, 154. 
 
 Nightingale, note of, 84 ; habitat of, 
 
 117. 
 
 Norton manor house, 326. 
 Nose-fly. See Fly. 
 Nut-hatch, note of, 42 ; food of, 218. 
 
 Oak, 6. 
 
 CEstrus curvicauda, 77, 360. 
 
 Osprey, 82. 
 
 Owl, note of, 118, 193 ; flight of, 191 ; 
 barn , 29 ; brown , food of, 29 ; 
 note of, 128 ; fern , see Goat- 
 sucker ; white , 126. 
 
 Paradise mede, 317. 
 Parish of Selborne, 12. 
 Parrot, 193. 
 
 Partridge, 336. 
 
 Peacock, 78. 
 
 Peregrine-falcon. See Falcon. 
 
 Pettichaps, 219. 
 
 Phalaena quercus, 308. 
 
 Pheasant, hybrid, 336. 
 
 Pigeon, drinking of, 86 ; flight of, 191 ; 
 note of, 193 ; wood , history of, 
 92, 118 ; house , history of, 92 ; 
 origin of, 93. 
 
 Plants, 189. 
 
 Plover, stilt , 206. 
 
 Pollard-ash, 164. 
 
 Poplar, 369. 
 
 Population of Selborne, 12. 
 
 Poultry, 334. 
 
 Priors of Selborne, method of choos- 
 ing, 280, 290 ; names of, 280, 290, 
 298, 300, 302, 304, 307, 308, 315, 
 
 Priory of Selborne, 259 ; grant of, 262 ; 
 
 * grants to, 268, 272, 275, 278 ; and 
 Knights Templars, 274 ; visitation 
 of, 283, 295 ; canons of, 285 ; Pope 
 and, 293 ; deserted, 310 ; gift of, 
 to college, 310 ; release of, 315 ; 
 privileges of, 319, 325, 326 ; decay 
 of, 323- 
 
 Pulveratrices, in. 
 
 Ptinus pectini cornis, 356. 
 
 Rabbits, 352. 
 
 Rag, blue , 10. 
 
 Rainfall, 12, 224. 
 
 Raven, flight of, 191 ; note of, 193. 
 
 Redbreast, 85, 103. 
 
 Redstart, 87. 
 
 Ring-ousel, rare, 50 ; size of, 50 ; mi- 
 gration of, 54, 63, 72, 81, 112 ; late 
 breeding of, 58 ; boldness of, 81. 
 
 Rook, flight of, 191 ; note of, 193 ; 
 roosting of, 223 ; nest of, 333 ; 
 white , 38. 
 
 Royston, 118. 
 
 Sand-martin. See Martin. 
 Sandpiper, 49. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
 
 Sandstone, 10. 
 
 Scallops, 9. 
 
 Sedge-bird, 61 ; song of, 83, 103. 
 
 Seed, dormant, 370. 
 
 Sex-migration, 113. 
 
 Sheep, species of, 135 ; effect of shear- 
 ing, 352. 
 
 Shrew-ash, 164. 
 
 Side-fly. See Fly. 
 
 Silk-tail, 32. 
 
 Skylark, 192. 
 
 Sleet, 373- 
 
 Snail, 365. 
 
 Snake, 365. 
 
 Snipe, breeding ground, 26 ; note of, 
 42, 83 ; flight of, 19 1. 
 
 Snow-fleck, 64. 
 
 Sociability of animals, 172. 
 
 Song, incubation and, 103. 
 
 Sparrow, house , 85 ; hedge , 88 ; 
 reed , 109 ; hawk, see Hawk. 
 
 Sphinx ocellata, 359. 
 
 Squirrel, 218. 
 
 Squnck, 62. 
 
 Starling, 192. 
 
 Stock-dove. See Wood Pigeon. 
 
 Stone-curlew, history of, 39 ; breed- 
 ing place of, 75 ; note of, 223 ; mi- 
 gration of, 343. 
 
 Swallow, hibernation of, 25, 123 ; his- 
 tory of, 123, 137, 192 ; note of, 193 ; 
 roosting place of, 33 ; migration of, 
 57, 61, 65, 70, 80, 82, 108, 116, 138, 
 176, 349 ; sex of, 83. 
 
 Swan, 84. 
 
 Swift, hybernation of, 25 ; history of, 
 147, 192, 210 ; late appearance of, 
 29, 210 ; migration of, 65 ; drinks 
 on wing, 83 ; pairing of, 185. 
 
 Sycamore, 369. 
 
 Temple, manor house of, 267 ; holding 
 
 of, 326. 
 
 Thaw, origin of, 228, 373. 
 Thrush, 39, 333. 
 Thunderstorm, 238. 
 
 Titlark, song of, 82, 104 ; breeding of, 
 
 103. 
 Titmouse, song of, 86 ; history of, 89 ; 
 
 species, 89. 
 Toad, breeding of, 43 ; venom of, 43 ; 
 
 cancer cure, 47. 
 Tortoise, hybernation of, 113, 137, 208 ; 
 
 history of, 327. 
 Trees, distillation of water by, 166 ; 
 
 losing leaves, 367 ; size of, 367 ; sap 
 
 of, 368 ; renovation of leaves of, 
 
 368. 
 
 Tremella nostoc, 372. 
 Truffles, 371. 
 Tunbridge, 318. 
 Turkey, 193. 
 Turnip-fly. See Fly. 
 
 Vicarage of Selborne, 254 ; house of, 
 
 252 ; revenue of, 255. 
 Vicars of Selborne, 255. 
 Viper, antidote for, 45. 
 
 Wagtails, non-migratory, 35 ; food of, 
 
 350. 
 
 Waldon lodge, 19. 
 Wasps, 235, 360. 
 Water-newt, 44; absence of gills of, 
 
 48. 
 
 Water-rat, 26 ; hybernaculum of, 65. 
 Waynflete, Bishop, 295. 
 Weasel, 85. 
 Whaddon chapel, 318. 
 Wheat, 371. 
 Wheat-ear, 35, 83, 136. 
 Whinchat, 83. 
 Whitethroat, history of, 83 ; flight of, 
 
 193- 
 
 Willow-wren, species of, 40, 49 ; his- 
 tory of, 41, 344. 
 
 Wren, 86, 103. 
 
 Wolmer forest, description of, 14 ; 
 limits of, 20 ; lakes in, 21 ; grant 
 of, 23, 269 ; soil of, 23 ; pond, 
 
 22. 
 Woodlark, 61, 192. 
 
INDEX 
 
 381 
 
 Woodcock, transportation of young, 
 
 73 ; migration of, 74, 114, 117. 
 Woodpecker, flight of, 191 ; note of, 
 
 193. 
 
 Worm, blind , 45 ; earth , 174, 
 364 ; glow , 60, 364. 
 
 Wryneck, 351. 
 
 Wykeham, Bishop, visit of, 282 ; gifts 
 of, 289. 
 
 Yew, Selborne , 252; poisonous, 
 253. 
 
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