 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how to volunteer, please contact LibriVox.org. Recording by Peter Yersley. The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White Readers note Within the following text, occasional names have been blanked out. In my reading I have replaced these with the word blank. End of Readers note. Invitation to Selborne Selborne spreads her boldest beauties round the varied valley and the mountain ground, wildly majestic. What is all the pride of flats with loads of ornaments supplied, pleasing, tasteless, impotent expense, compared with nature's rude magnificence? Arise, my stranger, to these wild scenes haste. The unfinished farm awaits your forming taste. Plan the pavilion airy, light and true. Through the high arch, call in the lengthening view. Expand the forest, sloping up the hill. Call to a lake the scant, pernurious rill. Extend the vista, raise the castle mound in antique taste with turrets ivy-crowned. O'er the gay lawn the flowery shrub disbred, O'er with the blending garden mix the mead. Bid China's pale, fantastic fence delight. O'er with the mimic's statue trap the sight. Left on some evening, sunny, soft and still, the muse shall lead thee to the beach-grown hill. To spend in tea the cool refreshing hour, where nods in air the pencil nest-like bower. O'er where the hermit hangs the straw-clad cell, emerging gently from the leafy dell, by fancy planned. As once the inventive maid met the horse-age the secret shade. Romantic spot, from wents in prospect, lies what air of landscape charms our feasting eyes. The pointed spire, the hall, the pasture plain, the russet fallow or the golden grain, the breezy lake that sheds a gleaming light till all the fading pictures fail the sight. Each to his task all different ways retire, cull a dry stick, call forth the seeds of fire, deep fix the kettle's props a forky row, or give with fanning-hat the breeze to blow. Wents is this taste the furnished hall forgot to feast in gardens or the unhandy grot, or novelty with some new charms of surprises, or from our very shifts some joy arises. Hark, while below the village bells ring round, echo, sweet nymph, returns a softened sound. But if gusts arise the rushing forests roar like the tide tumbling on the pebbly shore. A down the vale in lone sequestered nook where skirting woods in brown the dimpling brook the ruined convent lies. Here won't to dwell the lazy cannon midst his cloistered cell. While papal darkness brooded over the land air reformation made her glorious stand. Still oft at eve belated shepherd-swains see the cowled spectre skim the folded plains. To the high temple would my stranger go, the mountain-brow commands the woods below. In jewellery first this order found a name. When madding crusades set the world in flame, when western climes urged on by pope and priest poured forth their minions, or the deluged east. Luxurious nights, ill-suited to defy at a mortal fight, Turkestan chivalry. Nor be the parsonage by the muse forgot. The partial bard admires his native spot. Smit with its beauties, loved as yet a child. Unconscious why, its capes grotesquened wild, high on a mound, the exalted gardens stand, beneath deep valleys scooped by nature's hand. A cobbam here exalting in his art might blend the generals with the gardener's part, might fortify with all the martial trade of rampart bastion, fos, and palisade, might plant the mortar with wide threatening bore, or bid the mimic cannon seem to roar. Now climb the steep, drop now your eye, belong where round the blooming village orchards grow, there like a picture lies my lowly seat, a rural, sheltered, unobserved retreat. Me far above the rest, Selbornian scenes, the pendant forest and the mountain greens strike with delight. There spreads the distant view that gradual fades till sunk in misty blue. Here nature hangs her slopey woods to sight, rills pearl between, and dart a quivering light, Selborn hangar, a winter-piece to the miss bee. The bard who sang so late in blithest strain Selbornian prospects and the rural rain now suits his plaintive pipe to saddened tone, while the blank swains the changeful year bemoan. How fallen the glories of these fading scenes, the dusty beach resigns his vernal greens, the yellow maple mourns in sickly hue, and russet woodlands crowd the darkening view. Dim, clustering fogs, involve the country round, the valley and the blended mountain-ground sink in confusion, but with tempest-wing should bore us from his northern barrier spring, the rushing woods with deafening clamour roar, like the sea tumbling on the pebbly shore. When spouting rains descend in torrent tides, see the torn zigzag weep its channeled sides. Winter exerts its rage, heavy and slow from the keen east rolls on the treasured snow, like with its weight the bending boughs are seen, and one bright deluge whelms the works of men. Amidst this savage landscape bleak and bare hangs the chill hermitage in the middle air, its haunts forsaken and its feasts forgot, a leaf-stone, lonely, desolated cot. Is this the scene that late with rapture rang, where Delphi danced and gentle Anna sang, with fairy-step where Harriet tripped so late and on her stump reclined the musing kitty-sait. Return, dear nymphs, prevent the purple spring, ere the soft nightingale essays to sing, ere the first swallow sweeps the freshening plain, ere lovesick turtles breathe their amorous pain, let festive glee the enlivened village raise, pan's blameless rain and patriarchal days, with pastoral dance the smitten swaying surprise, and bring all arcadey before our eyes. Return, blithe maidens, with you bring along free native humour, all the charms of song, the feeling heart and unaffected ease, each nameless grace and every power to please. November the 1st, 1763. On the rainbow. Look upon the rainbow and praise him that made it, very beautiful is it in the brightness thereof. Ecclesiastes, 43, verse 11. On morning, or on evening cloud impressed, bent in vast curve, the watery meteor shines delightfully to the leveled sun opposed, lovely refraction. While a vivid breed in listed colours glows the unconscious swain with vacant eyes gazes on the divine phenomenon, gleaming o'er the illumined fields, or runs to catch the treasures which it sheds. Not so this age. Inspired with pious awe he hails the Federal Arch, and looking up adores that God whose fingers formed this bow magnificent, compassing heaven about, with a resplendent verge, thou madest the cloud maker omnipotent, and thou the bow, and by that covenant graciously hast sworn never to drown the world again. Henceforth till time shall be no more, in ceaseless round season shall follow season, day to night, summer to winter, harvest to seed time, heat shall to cold in regular array succeed, heaven taught. So sang the Hebrew bard a harvest scene. Waked by the gentle gleamings of the morn soon clad the reaper provident of want, high as cheerful hearted to the ripened field, nor haste alone, attendant by his side his faithful wife, sole partner of his cares, bears on her breast the sleeping babe, behind with steps unequal trips her infant strain, thrice happy pair in love and labour joined. All day they ply their task with mutual chat, beguiling each the sultry tedious hours. Around them falls in rows the severed corn, or the shocks rise in regular array. But when high noon invites the short repast, beneath the shade of sheltering thorn they sit, divide the simple meal and drain the cask. The swinging cradle lulls the whimpering babe in the mean time, while growling round, if at the trade of hasty passenger alarmed, as of their store protective, stalks the kerr with bristling back to guard the scanty script and russet frock. On the dark still dry warm weather occasionally happening in the winter months, the imprisoned winds slumber within their caves, the mist bound, the fickle vein 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 through the air gossamer floats, or stretched from blade to blade the wavy network that surrounds all the field. Pushed by the weightier atmosphere up springs the ponderous mercury, from scale to scale mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube. While high in air and poised upon his wings, unseen, the soft enamoured woodlark runs through all his maze of melody. The break, loud with the blackbird's bolder note, runs. Soothed by the genial warmth the coring rook anticipates the spring, selects her mate, haunts her tall nest trees, and with sedulous care repairs her wicker eerie tempest torn. The plowman inly smiles to see upturn his mellow globe, best pledge of a future crop, with glee the gardener eyes his smoking beds, in pining sickness feels a short relief. The happy schoolboy brings transported forth his long-forgotten scourge and giddy gig, over the white paths he whirls the rolling hoop, or triumphs in the dusty fields of Tor. Not so the museful sage. Abroad he walks contemplative, if happily he may find what cause controls the tempest rage, or wence amidst the savage season winter smiles. For days, for weeks, prevails the placid calm. At length some drops preclude a change, the sun with ray refracted bursts the parting gloom, when all the checkered skies one bright glare. Mutters the wind at eve, the horizon round with angry aspect scowls, down rush the showers, and float the deluge paths and mirey fields. The Natural History of Selborne In a series of letters addressed to Thomas Pennant Esquire and the Honourable Danes Barrington. 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 reverend, the president, and the reverend and worthy the fellows of Maudlin College in the University of Oxford, for the liberal behaviour 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 labours 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 consisted of the identical deeds and records that were removed by 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 curiosity of the antiquary, as well as establish the credit of the history. If the writer should at all appear to have induced any of his readers to pay more ready attention to the wonders of the creation, too frequently overlooked as common occurrences, or if he should by any means, through his researches, have lent and helping hand towards the enlargement of the boundaries of historical and topographical knowledge, or if he should have thrown some small light upon ancient custom 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 providence 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 continuation of them, would they ever be deemed a matter of singular satisfaction and improvement? Gilbert White, Selbourne, January 1st, 1788 The End of the Preface to the Natural History of Selbourne by Gilbert White This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how to volunteer, please contact LibriVox.org. Recording by Peter Yersley The Natural History of Selbourne by Gilbert White Letters to Thomas Pennant, Numbers 1 to 6 Letter 1 The parish of Selbourne lies in the extreme eastern corner 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 midway between the towns of Alton and Petersfield. Being very large and extensive, it abuts on twelve parishes, two of which are in Sussex, that is Trotton and Rogate. If you begin from the south and proceed westward, the adjacent parishes are M-Shot, Newton-Valence, Farringdon, Hartley-Mordwit, Great Ward-Laham, Kingsley, Hedley, Bramshot, Trotton, Rogate, Lysser and Graton. The soils of this district are almost as various and diversified as the views and aspects. The high part to 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 hangar. The cover to this eminence is altogether beach, the most lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider it smooth rind or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful pendulous boughs. The down or sheep-walk 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, woodlands, heath and water. The prospect is bounded to the southeast and east by the vast range of mountains called the Sussex Downs, by Guild-Down near Guildford, and by the Downs-round dorking and Rygate in Surrey to the northeast, which altogether, with the country beyond Alton and Farnham, form a noble and extensive 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 running parallel with the hangar. 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 beaches, 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 cartway of the village divides in a remarkable manner two very incongruous soils. To the southwest is a rank clay that requires the labour of years to render it mellow, while the gardens to the northeast, 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 wooden covets might extend down to the opposite bank. At each end of the village, which runs from southeast to northwest, arises a small rivulet, that at the northwest end frequently fails, but the other is a fine perennial spring, little influenced by drought or wet seasons, called Wellhead, footnote added by Gilbert White. This spring produced September 14, 1781, after a severe hot summer, 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 24 hours, or one natural day. At this time many of the wells failed, and all the ponds in the veils were dry. Return to Tex. The spring breaks out of some high grounds joining to Cor 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 Arran, running to Arrendell, and so falling into the British Channel, the other to the north. The Selbourne stream makes one branch of the way, and meeting the black downstream at Headley, and the Alton and Farnham stream at Tilford Bridge, swells into a considerable river, navigable at Godelming, from whence it passes to Guilford, and so into the Thames at Waybridge, and thus at the north into the German Ocean. Our wells at an average run to about 63 feet, and when sunk to that depth, seldom fail, but produce a fine, limpid 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 maulma, a sort of rotten or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the frost and rain, moulders to pieces and becomes manure to itself. Footnote inserted by Gilbert White, this soil produces good wheat and clover. Return to text. Still onto 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 into the freestone, and have their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at hand. This white soil produces the brightest hops. As the parish still inclines down towards Walmer 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 estimation 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 an hungry, lean sand till it mingles with the forest, and will produce little without the assistance of lime and turnips. Letter 2 to Thomas Pennant Esquire In the court of Norton Farmhouse, a manna-farm to the north-west of the village, on the white moans, stood within these twenty years a broad-leaved elm, or witch-hazel, almas folio latissimo scabro of ray, which, though it had lost a considerable leading bow in the Great Storm in the year 1703, 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 Plesster. In the midst of this spot stood in old times a vast oak, with a short squat body and huge horizontal alms extending almost to the extremity of the area. This venerable 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 froliced 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 father concerning this area when we enter on the antiquities of Selborn. On the Blackmore estate there is a small wood called lozels 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 furs, 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, was ever wanted for repairs that were fifty feet long without bow, 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 excrescence 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 neighbouring youths to get at this eerie. The difficulty wetted 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 those birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the butt. The wedges were inserted into the opening. The woods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle 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 deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs which brought her dead to the ground. Letter III to Thomas Pennant Esquire 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 plowed 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 an head and mouth. It is in reality a by-valve of the Linnaean genus of Mytilus and the species of Krista galley called by Lister Rastellum by Rumpfias Ostriumplicatum minus by D'Argenvy Oris porchi subspecies Krista galley and by those who make collections coxcomb. Though I applied to several such in London I could never meet with an entire specimen nor could I ever find in books any engraving from a perfect one. In the superb museum at Lester House permission was given me to examine for this article and though I was disappointed as to the fossil I was highly gratified with the sight of several of the shells themselves in high preservation. This by-valve 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 alternate flutings or grooves and the curved form of my specimen being much easier expressed by the pencil than by words I have caused it to be drawn and engraved. Cornua ammonis are very common about this village. As we were cutting an inclining path up the hangar the labourers found them frequently on that steep just under the soil in the chalk and of a considerable size. In the lane above Wellhead in the way to Emshot they are bound in the bank in a darkish sort of mile 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 observed them of large dimensions perhaps 14 or 16 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 moulded away these seemed as if they were a very recent production in the chalk pit at the northwest end of the hangar large Norteli are sometimes observed in the very thickest strata of our free stone and at considerable 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 letter 4 to Thomas Pennant Esquire as in a former letter the free stone of this place has been only mentioned incidentally I shall here become more particular this stone is in great request for half 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 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 footnote inserted by Gilbert White 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 return to text when chiseled smooth the free stone makes elegant fronts for houses equal in colour and grain to the 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 flawed with it but it proves rather too soft for this purpose it is a free stone cutting in all directions yet has something of a grain parallel with the horizon and therefore should not be so bedded but laid in the same position as it grows in the quarry footnote inserted by Gilbert White to Sir Bed Stone is to set it edge wise contrary to the posture it had in the quarry said Dr Plot in Oxfordshire page 77 but Sir Bedding does not succeed in our dry walls neither do we use it so in ovens though he says it is best for tainton stone return to text on the ground abroad this firestone will not succeed for pavements because probably some degree of saltness prevailing within it the rain tears the slabs to pieces footnote inserted by Gilbert White firestone is full of salts and has no sulphur must be close grained and have no interstices nothing supports fire like salts saltstone perishes exposed to wet and frost from Plot's Staffordshire page 152 return to text 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 rust colour 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 Walmer forest I see but one sort of stone called by the workman sand or forest stone this is generally of the colour of rusty iron and might probably be worked as an 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 terrine 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 it's 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 weavers 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 fragments about the size of the head of a large nail we'll stick the pieces into the wet mortar along the joints of their free stone walls this embellishment carries an odd appearance and has occasioned strangers sometimes to ask us pleasantly whether we fastened our walls together with temporary nails letter five to Thomas Pennant Esquire among the singularities of this place the two rocky hollow lanes the one to Alton and the other to the forest to preserve our attention these roads running through the mole lands are by the traffic of ages and the fretting of water worn down through the first stratum of our free stone and partly through the second so that they look more like water courses than roads and are bedded with naked rag for furlongs together 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 fanciful shapes of frostwork these rugged gloomy scenes are fright 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 particularly with their curious philly seas with which they abound the manner of Selborne was it strictly looked after with its kindly aspects and all its sloping covers would swarm with game even an hour hares, partridges and pheasants abound were as plentiful there are few quails because they more affect open fields than enclosures after harvest some few land rails are seen the parish of Selborne by taking in so much of the forest is a vast district those who tread the bounds are employed part of three days in the business and are of the opinion that the outline in all its curves and indentings lies less than thirty miles the village stands in a sheltered spot secured by the hangar 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 as my experience in measuring the water is but of short date I am not qualified to give the mean quantity footnote inserted by Gilbert White a very intelligent gentleman assures me and he speaks from upward of forty years experience that the mean rain of any place cannot be ascertained till a person has measured it for a very long period if I had only measured the rain says he for the first four years from 1740 to 1743 I should have said that the mean rain at Linden was sixteen and a half inches for the year if from 1740 to 1750 eighteen and a half inches the mean rain before 1763 was twenty and a quarter from 1763 and since twenty-five and a half from 1770 to 1780 twenty-six if only 1773 1774 and 1775 had been measured Linden mean rain would have been called thirty-two inches return to text readers note the following is a summary of a table of the author's rainfall data I only know that from May the first 1779 to the end of the year there fell twenty-eight inches in the complete year 1780-27 in 1781-30 in 1782-50 in 1783-33 in 1784-33 in 1785-31 and in 1786-39 readers note in the previous table an odd measurement the hund has been removed to make the table more comprehensible return to text the village of Selwarn and large hamlet of Oak Hanger with the single farms and many scattered houses along the verge of the forest contain upwards of six hundred and seventy inhabitants footnote a state of the parish of Selwarn October the 4th 1783 gives the following figures readers note the author Gilbert White died about nine years and eight months later in June 1793 end of readers note the number of tenements or families 136 the number of inhabitants in the street is 313 in the rest of the parish 363 total 676 near five inhabitants to each tenement in the time of the reverend Gilbert White, vicar readers note the author's grandfather end of readers note who died in 1727-8 the number of inhabitants was computed at about 500 end footnote we are bound with poor many of whom are sober and industrious and live comfortably in good stone or brick cottages which are glazed and have chambers above stairs mud buildings we have none beside 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 themselves greatly by spinning wool for making of barragons a genteel corded stuff much in vogue at that time for some aware and chiefly manufactured at Alton a neighbouring town by some of the people called Quakers but from circumstances this trade is at an end footnote inserted by Gilbert White since the passage above was written in being able to say that the spinning employment is a little revived to the no small comfort of the industrious housewife returned to text the inhabitants enjoy a good share of health and longevity and the parish swarms with children letter six to Thomas Pennant Esquire should I omit to describe with some exactness the forests of Walmer of which three-fifths perhaps in this parish my account of Selbourne would be very imperfect as it is a district of bounding 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 Walmer 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 so to proceed eastward by the parishes of Gratum Liss, Rogate and Trotton in the county of Sussex by Bramshot, Hedley and Kingsley this royalty consists entirely 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 with subterraneous trees though Dr Plott says positively footnote see his history of Staffordshire end footnote that there never were any fallen trees hidden in the mosses of the southern counties but he was mistaken for I myself have seen cottages on the verge of this wild district whose timbers consisted of a black hard wood looking like oak which the owners assured me were procured from the bogs by probing the soil with spits or some such instruments but the peat is so much cut out and the moss have been so well examined that none has been found of late besides the oak I have also been shown pieces of fossil wood of a paler colour and softer nature which the inhabitants called fur but on a nice examination and trial by fire I could discover nothing resonance in them and therefore rather suppose they were parts of a willow or alder or some such aquatic tree footnote by Gilbert White old people have assured me that on a winter's morning they have discovered these trees in the bogs by the hoar frost which lay longer over the space where they were concealed than on the surrounding morass nor does this seem to be a fanciful notion but consistent with true philosophy Dr Hales Seth that the warmth of the earth on the 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 vis November 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 were elm pipes lay underground a plain proof this that those drains intercepted the warmth of the earth from ascending from greater depth 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 Hales's hemostatics page 360 quayere 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 findings of pavements, baths and graves and other hidden rags of curious antiquity end of Gilbert White's footnote this lonely domain is a very agreeable haunt for many sorts of wild fowls which not only frequented 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 excursions and in particular in the dry summer of 1740 and 1741 and some years after they swarmed to such a degree that parties of unreasonable sportsmen killed twenty and sometimes 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 before shooting flying became so common and that was the Heathcock 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 35 years ago and within these ten years one solitary grey hen was sprung by some beagles in beasing for a hair the sportsmen cried out a hen pheasant but a gentleman present who had often seen Grouse in the north of England assured me it was a grey hen nor does the loss of our black game prove the only gap in the fauna celborniensis 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 500 head and made a stately appearance there is an old keeper now alive named Adams whose great grandfather mentioned in the perambulation taken in 1635 grandfather, father and self enjoyed the head keepership of Walmer forest in succession for more than 900 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 forest of Walmer beneath her royal regard for she came out of the great road at Lipwick which is just by and reposing herself on a bank smoothed for that purpose lying about half a mile to the east of Walmer pond and still called Queen's Bank so with great complacency and satisfaction the whole herd of red deer kepters along the vale before her consisting then of about 500 head a sight this worthy the attention of the greatest sovereign but he further adds that by means of the Waltham hacks or to use his own expression as soon as they began blacking they were reduced to about 50 head and so continued decreasing till the time of the late Duke of Cumberland it is now more than 30 years ago that his highness sent down an huntsman and six yeoman prickers in scarlet jackets laced with gold attended by the stag hounds ordering them to take every deer in this forest alive and 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 Heinz were also carried off such fine chases were exhibited by the people for matters of torque 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 permitted to pursue and the most gallant scene ensued End of Letters Numbers 1 to 6 to Thomas Pennant Esquire Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to find out how to volunteer please contact LibriVox.org Recording by Peter Yersley The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White Letters to Thomas Pennant Esquire Numbers 7 to 13 Letter 7 Though large herds of deer do much harm to the neighbourhood yet the injury to the morals of the people is of more moments than the loss of their crops The temptation is irresistible for most men are sportsmen by constitution and 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 committed such enormities that government was forced to interfere with that severe and sanguinary act called the Black Act which now comprehends more felonies than any law that ever was framed before and therefore a late bishop of Winchester when urged to restock Waltham Chase refused from a motive worthy of a prelet replying that it had done mischief enough already Footnote by Gilbert White This chase remains unstocked to this day the bishop was Dr. Hoadley End footnote Our old race of deer stealers are 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 pairing its feet with a pen knife to the quick to prevent its escape till it was large and fat enough to be killed The shooting at one of their neighbours with a bullet in a turnip field by moonshine mistaking him for a deer and the losing a dog in the following extraordinary 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 break and taking a vast spring with all her feet close together pitched upon the neck of the dog broke it short in two 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 irregularities are removed are of considerable service to neighbourhoods 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 man of farm of the parish of Gratum has an admitted claim I see by an old record taken from the Tower of London of turning all livestock on the forest at proper seasons bedendibus acceptis author's footnote for the privilege the owner of that estate used to pay to the king annually seven bushels of oats end footnote The reason I presume why sheep are excluded is because being such close grazers they would pick out all the finest grasses and hinder the deer from thriving author's footnote in the halt where a full stock of fallow deer has been kept up till lately no sheep are admitted to this day end footnote Though to burn on any waste between candle-muss and mid-summer any griggling, heath and furs goss or fern is punishable with whipping and confinement in the House of Correction by Statute 4 and 5 William and Mary 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 is consumed young will sprout up and afford much tender brows for cattle but where there is large old furs the fire following the roots consumes the very ground so that for hundreds of acres nothing 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 These conflagrations, as they take place usually with the north-east 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 25 miles distance was surprised much with smoke and a hot smell of fire and concluded that Ulrisford 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 arbours or bowers made of the boughs of oaks the one called Walden Lodge the other Brimstone Lodge these the keepers renew annually on the feast of St Barnabas taking the old materials for a perquisite the farm called Blackmore in this parish is obliged to find the posts and brushwood for the former while the farms at Gratum in rotation furnished for the latter and are all enjoined to cut and deliver the materials at the spot this custom I mention because I look upon it to be a very remote antiquity Letter 8 to Thomas Pennant Esquire On the verge of the forest as it is now circumscribed are three considerable lakes two in oak hangar of which I have nothing particular to say and one called bins or beans pond which is worthy the attention of a naturalist or a sportsman for being crowded at the upper end with willows and with the Carex Caspitosa it affords such a safe and pleasing shelter to wild ducks teals, snipes, etc that they breed there footnote by the author I mean that sort of Carex which rising into tall hassocks is called by the forester's turrets end footnote in the winter this covert is also frequented by foxes and sometimes by pheasants and the bogs produce many curious plants author's footnote for which consult letter 41 to Mr. Barrington end footnote note in the beginning of the summer 1787 the royal forests of Walmer and Holt were measured by persons sent down by government end note by a perambulation of Walmer forest and the Holt made in 1635 and in 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 on 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 Ward-Laham Park in which stands the curious mount called King John's Hill and Lodge Hill and to the verge of Hardley Mordwit called Mordwit Hatch comprehending also short heath oak hanger and oak woods a large district now private property though once belonging to the royal domain it is remarkable that the term Perlier is never once mentioned in this long role 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 inferior of those joint forests for the time being and their ostensible fees and perquisites in those days as at present there were hardly any trees in Walmer Forest within the present limits of the forest are three considerable lakes Hogmer, Cranmer and Walmer 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 some all the kind 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 economist converts the recreation of one animal to the support of another Thompson who was a nice observer but let this pleasing circumstance escape him he says in his summer a various groups, 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 Walmer pond so called I suppose for eminence's sake is a vast lake for this part of the world 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 exactness gives an area of about 66 acres exclusive of a large irregular arm at the northeast 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 pigeons 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 meadows coming again with the dawn of the morning had this lake an arm or two more and were it planted round with thick cover 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 mere so remarkable as the great quantity of coins that were found in its bed about 40 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 by way of supplement I shall trouble you once more on this subject I inform you that Wallmer with her sister forest, Ailes Holt alias Alice Holt 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 General Emanuel Scroop Howe and his lady Ruperta who was a natural daughter of Prince Rupert by Margaret Hughes a Mr. Mordant of the Peterborough family Henry Billson Leg and Lady and now Lord Storwell, 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 constructing who was a distinguished mechanic and artist 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 author's footnote this prince, the father of General Howe's lady was the inventor of Metzotinto end footnote 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 myery nature carrying a good turf and a bounding lakes that grow to be large timber while Walmer is nothing but a hungry sandy barren waste the former being all in the parish of Binstead is about two miles in extent from north to south and near as much from east to west and contains within it many woodlands 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 Grim, Farnham and Bentley all of which have right of common one thing is remarkable that though the Holt has been of old well stopped with fallow deer unrestrained by any pale's offences more than a common hedge yet they were never seen within the limits of Walmer nor were the red deer of Walmer ever known to haunt the thickets or glades of the Holt at present the deer of the Holt are much thinned and reduced by the night hunters who perpetually harass them in spite of the efforts of numerous keepers and the severe penalties 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 imprisonment can deter them so impossible 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 neighbourhood 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 1,000 oaks has been cut this spring that is 1784 in the Holt Forest one fifth of which it is said belongs to the grantee Lord Stoil he lays claim also to the lop and top but the poor of the parishes of Binsted and Frinchum, 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 that is in February and March before the bark would run it was estimated to be eighteen miles computed measure from water carriage that is from the town of Chertsey on the Thames but now it is not half that distance since the way is made navigable up to the town of Godalming in the county of Surrey letter ten to Thomas Pennant Esquire August the fourth, 1767 it has been my misfortune never to have had any neighbours whose studies have led them towards the pursuit of natural knowledge so that for want of a companion to quicken my industry and sharpen my attention I have made but slender progress in a kind of information to which I have been attached from my childhood as to swallows Herundine's rustickey being found in a torpid state during the winter in the Isle of Wight or any part of this country I never heard any such account worth attending to but a clergyman of an inquisitive turn assures me that when he was a great boy some workman in pulling down the battlements of a church tower early in the spring founds two or three swifts Herundine's 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 preserve them he put them in a paper bag and hung them by the kitchen fire where they were suffocated a young person has informed me that while he was a schoolboy at Bright Helmstone in Sussex a great fragment of the chalk cliff fell down one stormy winter on the beach and that many people found swallows among the rubbish but on my questioning him whether he saw any of these birds himself to my no small disappointment he answered me in the negative but that others assured him that they did young broods of swallows began to appear this year on July the 11th and young martins Herundine's herbikey were then fledged in their nests both species will breed again once for I see by my fauna of last year that young broods come forth so late as September the 18th are not these late hatchings more in favour of hiding than migration? nay, some young martins remained in their nests last year so late as September the 29th and yet they totally disappeared with us by the 5th of October how strange is it 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 stay often till the middle of October and once I saw numbers of house martins on the 7th of November the martins and redwing fieldfairs were flying in sight together an uncommon assemblage of summer and winter birds a little bird it is either a species of the eolorda trivialis or rather perhaps of the motocillotroculus still continues to make a stimulus shivering noise in the tops of tall woods the stopperola of rey for which we have as yet no name in these parts is called in your zoology the flycatcher there is one circumstance characteristic of this bird which seems to have escaped observation and that is that it takes its stand on the top of some stake or post from wence 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 I perceive there are more than one species of the motocillotroculus Mr. Durham supposes in rey's philosophical letters that he has discovered three in these there is again an instance of some very common birds that have as yet no English name Mr. Stillingfleet makes a question whether the blackcap motocillotrocupilla be a bird of passage or not I think there is no doubt of it for in April in the very 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 cockbird on wing at that time and to hear his piping and humming notes 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 there are plenty in harvest at which time I will take care to get more and will endeavour to put the matter out of doubt whether it be a species or not I suspect much there may be two species of water rats Ray says and Linnaeus after him that the water rat is webfooted behind now I have discovered a rat on the banks of our little stream that is not webfooted and yet is an excellent swimmer and a diver it answers exactly to the moose amphibious of Linnaeus which he says Natatin fossis et urinator readers note swims in holes and is a diver end of readers note I should be glad to procure one plantis palmatis Linnaeus seems to be in a puzzle about his moose amphibious and to doubt whether it differs from his moose terrestris which if it be as he allows the moose agrestis capite grandi brachioros of ray readers note wildmouth with the large head and a short snout is widely different from the water rat both in size, make and manner of life as to the falco which I mentioned in town I shall take the liberty to send it down to you in 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 quale mdk's anti-hack fuisse tale's cum sint reliquie readers note what it was like from the character of its remains end readers note 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 countryman's museum the parish I live in is a very abrupt, uneven country full of hills and woods and therefore full of birds letter 11 to Thomas Pennant Esquire sell-born September the 9th 1767 it will not be without impatience that I shall wait for your thoughts with regard to the 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 seer and feet were yellow and the circle of its eyelids bright yellow as it had been killed some days and the eyes were sunk I could make no good observation on the colour of the pupils and the irides the most unusual birds I ever observed in these parts were a pair of hoopos which came several years ago in the summer I frequented an ornamented piece of ground which joins 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 frightened and persecuted by idle boys who would never let them be at rest three gross beaks loxia coccathrostes appeared some years ago in my fields in the winter as that, now and then one is occasionally seen in the same dead season a cross-bill loxia curvirostra was killed last year in this neighbourhood our streams which are small and rise only at the end of the village yield nothing but the bull's head or miller's thumb Gobius fluviartilis capidatus the trout, trutta fluviartilis the eel, anguilla the lampurn, lampaitra parka ed fluviartilis and the sickleback pisciculus aculeatus we are twenty miles from the sea and almost as many from a great river and therefore sea but little of seabirds as the wildfowls we have a few teams of ducks bred in the moors where the snipes breed and multitudes of widgians and teals in hard weather frequent our lakes in the forest having some acquaintance with the 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 are awful the house martins have eggs still and squab young the last swift I observed was about the twenty first of August it was a straggler red starts, fly captures, white throats and regular non-cristati still appear, but I have seen no blackcaps lately I forgot to mention that I once saw in Christchurch College Quadrangle in Oxford on a very sunny warm morning a house martin flying about in a carpet, so late as the twentieth of November at present I know only two species of bats the common vespatilio murrinus and the vespatilio auritis I was much entertained last summer with a tame bat which would take flies out of a person's hand if you gave it anything to eat it brought its wings round before the mouth hovering and hiding its head in the manner of birds of prey when they feed the quietness it showed in shearing off the wings of the flies which were always rejected was worthy of observation and pleased me much insects seemed to be most acceptable though it did not refuse raw flesh when offered so that the notion that bats go down chimneys and nor men's bacon seems no improbable story while I am used myself with this wonderful quadruped I saw it several times but this cannot get on the wing again by rising with great ease from the floor it ran I observed with more dispatch than I was aware of but in a most ridiculous and grotesque manner bats drink on the wing like swallows by sipping the surface as they play over balls and streams they love to frequent waters not only for the sake of drinking but on account of insects which I 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 letter 12 to Thomas Pennant Esquire November the 4th 1767 Sir it gave me no small satisfaction to hear that the falco turned out an uncommon one I must confess that 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 footnote this hawk proved to be the falco peregrinus a variety end note 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 colour, shape, size and colour of nesting I make no doubt but that the species is nondescript they are much smaller and more slender than the moose domesticus medius of ray and have more of the squirrel or door mouse colour 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 in 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 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 ingeniously closed that there was no discovering to what part it belonged it was so compact and well filled that it would roll across the table without being discomposed though it contained 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 contained herself in the ball with her young a rover 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 words that his servant 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 to the male garrulous bohemicus or German silk tale from the fire peculiar crimson tags or points which it carries at the end of five of the short remages 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 upon whores appeared in this kingdom in the winter of 1685 the mention of whores put 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 missile thrushes and feeding on the berries of the yew trees which answered to the description of the marula toquata or ring oozle were lately seen in this neighbourhood I employed some people to procure me a specimen but without success see letter 20 query might not canary birds be naturalised to this climate providing their eggs were put in the spring into the nests of some of their congeners as gold finches, green finches 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 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 ozio beds of the aides of that river now this resorting towards that element at that season of the year seems to give some countenance to the northern opinion, strange as it is of their retiring underwater a Swedish naturalist is so much persuaded of that fact that he talks in his calendar of flora as familiarly of the swallows going underwater in the beginning of September 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 23rd of last October flying in and out of its nest in the borough and I myself on the 29th of last October as I was travelling through Oxford 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 middle under county attempt to voyage to Goree or Senegal almost as far as the equator 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 trooping 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 Mikkelmus and 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 difficulty to attend that supposition that such feeble bad flyers who the summer long never flipped but from hedge to hedge should be able to traverse vast seas and continents of abundance in order to enjoy milder seasons amidst the regions of Africa letter 13 to Thomas Pennant Esquire Selbourne January the 22nd 1768 Sir, as in one of your former letters you expressed the more satisfaction from my correspondence on account of my living in the most 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 Christmas vast flocks of chaffinches have appeared in the fields many more I used to think than could be hatched in any one neighbourhood but when I came to observe them more narrowly I was amazed to find they seemed to be almost all hens I communicated my suspicions to some intelligent neighbours who after taking pains about the matter declared that they also thought them all mostly females at least 50 to 1 this extraordinary occurrence brought to my mind the remark of Linnaeus that before winter all their hen chaffinches migrate through Holland into Italy now I wanted 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 intelligence 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 we have in the winter vast flocks of the common linnaeus 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 take themselves to their proper summer homes it is well known at least that the swallows and the field fairs do congregate with a gentle twittering as they make their respective departure you may depend on it that the bunting emberitsa milliaria does not leave this country in the winter in January 1767 I saw several dozen of them in the midst of a severe frost among the bushes on the downs near and over in our woodland enclosed district it is a rare bird wagtails both white and yellow are with us all the winter quails crowds 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 wheat here 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 Lewis where they are esteemed at 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 frequently coming on board his ship all the way from our channel quite up to the Levant especially before squaly weather what you suggest with regard to Spain is highly probable the winters of Andaluthia 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. Willoughby passed through that kingdom on such an errand he seems to have skirted along in a superficial manner and an ill humour being much disgusted at the rude disillute manners of the people I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to about the swallows roosting on the aets of the Thames nor can I hear any more about those birds which I suspected were Meruli, Torquete as to the small mice I have farther to remark 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-wrecks into which they are carried at harvest a neighbour housed an oat-wreck lately under the thatch of which were assembled near and hundred 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 hape-knee which is about a third of an ounce of our dupois so that I must suppose that they are the smallest quadrupeds in this island a full-grown moose-medius domesticus 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 must have suffered prodigiously there is a reason to believe that some days were more severe than any since the year 1739 to 40 I am etc etc end of letters 7 to 13 to Thomas Pennant in Gilbert White's natural history of Selborne