OF SELBORNE. 83 
LETTER XXII. 
Selborne, January 2, 1769. 
Dear Sir,—As to the peculiarity of jackdaws 
building with us under the ground, in rabbit-bur. 
rows, 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 except- 
ed, Hampshire and Sussex are as meanly furnished 
with churches as almost any counties in the king. 
dom. We have many livings of two or three hun- 
dred pounds a year, whose houses of worship make 
little better appearance than dovecots. When I 
first saw Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, and 
Huntingdonshire, and the Fens of Lincolnshire, I 
was amazed at the number of spires which present- 
ed themselves in every point of view. As an ad. 
mirer of prospects, | 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 actually been procured for you in Dev- 
onshire, because it corroborates 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 Dev- 
* James chap. iii., 7. 
