153 



Quantities of the Nymphaa in the Laggan ; but 

 being quite out of flower, I could not find whether 

 lutea or alba : the leaves seem just the same. 



The winter here has been severe, but from the 

 accounts not so much so as in England. Vast flights 

 of crossbills, Loxia curvirostra I believe, made 

 their appearance the latter end of August, and staid 

 till the beginning of October. They made great 

 havoc in the orchards ; they never ate the apple, 

 but cut it to pieces, and picked out the pippins. 

 They came first over to the county of Cork, then 

 proceeded to Waterford, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wex- 

 ford, Wicklow, and Dublin ; but no further north : 

 and yet they say it is a bird of Northern Europe. 

 They are good prognostics of a severe winter. They 

 were observed here, I am told, before the hard frost, 

 and once since ; and now this time, when there cer- 

 tainly has been severer frost than usual. I observe 

 in December's Monthly Review a work by R. S. 

 Barton on the natural history of Pennsylvania. He 

 considers the connexion between the seasons and 

 the migration of birds. 



My young friend, I expect, may be the better for 

 the lottery prize ; therefore the less to be regretted 

 it went to the rich. It is truly strange, but I never 

 knew a great prize go to any but the rich. Could 

 I have given a little shove to the wheel of the blind 

 deity, it should have turned in another direction. 

 N'importe! others have their riches, — the imagina- 

 tion, the intellectual : I would not exchange. 



How kind, how flattering your call on me again 

 to Norwich! Be assured I do not want pressing. 



