150 TORTOISE. 



rain as a lady dressed iu 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 arbitrary 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 has waited on it for more than 

 thirty years, it hobbles towards its benefactress with awk- 

 ward alacrity, but remains inattentive to strangers. Thus 

 not only " the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's 

 crib,"* but the most abject reptile and torpid of beings dis- 

 tinguishes the hand that feeds it, and is touched with the 

 feelings of gratitude. 



P.S. In about three days after I left Sussex, the tortoise 

 retired into the ground under the hepatica.f 



* Isaiah i. 3. 



f 1 Tortoises are often kept in gardens as a curiosity, where they continue 

 perfectly healthy, and arrive at an almost incredible age. When kept in the 

 stove or green-house, their torpidity does not take place, although at the annual 

 period for its occurrence, they are generally noticed for a short time to be more 

 restless and irritable. The following are some remarkable instances of 

 longevity recorded by Mr. Murray, in his Experimental Researches: In 

 the library of Lambeth Palace is the shell of a land tortoise, brought there 

 about the year 1623 ; it lived to 1730, a period of 107 years. Another was 

 placed in the garden of the episcopal palace of Fulham, by Bishop Laud, in 

 1625, and died in 1753 128 years: the age at which these were placed in 

 the gardens was, of course, unknown. Another is mentioned 220 years, and 

 one in Exeter 'Change, 800 : the latter, however does not seem well authen- 

 ticated, though there can be no doubt of the period of their existence being 

 very extensive. Mr. Murray has added some very interesting information 

 regarding the habits of a tortoise kept at Peterborough : 



" From a document belonging to the archives of the cathedral, called the 

 Bishop's Barn, it is well ascertained that the tortoise at Peterborough must 

 have been about' 220 years old. Bishop Marsh's predecessor in the see of 

 Peterborough had remembered it above sixty years, and could recognise no 

 visible change. He was the seventh bishop who had worn the mitre during 



