Till-: REV. JOHN WHITE. 63 



LETTER XXXI.* 



Selborne, Oct. 31, 1777. 

 DEAK BROTHER, 



HAD I not been called the beginning of this month to Oxford, 

 where I spent all my time either in college business, or in- 

 specting and transcribing by means of an amanuensis many 

 curious papers from the archives of Magdalen College, relative 

 to the antiquities of Selborne, you had heard from me some 

 time ago. In my pursuits as an antiquary Dr. Chandler has 

 been wonderfully friendly, and communicative ; and my dis- 

 coveries about this place are very great : we examined 366 

 parchments. 



I have now read your work, all but the entomology, once 

 over, and am proceeding to read several parts twice over. 

 In the whole I much approve of your book. Your preface is 

 neat ; your history is what I call true natural history, because 

 it abounds with anecdote and circumstance ; and I verily think 

 your dissertations on the Hirundines are the best tracts I ever 

 saw of the kind, as they throw much light on the dark but 

 curious business of migration, and possess such merit as alone 

 might keep any book from sinking. If consulted, I therefore 

 protest loudly against the intention of throwing your papers 

 aside ; .for I think in a thousand instances they will delight a 

 good naturalist. I therefore pronounce, as the Vice-Chan- 

 cellor of Oxon does on similar occasions, imprimatur. But 

 then, to act as an impartial critic, I must also say that some- 

 times (and others think so as well as myself) your language 

 is rather diffuse, and your sentences too long ; and what I most 

 wonder at is, that at times you not only use the same verb or 

 its derivations 5 or 6 times in a paragraph, but sometimes 

 twice or thrice in the same sentence. Being jealous of the 



* [This appears to be the last letter to John White. On his decease 

 the widow came to live with Gilbert, with whom she remained till hia 

 death. T. B.] 



