CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS FAMILY. 139 



began to triumph. Many of them, in the shape of horses and 

 heifers, ran up and down it, doing it great damage with their 

 feet ; but to silence all clamour, I had all the bad part well 

 bedded with a quantity of fern. Since this amendment, Mrs. 

 Etty and her sister Stebbing and Mrs. Y. have been up and 

 down it by night and by day, so that party feuds are likely 

 to be at an end. You do not, I hope, flatter me about my 

 Nat. Hist. ; if you do not, I am much pleased to find that an 

 intelligent person like yourself approves of it. Were it not 

 for the want of a good amanuensis, I think I should make 

 more progress ; but much writing and transcribing always 

 hurts me. All that I know about the sleep of fishes is, that 

 at the Black Bear inn, in Reading, there is a stream in the 

 garden which runs under the stables, and so under the road 

 into the meadows ; it is a branch of the Kennet. Now this 

 water all the summer is full of carps, which roll about, and 

 are fed by travellers, who divert themselves by tossing 

 them crumbs of bread. When the cold weather comes, 

 these fishes withdraw themselves under the stables, and are 

 invisible for months, during which period I conclude they 

 must sleep. Thus the inhabitants of the ivater, as well as 

 of the air and the earth retire from the severity of winter. 

 Timothy, your friend, retreated into his hybernaculum last 

 week ; he is laid up in the fruit border in a dry, wholesome, 

 sunny spot; at Ringmer he was forced to lie in a swamp. 

 My nep. Richard has been here ; he was quite transported 

 beyond himself with the pleasures of shooting, and, after walk- 

 ing more than 100 miles, killed one woodcock, which, ill-fated 

 bird, took the pains to migrate from Scandinavia to be slain 

 by a cockney who never shot a bird before ! ! ! Pleasure is a 

 most arbitrary matter ! The pains my nephew took in his new 

 pursuit would have been a great misery to many. 



I conclude, your affectionate friend, 



GIL. WHITE. 



I made some remarks of moment on the house-martins just 

 before they withdrew. They do not amount to proof; but the 

 presumptions are very strong indeed. 



