194 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



swaded that this substance is a mass of indigested food cast- 

 up out of the stomachs of crows ! and some have told me that 

 they have distinguished the limbs of frogs among it ! As to 

 a star-sluch growing on the bough of an oak ; this must have 

 been a matter of accident. The seeds of all Fungi, you know, 

 are lighter than air, and therefore float about in it ; and 

 vegetate only when they happen to fall on a proper nidus. 



Dr. Ch. seemed a good deal chagrined about the behaviour 

 of his prime minister. If he had not come home just in time, 

 a bern would have been born unto him in the vicarage. Sim 

 Etty, tutored by the Dr., runs about the village, and repeats 

 to every one he meets, with great vehemence ; " Mulieri ne 

 credas, ne mortuae quidem." Ch. Etty is at the Nore aboard 

 the Duke of Kingston, and is expected every day at Spithead; 

 from whence he is to make a visit here for a day or two 

 before he sails for India. 



I thank you much for procuring Mr. Hampton's pamphlet, 

 which you will please to leave at my brother's. You will, I 

 hope, make yrself known to him ; I have mentioned you to 

 him. You will see a roomy shop, well furnished, with old 

 gent, in leathern doublets. Timothy the tortoise would make 

 but a poor king : he would be so slow in his motions as to be 

 but a king Log at best ; and an alert enemy would deprive 

 him of half his dominions, before he could awake from his 

 profound slumbers. 



I will take care of your Rex Platonicus, and hope I shall 

 bring it you at Exeter. My bro. Th. opened several of the 

 barrows on our down in the summer, but found nothing. 

 Now you talk of last summer, it was a strange summer 

 indeed ! Nothing like it, I believe, has befallen since the year 

 1725, when it rained every day, except about 10 in July, 

 from March 29 th to Septem* 29 t>h ; but then the first part of 

 said year was very dry. In 1782 the rain that fell at 

 Selborne was 50 inc. 26 hund. ! and of this the greatest part 

 came in the first 9 months ; for Oct r , Nov 1 ', and Dec r were 

 comparatively dry ; Dec. afforded only inc. 91 h. I would 

 have you dine with my bro. Ben in Fleet street: he dines 

 always about three o'clock. If you would call some morning 



