262 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



LETTER III. 



MABSHAM TO WHITE 



Stratton near Norwich. 



Aug. 31. -90. 



SIR, 



I AM much obliged to you for your entertaining & instruct- 

 ing letter ; & pleased to find that you was acquainted 

 with D r Hales : and i believe all men that knew him es- 

 teemed him. I have had the good fortune to know most of 

 his family. 



Sir, i conclude that you are right, & that i was mistaken 

 about the amours of the toad : but so are my acquaintance 

 also. Frogs, you know, generally leap or jump ; now the 

 people we talk of, only walk or creep ; and i thought that i 

 had particularly observed their swelled bellies. But if i 

 should live to another Spring, i will examine them with more 

 care. With respect to the measures of your Trees, i hope we 

 take them at the same height from the Earth, viz. 5 feet, and 

 then your's and my Trees are nearly equal. Your Oak, I see, 

 gains about 9 tenths of an inch yearly for 58 years, and mine 

 the same in the Grove: but one transplanted from that Grove 

 (which was sowed Acorns in 1719,) gains above 14 tenths, as 

 it was last Autumn 8 F. 3 I. when the largest in y r Grove is 

 but 5 F. 3 I. Such is the benefit of transplanting ! or 

 perhaps, to speak honestly, the giving as much room as the 

 Tree requires. I am surprised that your Trees can increase 

 so fast in chalky or stony soil. But perhaps your charming 

 Beech of 50 feet to the head was not of your own planting. 

 I wish i could get a peep at it, & make my bow to you ; but 

 all the pleasure of rambling is ended with me ; I having 

 been lame now near two years, & not once out of the Village 

 in that time. For i have a stony complaint also, which keeps 

 me from a carriage. Mr. Drake has a charming Grove of 



