254 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



cannot bear the severe frosts. I had one of this sort, in the 

 severe Winter of 39-40, split very near half an inch wide, 

 where i could run a table-knife it's length into the crack: but 

 this is quite closed ; & covered with bark. To show you the 

 growth of this kind of Tree, i have a memorandum of a 

 former Rector of an adjoining Village, "that he planted a 

 Chesnut Tree by his Church in 1610," which was in Autumn 

 1788, 19 F. 4 I, or 184 inches in 178 years. I suppose Ld 

 Ducie's Tree may be 1100 years old, if it increased in the 

 proportion reasonable for such a vast Tree ; & might be about 

 eleven yards round in King John's time, as tradition calls 

 it the great Chesnut at that time. Stillingfleet was a 

 very estimable man. I knew him from his first leaving 

 College. Fortune frowned on him from his birth, 'till near 

 his end. He used for many years to visit me. His father, 

 after the Bishop's displeasure, lived on his little Rectory in 

 Norfolk. 



Sir, in your 39 th letter to Pennant you ask where the 

 Stock-dove breeds ? In Norfolk in hollow Trees *. The Fern- 

 Owl lays its eggs on the plain Land. I think your Country- 

 men should be punished for laying so heavy a charge against 

 an innocent Bird. I find a memorandum of mine of so old a 

 date as Sep. 14. 1722. i shot a ring-Ouzel. This was the first 

 my father had seen. This shows they are strangers in 

 Norfolk. But i have seen of them twice since, in severe 

 frost. You do me honour to accept my Indications of 

 Spring. To explain to you, i mark leaf, as soon as the 

 smallest leaf appears ; and i name the County (if not in 

 Norfolk), as i have observed so near as Hertfordshire, they 

 are sometimes a week earlier than here. You see 'tis shame- 

 fully imperfect. The equal number of the returning Swallows 

 seems the greatest Mystery, amongst the many Mysteries that 

 attend them. Sir, as i live in hopes of sometimes having the 

 favour of hearing from you, pray never again make an 

 apology for length ; every Article is pleasing to me : but I 



* [Its breeding at Selborne is fully stated in a note on the passage 

 referred to, Vol. I. p. 96. T. B.J 



