292 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



in 1770 & 1772) fall in Spain about that time ; & then they 

 linger there till the latter end of the month. 



Surely my dear Sir, we live in a very eventful time, that 

 must cut-out much work for Historians & Biographers ! but 

 whether all these strange commotions will turn out to the 

 benefit or disadvantage of old England, God only knows ! We 

 have experienced a sad spring, summer, & autumn : & now the 

 fallows are so wet, & the land-springs break forth so fre- 

 quently, that men cannot sow their wheat in any comfort. 

 Our barley is much damaged ; & malt will be bad. 



Have you read Mr. Arthur Young's "travels thro' 

 France"? He says p. 543, when speaking of the French 

 clergy " One did not find among them poachers, or fox- 

 hunters, w T ho having spent the morning in scampering after 

 hounds, dedicate the evening to the bottle, & reel from ine- 

 briety to the pulpit." Now, pray, who is Mr. Young ; is he 

 a man of fortune, or one that writes for a livelihood? He 

 seems to reside in Suffolk, near Bury St. Edmund ; so pro- 

 bably You can tell me somewhat about him. 



Pray do wood-peckers ever damage & bore your timber- 

 trees ? not those, I imagine, of your own planting, but only 

 those that are tending to decay. I had a brood this year in 

 my outlet hatched, I suspect, in the bodies of some old wil- 

 lows. My dissertation on the Caprimulgus is almost finished. 



I remain, with all due respect, & esteem, 



Your most obedient & obliged servant, 



GIL. WHITE. 



LETTER XVI. 



WHITE TO MARSHAM. 



DEAR SIR, 



OUR two last letters seem as if they had crossed each other on 

 the road ; but whether they conversed when they met, does 

 not appear. 



