296 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



Dec. 21. I am interrupted by the friend that directs this, & 

 can only add that i am always, with great esteem, your 

 obliged & obedient servant, R: MARSH AM. 



[This letter was franked by " Suffield." 21st December.] 



LETTER XVIII. 



WHITE TO MARSHAM. 



Selborne. Jan. 2. 



1793. 



DEAR SIR, 

 RAIN IN MY best thanks are due for your kind letter 



1792 



inch. Hund. of Decem r 21, to which I shall pay proper 



Jan. ... 6-7 attention presently. But I shall first speak 



Feb. ... 1-68 of the margin of this, which contains the rain 



Mar. . . . 6-70 of last year, which was so remarkably wet, 



Apr. ... 4-8 that You may be perhaps glad to see what 



May ... 3-0 proportion the fall of water bears to that of 



Ju. ... 278 other uncomfortable, unkindly years. The 



July ... 5-16 rain in 1782, as you see in my book, was 



Aug. ... 4-25 52 inches ; in 1789, 42 inches ; & in 1791, 



Sep. ... 553 44 inches: yet these wet seasons had not the 



Oct. ... 5-55 bad influence of last year, which much in- 



Nov. ... 1-65 jured our harvest; damaged our fallows; pre- 



Dec. ... 2-11 vented the poor from getting in their peat & 



turf, which lies rotting in the Forest; washed 



48-56 & soaked my cleft beechen wood, so that it 



will not burn ; it prevented our fruits from 



ripening. The truth is, we have had as wet years, but more 

 intervals of warmth and sunshine. 



I am now perswaded that your bird is a great curiosity, the 

 very Certhia muralis, or Wall-creeper, which neither Wil- 

 lughby nor Ray ever saw; nor have I, in 50 years attention 

 to the winged creation, ever met with it either wild, or among 

 the vast collections that I have examined in London. It seems 

 to be a South Europe bird, frequenting towns, & towers, & 



