302 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



bnd nervous cough, & a wandering gout, that have pulled me 

 down very much, & rendered me very languid & indolent. 



As you love trees, & to hear about trees, You will not be 

 displeased, when You are told that Your old friend the great 

 Oak in the Holt forest is, at this very instant, under parti- 

 cular circumstances. For a brother of mine*, a Man of Virtu, 

 who rents Lord Stawell's beautiful seat near the Holt, called 

 Morelands, is at this very juncture employing a draughts-man, 

 a French Refugee, to take two or three views of this extra- 

 ordinary tree on folio paper, with an intent to have them 

 engraved. Of this artist I have seen some performances ; & 

 think him capable of doing justice to the subject. These 

 views my Brother proposes to have engraved, & will probably 

 send a set to You, who deserve so well of all lovers of trees, 

 as You have made them so much your study, & have taught 

 men so much how to cultivate & improve them|. I have told 

 You, I believe, before, that the great Holt Oak has long been 

 known in these parts by the name of the grindstone Oak, 

 because an implement of that sort was in old days set up 

 near it, while a great fall of timber was felled in it's neigh- 

 bourhood. 



After a mild, wet winter we have experienced a very harsh, 

 backward spring with nothing but N. & N.B. winds. All the 

 Hirundines except the sand-martins were very tardy ; & do 

 not seem even yet to make any advances towards breeding. 

 As to the sand-martins they were seen playing in & out of 

 their holes in a sand-cliff as early as April 9th. Hence I am 

 confirmed in what I have long suspected, that they are the 

 most early species. I did not write the letter in the Gent. 

 Mag. against the torpidity of swallows : nor would it be con- 

 sistent with what I have sometimes asserted, so to do. As to 

 your recent proof of their torpidity in Yorkshire, I long to 

 see it. But as much writing is sometimes irksome, cannot 



* [His brother Benjamin, who, on leaving his business in Fleet Street, 

 resided at Marelands, where he died. See memoir. T. B.] 



f [ Whether these drawings were ever engraved or not I have no infor- 

 mation. The artist could not have been Grimm, who was not a French 

 refugee. T. B.] 



