262 GILBEKT WHITE OF SELBOKNE 1774 



From the Rev. J. White. 



Blackburne [probably August, 1774]. 



Dear Brother, — I have sent brother Benjamin word of 

 what Linn, says about his new edition.* This roundabout 

 method will dispatch nothing. Brother B. must write his 

 own proposals, if he means to deal with him at all. Surely 

 you and I could manage to correct the press ; at least in the 

 Zoological part ; the Botanical I must not pretend to. 



Have you any queries to ask Linn, before I write again ? 

 You see he is willing to communicate, though busy enough. 



This new enterprize of my friend Lever's disturbs me on 

 many accounts.f In the first place, I wished you to see the 

 museum in its native spot, Alkrington; in the next it will 

 be gone from this country, of which it was one of the 

 greatest ornaments; and thirdly it will rob me, I fear, of 

 my friendly neighbour for a great part of the year. I heard 

 from him immediately on his arrival in London. His plan 

 is, he says, " to pursue Natural History and carry the exhibi- 

 tion of it to such a height as no one can imagine; and to 

 make it the most wonderful sight in the world." 



Upon this plan I think he is right to exhibit in London, 

 where he will not only collect with more speed, but also 

 make the thing defray its own expences, which no private 

 fortune alone could possibly equal. If you can send the 

 drawings to town while Mr. Lever is there, he will bring 

 them. I shall go to see him as he returns. 



"What leisure time I have I employ in collecting insects, 

 which I have promised Mr. Barrington as a beginning of his 

 * Fauna Britannica.' I wish Jacky would pick up all the 



* This seems to have enclosed Linnaeus's letter to John "White of July 

 3rd, 1774, the last the latter ever received from him, in which the Swedish 

 naturalist mentions that he hopes to bring out a new edition of his ' Systema 

 Naturse ' in the coming autumn. " Si tuus frater edat, certus sum quod hoc 

 prodest optirais typis, qui anglis communes." — A. N. 



t Mr. (afterwards Sir Ashton) Lever about this time moved hia muaeum 

 to London. 



