280 GILBEET WHITE OF SELBOENE 1775 



Edward. Nanny White is in a poor languishing way, still at 

 lodgings near Vauxhall: Edmund White is gone on trial to 

 Mr. John Hounsom, linendraper in Fleet Street. The father 

 is to advance with him a fee of £250 ; and the master makes 

 a merit of taking so little, and says that from a stranger he 

 should have demanded £300. 



When opportunity serves, pray read Dr. Johnson's 'Journey 

 through Scotland,' and Dr. Burney's 'Tour through Europe 

 to make enquiries into the present state of musick.' Thanks 

 for your information about cotton-cups. 



Should you not produce in your work a short comparative 

 table of weather at Gibraltar, Selborne, and N. America ? 

 Kalm will furnish you with the barom., thermom., &c. of 

 America. I herewith send you my best account of the 

 cobweb shower of 1741. What is said of spiders shooting 

 webs, and flying &c. in Eay's Letters is so much, that 

 it cannot be transcribed. You should consult Eay's 

 Letters. 



When first I came I fully intended to have sent you my 

 account of the cobweb shower; but this house is so full 

 that I have no opportunity of being long enough alone to 

 think accurately on any subject ; so I must defer that part 

 till I write again. We have continual wet weather; and 

 farmers are sadly hindered in their spring crop : stormy and 

 wet this day, March 11. 



When Hesiod says that the chirping note of the 

 Cicada comes from under its wings, he expresses himself 

 thus — 



AevSpeiD i<fi€^6jx€vos X.Lyvp7]v Kara^^cver' (xolSi^v 

 HvKvov VTTO 7rT€pvyo)v" — (v. 584). 



Is there not a Frenchman who claims this discovery ? 



Sure insects have been more abroad this winter than 

 usual : and lately, in our little interval of fine weather, 



