1777 BUYS FIELDS BEHIND HOUSE 17 



behind my house, that a7igulus iste, which the family have 

 so long desired. For this little farm I have laid down 

 some money in part payment ; so hope no untoward accident 

 will now deprive me of it. With respects to my sister I 

 remain. y^ affect, brother, 



G. White. 

 Pray write to Selborne where I hope to be soon. 



His aunt's illness did not prevent his noticing, and 



noting in his Naturalist's Journal, exact particulars 



of the tortoise's diet on September lltli, and, a day 



or two afterwards, the fact that it had not " at all 



increased in weight since last year." On October 9th, 



1777, Mulso wrote regretting that he could not visit 



Selborne that year. 



"I am angry with you that you speak so faintly about 

 your own work. Mind, that I expect you upon 'Nature,' 

 and the Bishop of London upon 'Isaiah and Prophecy' 

 next winter. Fail not herein 'as you shall etc.'" 



In the following letter the elder brother records 

 his opinion of the MS. of ' Fauna Calpensis ' : — 



To the Rev. John White. Selborne, Octr. 31, 1777. 



Dear Brother, — Had I not been called in the beginning of 

 this month to Oxford, where I spent all my time either in 

 college business, or inspecting, and transcribing by means of 

 an amanuensis, many curious papers from the Archives of 

 Magdalen College relative to the antiquities of Selborne, you 

 had heard from me some time ago. In my pursuits as an 

 antiquary D"". Chandler has been wonderfully friendly and 

 communicative, and my discoveries about this place are very 

 great : we examined 366 parchments. I have now read your 



VOL. II. — c 



