1782 SWIFTS IN SEPTEMBEE 85 



"Sept. 1-7. The swifts left Lyndon in the County of 

 Eutland, for the most part, about Aug. 23. Some con- 

 tinued till Aug. 29 : and one till Sept. 3rd ! ! In all our 

 observation Mr. Barker and I never saw or heard of a 

 Swift in Septem^ tho' we have remarked them for more 

 than 40 years. 



" Sep. 15. My brother Thomas White opened two of the 

 most promising tumuli on the down above my house" 

 [without result, however]. 



On October 22nd, while staying with his brother 

 at Fyfield, he made the observations on goldfish, 

 which appeared in * The Natural History of 

 Selborne,' Letter LIV. to Barrington. 



Everybody in the Eastern Counties seems to have 

 his own particular cure for ague, and it would seem 

 that Thomas White, who had suffered sharply from 

 this complaint, formed no exception to the rule. 



To Miss White. Selborne, Dec. 7, 1782. 



Dear Niece, — Your father will be pleased, no doubt, to 

 hear that his good offices to Anne Osgood were effectual. 

 This woman went to Burbey,* and took one ounce of the 

 red bark; but still the ague returned; though with less 

 violence. She then entered upon and took all the second 

 ounce which performed a compleat cure. As a corroborating 

 circumstance Burbey gave her a warm linsey-woolsey jacket : 

 before she had no gown to her back. Your father has 

 often enquired of me whether the autumn previous to the 

 severe winter 1739-40 was wet or not: all that I could 

 tell him was, that the lavants at Chilton Candover were 

 high, when the rigorous season began. But now I see by 



* Who kept the village shop at Selborne. 



