88 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBORNE 1732 



Now you mention a falcon, one of the keepers of Wolmer 

 forest lately shot a peregrine falcon, a noble bird, which 

 weighed 2 pounds and a half, and measured from wing 

 to wing 42 inches.* I had one sent me before in 1766, 

 which I sent to Mr. Pennant. 



We have now, what you would little expect, 26 highland 

 soldiers quartered in this parish ; 14 in the street, and 12 at 

 Oakhanger. They belong to the 77th regiment, and were 

 embarked in the S. of Ireland in order to have attended 

 L*^ Howe to Gibraltar: but a cross wind drove them to 

 the back side of Cornwall, and so to Ilfracombe on the 

 N. of Devon, where they were landed. These sans-breeches 

 men make an odd appearance in the S. of England. 



Mrs. J. White desires that when you write to Miss Isaac, 

 you would mention her son's having set up as a surgeon 

 at Salisbury; because she understands that our cousin 

 boards with a Physician. 



We have had much dry weather of late, aud little more 

 than half an inch of rain since the first week in November. 

 I am to be sponsor to my great niece Clement. 



Yours affectionately, 



Gil. White. 



* This incident is duly noted in the Naturalist's Journal^ where it is 

 added that "the plumage answers well to Pennant's 'Brit. Zoology,' 4to, 

 vol. i. p. 156." Peregrine falcons are still sometimes seen at Selborne ; 

 Mr. Parkin, the present owner of "The "Wakes" there, recently saw one 

 flying overhead and striking at a heron. A noble sight ! 



