1789 COMPLIMENTS AND HONOURS 211 



one would have supposed it might have lasted for ages to 

 come : yet it is gone, as it were, in a moment ! ! * 



These troubles naturally put me in mind of D"* Chandler, 

 who, the last time we heard of him, was in Brussels, in a 

 most uncomfortable situation, having his baggage seized and 

 his papers tumbled about, for which he was in great concern. 

 A man of his resolution and address, and who, by his long 

 voyage to the Levant, has, as it were, been inured to dangers 

 and difficulties, might by himself make his way through all 

 the misrule and uproar that prevail in all the provinces 

 of the Netherlands : but the case is very different where 

 a man has a wife and infant to protect and take care of; 

 and therefore I heartily wish that he and his family were 

 safe at home. My account of our visit from Miss Eeeve, 

 who paid us a great compliment, and did us much honour, 

 I knew would make you and Mrs. Ventris smile. I could 

 tell you also if I had a mind, of a great honour received 

 from Lady Coterel Dormer. You are very kind in taking 

 the trouble, amidst all your busy hours, of enlarging my 

 index : when I had carried it to its present bulk, I desisted 

 out of pure modesty, thinking I should swell the volume 

 unreasonably ; but to say the truth when I showed it to 

 my brother he expressed a wish that it had been fuller: 

 it was then too late. 



Your worry hree is undoubtedly a corruption of hreeze or 

 hreese^ a synonymous term with the gadfly^ well known to 

 naturalists : as to hyant, we know nothing of the term, or 

 of the distemper intended thereby. When I was at Elden- 



* Of all criticisms of Gilbert White's book the remark that *' he was more 

 concerned with the course of events in a martin's nest than with the crash 

 of empires" has always seemed very inapplicable. It is true that he does 

 not appear to have taken any very absorbing interest in these great events, 

 but one would not exactly expect to find them treated of in what was 

 professedly a natural history of a parish. His Naturalist^ s Journal 

 occasionally contains entries of current events, such as the surrender at 

 Saratoga, the sailing or return of naval expeditions, the loss of the Royal 

 Gtorge, etc. 



