254 



GILBERT WHITE OF SELBORNE 



1793 



48 



56 



Selborne, Jan. 2, 1793. 



Dear Sir, — My best thanks 

 are due for your kind letter of 

 December 21st, to which I shall 

 pay proper attention presently. 

 But I shall first speak of the 

 margin of this, which contains 

 the rain of last year, which was 

 so remarkably wet, that you may 

 be perhaps glad to see what pro- 

 portion the fall of water bears to 

 that of other uncomfortable, un- 

 kindly years. The rain in 1782, 

 as you see in my book, was 52 

 inches ; in 1789, 42 inches ; and 

 in 1791, 44 inches : yet these wet seasons had not the bad 

 influence of last year, which much injured our harvest; 

 damaged our fallows ; prevented the poor from getting their 

 peat and turf, which lies rotting in the Forest ; washed and 

 soaked my cleft beechen wood, so that it will not burn; it 

 prevented our fruits from ripening. The truth is, we have 

 had as wet years, but more intervals of warmth and sunshine. 

 I am now persuaded that your bird is a great curiosity, 

 the very Certhia muralis, or Wall-creeper^ which neither 

 Willughby nor Ray ever saw ; nor have I, in 50 years atten- 

 tion to the winged creation, ever met with it either wild, or 

 among the vast collections that I have examined in London. 

 It seems to be a South Europe bird, frequenting towns and 

 towers and castles: but has been found, but very seldom 

 indeed, in England. So that you will have the satisfaction 

 of introducing a new bird of which future Ornithologists 

 will say, " found at Stratton in Norfolk by that painful, and 

 accurate Naturalist, Robert Marsham, Esq." You observe 

 that Scopoli does not take notice that the hind-claw is about 



