264 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBORNE 1793 



was quite drenched with water, so that in our clays the 

 farmers can neither plow, sow, nor delve. A wet March 

 is very unfavourable to this district, and to all strong soils, 

 so as to occasion a failure of crops. We must therefore hope 

 that the remainder of the spring will prove more dry, and 

 favourable. 



Timothy the tortoise came forth on the 15th instant, and 

 has appeared almost every day since. We have planted out 

 your cauliflowers in rich ground. 



My cucumbers thrive, but are not so forward as yours: 

 my crocus's make still a gay show, so as even to attract 

 the attention of your granson Glyd, * who, looking at 

 them, cries, " Pretty ! " 



Mrs. J. White joins in respects to you and family. 

 D'* Chandler sets off for London to-morrow. Mr. Marsham, 

 from whom I have just heard, does not, I find, much like 

 Arthur Young. your loving brother, 



Gil. White. 



Eichard White called here this morning, and looked stout 

 and jolly. 



On April 6th the Naturalist's Journal records the 



last search for torpid swallows : — 



"On the 6th of last October I saw many swallows 

 hawking for flies around the Plestor, and a row of young 

 ones with square tails, sitting on a spar of the old ragged 

 thatch of the empty house. This morning D"^ Chandler 

 and I caused the roof to be examined, hoping to have found 

 some of those birds in their winter retreat : but we did not 



* Glyd White, the only one of Benjamin White, junior's, children who 

 attained majority, took his M.A. degree at Oriel College in due course. 

 He subsequently became Curate-in-charge of Ewelme, near Wallingford, 

 of which Canon Payne Smith (subsequently Dean of Canterbury) was the 

 Rector, in whose house at Christ Church he died in 1869 from the effect of 

 an accident, at an advanced age. Mrs. Benjamin White, junior, died at 

 Ewelme in 1833. 



