40 NATURAL HISTORY 



sound, and in high perfection, were winter-cut, viz. in 

 February and March, before the bark would run. 



In old times The Holt was estimated to be eighteen 

 miles, computed measure, from water-carriage, viz. from 

 the town of Chertsey, on the Thames ; but now it is 

 not half that distance, since the Wey is made navigable 

 up to the town of Godalming, in the county of Surrey 7 - 



LETTER X. 



TO THE SAME 1 . 



August 4, 1767. 



IT has been my misfortune never to have had any 

 neighbours whose studies have led them towards the 

 pursuit of natural knowledge ; so that, for want of a 

 companion to quicken my industry and sharpen my 

 attention, I have made but slender progress in a kind 

 of information to which I have been attached from my 

 childhood. 



sion of another fall of timber in The Holt, the people of Frinsham again 

 assembled aud carried off openly upwards of six thousand faggots. 

 So difficult is it to convince where interest opposes. E. T. B. 



7 The formation of the Basingstoke Canal has again reduced the 

 distance of The Holt from water-carriage ; which is now accessible, 

 either at Odiham or at Bagman's Castle, within about seven miles. 

 E. T. B. 



1 Pennant, the correspondent for many years of Gilbert White and the 

 esteemed friend to whom the first series of his Letters on the Natural 

 History of his native place were addressed, was among the most active 

 of the scientific and literary characters of his day. At the time when 

 the above Letter was written, the earliest in date of the published 

 correspondence of White, he was busily engaged in the preparation of 

 the octavo edition of his British Zoology : the first edition of that work 

 had preceded it but a few years ; and it was quickly followed by others; 

 and by other works on zoology, and on antiquities, and by tours, topo- 

 graphies, and other productions ; all of which were deservedly popular. 

 For more than forty years his pen was never idle. Industrious himself, 

 he was the cause also of industry in others ; and the enumeration which 

 he gives of the services he did to the professors of the art of engraving 



