ROBERT POCOCK. 251 



up, as she cannot extend her liberality so far as to part 

 with them to her collecting friend. Our youngest 

 daughter, and two of Mrs. CresswelPs children, are 

 much indisposed with the hooping, which disturbs the 

 fond and anxious mothers night and day. You are the 

 only person I have ever known that succeeded in 

 transplanting the orchis tribe. The bee, the fly, and 

 birds' nest were frequently found in the woods around 

 us; but owing to cultivation on the one hand, and 

 ignorant and pretended botanists on the other, they 

 are become very scarce. I find great difficulty in keeping 

 the fly alive ; I had two in the garden last summer, 

 but both died in the winter, and one I placed under a 

 cucumber frame with my auriculas is alive and hearty. 

 " I am, Sir, 



" Your very much obliged, 



" SARAH NOBLE.-" 



These letters have been set out the more readily since 

 the former of them shows that Pocock had to some 

 extent " opened his griefs " to the venerable and 

 accomplished clergyman (his kind correspondent); but 

 although a member of the Established Church, the 

 times in which Pocock 's lot was mainly cast were not 

 those in which the Church of England was characterized 

 by any general religious fervour or activity, and we 

 shall search in vain for any indication in his Annals 

 that he personally exhibited any exception to the 

 fashionable lethargy of the day in this respect. On the 

 other hand, the religious reflections to which he gave 

 utterance in his " Dartford " Preface, at p. 239, are of 

 unimpeachable propriety and force, and of appropriate 

 application. 



