LECTURE VII. 11 



Tortoise has had the honour of being comme- 

 morated by Dei-ham*, and many other writers, 

 and its shell is preserved in the library of the 

 palace at Lambeth f. 



The general manners of the Tortoise, in a 

 state of domestication in this country, are very 

 agreeably detailed by Mr. White, in his History 

 of Selbourn. " A Land Tortoise," says Mr. 

 White, " which has been kept thirty years in a 

 little walled court, retires under ground about 

 the middle of. November, and comes forth again 

 about the middle of April. When it first appears 

 in the spring, it discovers very little inclination for 

 food, but in the height of summer grows vora- 



* In a copy of the work entitled Memoirs for the Natural 

 History oj Animals, from the French academy, and which was 

 once the property of Derham, the following MS. note occurs. 



" I imagine Land-Tortoises, when arrived at a certain pitch, 

 cease growing. For that I saw, Aug. 11, 1712, in my lord arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury's garden, which had been there ever since 

 archbishop Juxon s time, and is accounted to be above 6O years 

 old, was of the same size I have seen others of, of larger size, and 

 much younger." 



f This memorable Tortoise appears to have exceeded the usual 

 dimension*, of its species j the shell measuring ten inches in length.,, 

 and six and a half in breadth. 



