n8 THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 



like the scientist, but is forever relating his tor- 

 toise to himself. The lines just quoted were from 

 a letter dated April 12, 1772. Eight years after- 

 wards, in another letter, dated Selborne, April 21, 

 1 780, and addressed to " the Hon. Daines Bar- 

 rington," the good rector writes : — 



" Dear Sir, — The old Sussex tortoise, that I 

 have mentioned to you so often, is become my 

 property. I dug it out of its winter dormitory in 

 March last, when it was enough awakened to ex- 

 press its resentments by hissing, and, packing it in 

 a box with earth, carried it eighty miles in post- 

 chaises. The rattle and hurry of the journey so 

 perfectly roused it that, when I turned it out on 

 the border, it walked twice down to the bottom 

 of my garden." 



Not once, not three times, but twice down to 

 the bottom of the garden ! We do not question it 

 for a moment ; we simply think of the excellent 

 thesis material wasted here in making a mere 

 popular page of nature-writing. Gilbert White 

 never got his Ph. D., if I remember, because, I 

 suppose, he stopped counting after the tortoise 

 made its second trip, and because he kept the 

 creature among the hepaticas of the garden, in- 



