[LETTER VII 



SELBORNE: Oct : 22, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, Tho' I have little or nothing to say, having 

 lately written you a very long letter from a village near 

 Lewes ; yet I think myself bound to acknowledge the 

 favour of two very agreeable epistles from Beckett, which 

 I found last Saturday evening on my return from Sussex. 



You, who are an antiquarian, will inform me in y r next 

 whether Thomas Becket, that famous and turbulent Arch 

 Bishop of Canterbury had any thing to do with the place 

 of y r nativity ; and whether he has left any traces of his 

 magnificence in buildings or charities, etc ; for tho' the 

 man was a bad subject, and an ungrateful prelate ; yet his 

 turn of mind seems to have been splendid and noble. 



Swallows and house-martins appeared in Sussex and 

 with us on to the 2O th Octob r - and I saw on the downs for 

 the first time (on the i8 th ) grey or Royston crows, which 

 are winter birds of passage ; and on the 2O th red-wings : 

 but I have heard of but one wood-cock. 



Your observations and queries are too curious for me 

 to pretend to answer in a hurry ; if even I can at all : and 

 I shall be jealous of forfeiting that honour which you do 

 me in saying " that I am one of those few naturalists, who 

 not only observe but think." 



I am with the greatest regard, 

 Y r most obliged, and Humble servant 



GIL : WHITE. 



P.S. I directed my last 

 letter to the Temple.] 



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