56 The Natural History 



Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, and the fens of 

 Lincolnshire, I was amazed at the number of spires which 

 presented themselves in every point of view. As an 

 admirer of prospects, I have reason to lament this want 

 in my own country ; for such objects are very necessary 

 ingredients in an elegant landscape. 



What you mention with respect to reclaimed toads 

 raises my curiosity. An ancient author, though no 

 naturalist, has well remarked that " Every kind of beasts, 

 and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is 

 tamed, and hath been tamed, of mankind." ^ 



It is a satisfaction to me to find that a green lizard 

 has actually been procured for you in Devonshire; 

 because it corroborates my discovery, which I made 

 many years ago, of the same sort, on a sunny sandbank 

 near Farnham, in Surrey. I am >vell acquainted with the 

 south hams of Devonshire ; and can suppose that district, 

 from its southerly situation, to be a proper habitation for 

 such animals in their best colours. 



Since the ring-ousels of your vast mountains do cer- 

 tainly not forsake them against winter, our suspicions that 

 those which visit this neighbourhood about Michaelmas 

 are not English birds, but driven from the more northern 

 parts of Europe by the frosts, are still more reasonable : 

 and it will be worth your pains to endeavour to trace 

 from whence they come, and to inquire why they make 

 so very short a stay. 



In your account of your error with regard to the two 

 species of herons, you incidentally gave me great enter- 

 tainment in your description of the heronry at Cressi- 

 hall J which is a curiosity I never could manage to see. 

 Four score nests of such a bird on one tree is a rarity 

 which I would ride half as many miles to have a sight of. 

 Pray be sure to tell me in your next whose seat Cressi- 

 hall is, and near what town it lies.^ I have often thought 

 that those vast extents of fens have never been suffici- 

 ently explored. If half a dozen gentlemen, furnished 

 with a good strength of water-spaniels, were to beat 



^ James, chap. iii. 7. 



^ Cresii-hall is near Spalding, in Lincolnshire. 



