THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT, ESQ. 63 



separated from the others on account of their superior white- 

 ness, and the consequent diminished labour of bleaching*. 



" I have been and am still engaged in some experiments upon 

 the potato, which plant has given me more physiological infor- 

 mation than all the remainder of the vegetable world ; and 

 where it has not given me the information I wanted, it has 

 directed me where to find it. I think it is capable of much 

 improvement as an article of human food, and that varieties 

 may be formed which as food to animals will cause a larger 

 supply of animal food to be brought to the market than can be 

 obtained from all the varieties of the turnip. 



" If business or pursuit of pleasure should bring you into 

 this vicinity, I shall be happy to see you at Downton. I have 

 not much to show that is likely to interest you, and my habits 

 of activity are necessarily sinking under the weight of seventy 

 years ; though I am grateful that I still retain my health, and 

 my powers of memory and of mind little changed, I believe. 



" I remain," &c. 



"I wrote down, some days ago, a few observations upon the 

 screech-owl, which was formerly supposed often to visit the win- 

 dows of the chambers of the sick and dying. Lady Macbeth says, 

 ( It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, which gives the 

 stern'st good-night.' I happened once to have heard this shriek, 

 which was uncommonly loud, and most hideous, bearing no 

 resemblance whatever to any of the ordinary cries of the owl. I 

 saw the bird at the moment when it was uttering its horrid shriek 

 at the window of a person who was lying ill of a fever. The 

 owl was at that time a greatly more abundant bird than it now 

 is ; and it was, I do not doubt, led by its nice sense of smell, 

 and, like the raven, was the announcer of present, not the 

 prophet of future ill, the patient having in this case recovered." 



" Having retired under the shade of an oak in a very hot 



* Mr. Knight has suspected this to have been caused by the bleaching effect 

 of the atmosphere during the snimner. 



