116 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS FAMILY. 



dignity ; for the Cornish man has seized on him and appro- 

 priated him to himself as a new discovered world. 



Mr. Etty and I live here by ourselves, and, having no wives 

 to controll us, do as we please : only we are deterred from 

 going to London by the influenza. Pray return my best 

 thanks to my sister for her agreeable present : and to your 

 father and sisters for their company and conversation at 

 Selborne. I acknowledge myself much in your debt, and 

 shall endeavour to pay you in kind. Did you find rushes as 

 much in use at Lyndon as Mrs. Rashleigh has done at * ? 

 Many gent, at Oxford had never heard of rushes, perhaps 

 because they were gent. 



Yours affect. 



GIL. WHITE. 



LETTER XIV. 



TO SAMUEL BARKER. 



Jan. 5, 1776. 



Dear Sam, 

 Gossamer has from old times attracted the attention of the 

 curious. Chaucer mentions it among the phenomena of 

 nature not well understood or accounted for, such as thunder, 

 &c. 



The Tabanus bovinus, I verily believe, has nothing in its tail, 

 or blood-sucking rostrum, but a Musea-like proboscis. I have 

 seen it suck the galled parts of Sir Sim. Stuart's working 

 oxen, without giving them any pain or offence. It abounds 

 most in moist places, and sultry weather. The (JEstrus curvi- 

 cauda lays its nits, I know, but in the warm hours of the day; 

 for my horses which are in stable all day, and out a-nights, 

 are never covered with these eggs at home. 



Pray examine those little dancing Diptera ( Tipulce I suppose 

 they are) that sport the winter through, in fog, gentle rain, 

 and even in frost and snow when the sun shines. Every 



[In the MS. the name of the place is quite illegible. — T. B. 



