CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS FAMILY. 127 



Harry is to have a young gent, at the noble priee of £150 pr 

 ann. Harry and his wife (no small personages) and seven 

 children, and two canary birds, and one aberdavine, and 10 

 parcels, a dormouse and a puppy-dog, all went down in two 

 post-chaises. 



Yours affect. 



GIL. WHITE. 



LETTER XXIII. 



TO SAMUEL BARKER. 



Ringmer, Aug. 19, 1776. 



Dear Sam, 

 A knowledge of the grasses is the most desirable part of 

 botany, because the most useful: but it is the most neglected; 

 for graziers and farmers do not seem to distinguish any one 

 sort of Gramen from the other — the annual from the perennial, 

 the succulent from the dry, or the aquatic from the upland ; 

 whereas by attention their meadows and pastures might be 

 much improved ; and it is an old maxim, that he is an useful 

 member of society, a good common-wealths man " who can 

 procure two blades of grass where only one grew before." 



I am not a little pleased to find that you have got the 

 Hirundo riparia just at hand, because I shall expect from a 

 man of your accuracy some circumstances of information 

 which I cannot so well make myself master of at the distance 

 of Wolmer forest. You will be pleased an other year to 

 attend to the exact season of their coming and departure, 

 time of nidification, and bringing out their first and second 

 brood &c. &c. Pay attention also to the other three species ; 

 for I shall be glad of any well attested anecdotes, intending 

 some time hence to publish a new edition of my ' Hirundines'' 

 in some way or other*. 



* [His two papers on this subject had been read at the Royal Society 

 respectively in February 1774 and March 1775. He here evidently fore- 

 shadows his future book. — T. B. J 



