23] 



MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS. 



LETTER I. 



FROM THE REV. JOHN LIGHTFOOT * TO GILBERT WHITE. 



Uxbridge, Jan. 27, 177.']. 



Dear Sir, 

 I know not bow to excuse myself for not answering your kind 

 letter before, wben I tell you tbat I returned to Uxbridge from 

 my northern tour tbe 24 th of Octob., now a quarter of a year 

 ago. I bad a most agreeable journey, and experienced all the 

 varieties from venison down to barley bannocks, and from 

 claret down to whisky, and from a good feather bed to one of 

 heath with a plaid for a covering. We visited sixteen of the 

 Western Islands, and the greatest part of the continent on the 

 western coast from Annandale to the borders of Strathnavern 

 in Sutherland, which is 58' %)" north, where the snow was 

 lying on the mountains in August. The red deer inhabited 

 the summits of these mountains, and the roebucks the birch 



* [The Rev. John Lightfoot was a well-known botanist. He accom- 

 panied Pennant in his second tour in Scotland in 1772, and afterwards 

 published his 'Flora Scotica,' in 2 volumes 8vo, in 178~>. lie was a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society and one of the founders of the Linnean 

 Societv. He officiated at Uxbridge for many years, and died there in 

 1788.— T. B. 



Lightfoot is also known as the first who clearly distinguished the Reed- 

 Wren, which he described (Phil. Trans, lxxv. p. 1 1) by the name of Mo- 

 tacilla arundinacea. This epithet, having been already applied by Lin- 

 naeus to a species strictly congeneric, has had to be dropped, and the bird 

 now bears the name of Acrocephalus streperus. — A. N.J 



