244 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



he was able to apply in various ways in after time. He 

 succeeded to his father's estate of Stratton-Strawless, some 

 seven miles north of Norwich, in 1751, and from that period 

 he seems to have travelled much in England, particularly 

 where any remarkable trees were to be seen, and, as these 

 letters prove, he became acquainted with many of the most 

 eminent men of his day. Arboriculture was evidently his 

 ruling passion, and he delighted in making experiments in 

 the growth of trees, the results of which he communicated 

 from time to time to the ' Philosophical Transactions ' of the 

 Royal Society, of which he was elected a Fellow on the 9th 

 of June, 1780, and admitted on the 31st of May, 1781. He 

 died on September 4th, 1797. 



" The ' Indications of Spring,' of which he left such a 

 remarkable register, afforded him annually recurring topics 

 for remark; and the value of his observations on rural subjects 

 may be well estimated by White's exclamation : — ' 0, that I 

 had known you forty years ago ! "' *] 



LETTER I. 



MARSHAM TO WHITE. 



Stratton, near Norwich, July 24, 1790. 



Sir, 

 I have received so much pleasure and information from your 

 ingenious Nat. Hist, of Selborne, that i cannot deny myself 

 the honest satisfaction of offering you my thanks : & i hope 

 you will excuse the liberty that i have taken. — I have kept a 

 poor imperfect journal above 50 years ; but it has been 

 chiefly confined to the leafing and growth of Trees ; & was 

 undertaken by the advice of my most estimable friend the late 

 D r Hales. By that i find that Linnasus's Disciples, & their 

 followers, are mistaken in their supposed rule of Nature, that 

 all plants must follow in order. For you see by the Indica- 



* [With the permission of Professor Newton, I have selected many of 

 his notes from the copy published by the Society. — T. B.] 



