274 CORRESPONDENCE OF GILBERT WHITE 



My tortoise was very backward this year in preparing his 

 1 1 vbernaculum ; & did not retire till towards the beginning 

 of Decern'. The late great snow hardly reached us, ct was 

 "•one at once. 



LETTER X. 



MARSHAM TO WHITE. 



Stratton, Feb. 12, 1792. 

 Dear Sir, 

 Many thanks are due to you for your very pleasing & instruct- 

 ing letter of the 19 th of Dec r but procrastination has prevented 

 your receiving them. This failing which afflicted me in my 

 younger days, increases in aet. 85 ; & as i have nothing worth 

 communicating to you, it might safely have continued longer. 

 Our Winter began early, & was uncommonly severe before 

 Xmass. From the 8 of Dec r , to the 23 d was constant frost, 

 with little snow. The 12 tb was the coldest, viz. near 10 

 below friezing point. We here, like you in Hampshire, had 

 but little snow. 1 had a Woodcock in my house the first of 

 October. 



Your new correspondent's Elm seems to me extraordinary. 

 You know the keel of a first-rate ship of War is 147 feet 

 long. This cannot be less than 8 feet round. As Elm is 

 generally slender in proportion to the height, Mr. Chiswell's 

 Elm should be at least 200 feet high : viz. near double the 

 height of the tall Trees of this Island ; credat &c. The tallest 

 Elms i can recollect are by S l John's Coll. Camb. which i 

 should think are not much above 100 feet. You know i traced 

 Mr. Archer's Oakes near Downton, 'till they contracted into 

 sticks. You may remember, that D r Hunter in his notes in 

 his edition of Evelyn's Silva, says that an hundred of S r Row- 

 land Wynn's Oakes sold for 5000£ *. This i investigated, by 



[Hunter (op. at. ii. p. 288), however, says fifty tons for £2500. — 

 A. N.] 



