AND ROBERT MARSH AM. 285 



servant, & some neighbours came down from the hill, & told 

 me that they could not only hear the discharges of tin- 

 ordnance & small arms, & see the volumes of smoke from the 

 guns; but that they could also, they thought, smell the seem 1 

 of the gun-powder, the wind being N.E. & blowing directty 

 from the scene of action at Wickham bushes, tho' they are in 

 a direct line more than twenty miles from hence. 



As I had written to you as long ago as March, I began to 

 fear that our correspondence was interrupted by indisposition; 

 — when your agreeable letter of July 14th came in, & relieved 

 me from my suspence. You do me much honour by calling 

 one of your beeches after my name. Linnaeus himself was 

 complimented with the Linncea borealis by one of his friends, 

 a mean, trailing, humble plant, growing in the steril, mossy, 

 shady wilds of Siberia, Sweden, & Russia; while I am 

 dignified by the title of a stately Beech, the most beautiful & 

 ornamental of all forest trees. The reason, I should suppose, 

 why your trees have not encreased in growth & girth this 

 summer is the want of heat to expand them. I have not this 

 year measured my firs in circumference; but the}- have, I see, 

 many of them, made surprising leading shoots. My account 

 of the Fern-owl, or Eve-jarr was prevented by Madam Pro- 

 crastination, who, a jade, lulled me in security all the spring, 

 & told me 1 had time enough, & to spare, till at last I found 

 that the R. S. meetings were prorogued till the autumn ; 

 against which I hope to be ready : & as I have got my 

 materials, trust that when I do set about the business " verba 

 haud invita sequentur." By all means get a sight of the 



United States of America. They landed at Southampton on the 16th 

 May, 1756 (Gentleman's Magazine, 1756, p. 259), and went under canvas. 

 Towards autumn, when it was time to move them into winter quarters, 

 there was a strong feeling on the part of the licensed victuallers against 

 receiving them into their houses, and it was doubtful how fat the Law 

 allowed the billetting of foreign troops. Accordingly on the 5th No- 

 vember huts were ordered for them {torn. cit. p. 544) ; but an Act of 

 Parliament being passed compelling the same treatment to be shown to 

 them as to British troops, the Hessian camp began to break up on the 

 23rd December, and officers and men were distributed amongst the 

 various towns in the south of England (torn. cit. p. 592).— A. N.] 



