AND ROBERT MARSIIAM. 299 



They did not use potatos.— He, you know, gives some de- 

 scriptions of Noblemen's & Gentlemen's houses, & places. 

 Several of which i have seen, where he is very erroneous. — I 

 had minuted down some articles of his observations, & a friend 

 told me, that no dependence could be had on his veracity. 

 Lies in a pettyfoging writer, such as Farmer Young, do not 

 signify much (tho' he is a voluminous man). But when you 

 find men of fame dealing in lies, or false quotations (which 

 are the worst of lies) they are shocking to an honest mind. 

 Evelyn, e.g. who had perhaps a larger share of it than he de- 

 served, abounded with both. But Addison's false quotation 

 from Bp Burnet's travels * offends me most, as it gave occa- 

 sion to others to abuse the Bp for lying. I conclude Addison 

 was drunk in the evenings when he wrote his Travels; but 

 as they passed several Editions both he & Evelyn, should have 

 had the honesty to have corrected their errors as a duty the) 

 owed to the public. — I wish your friend Daines Barrington 

 was not sometimes inaccurate, e. g. in his zeal against the 

 migration of birds, he urges an instance which makes directly 

 against his opinion, viz if Woodcocks crost the Sea, they 

 would beat themselves against the Lighthouses. This, i am 

 well informed, they do, every Autumn in Norfolk. And he is 

 unlucky when he names the yellow-hammer in Hasselquisfs 

 ship f ; one is left to suppose the only bird; when you may 



* [It would seem that Marsham's memory bad deceived him, ami that 

 he must have been thinkiug of some other author than Addison, whose 

 character cannot be affected by what is above said of him. I have ex- 

 amined his ' Travels' without being able to find therein any reflexion on 

 • Burnet, to whom, indeed, as the Rev. W. Elwin has kindly pointed out 

 to me, a high compliment is paid in the preface. " Among the authors of 

 our own country we are obliged to the Bishop of Salisbury [Burnet] for 

 his masterly and uncommon observations on the religion and governments 

 of Italy." Mr. Elwin, and there can be no better authority, is fully per- 

 suaded of the groundlessness of the charge against Addison. Not can 

 that against Evelyn be maintained. Marsham's advanced age mu-t be 

 his excuse. — A. N.] 



t [Hasselquist, born 1722, died at Smyrna in L752. Bis journal and 

 other literary remains were published by Linnseus, and afterwards trans- 

 lated into English, ' Voyages and Travels in the Levant, &c.' (London: 

 17G6). The bird Barrington (Phil. Trans. 1772. y. 276) referred to as B 



