land-springs have never obtained more in the mem- 

 ory of man than during that period ; nor has there 

 been known a greater scarcity of all sorts of grain, 

 considering the great improvements of modern hus- 

 bandry. Such a run of wet seasons a century or two 

 ago would, I am persuaded, have occasioned a fam- 

 ine, therefore pamphlets and newspaper letters, that 

 talk of combinations, tend to inflame and mislead ; 

 since we must not expect plenty till Providence 

 sends us more favourable seasons. 



The wheat of last year, all round this district, and 

 in the county of Rutland and elsewhere, yields re- 

 markably bad : and our wheat on the ground, by the 

 continual late sudden vicissitudes from fierce frost to 

 pouring rains, looks poorly ; and the turnips rot very 

 fast. 



Selborne, Feb. 14, 1774. 



LETTER LIX. 



To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. 



The sand-martin, or bank-martin [Hiriindo riparia, 

 Linnasus), is by much the least of any of the British 

 hirundines ; and, as far as we have ever seen, the 

 smallest known hiriindo : though Brisson asserts that 

 there is one much smaller, and that is the Hirimdo 

 esculenta. 



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