528 EDITOR'S NOTE. 



register, and which has been continued by his family with 

 one slight interruption from the year 1736 to the present 

 time, afforded an annually recurring topic for correspon- 

 dence, while his taste and opportunities for studying nature, 

 led him to make many observations On rural subjects, the 

 extent and variety of which may be inferred from the 

 comments which they evoked from White. He died in 

 September, 1797. 



By a curious coincidence, the only letter from Marsham 

 to White hitherto published (that is, until the Norfolk 

 Society printed those recently discovered) is one dated 

 "Stratton, 24th July, 1790," to which the first of the 

 present series, written on the 13th August of the same 

 year, is, in part at least, a reply. 



This letter will be found at p. 356 of the present volume. 

 It first appeared, under the head of Observations on Vege- 

 tables, in White's " Calendar of Nature," which was published 

 after his death by Aikin in 1795, and which has been since 

 appended to almost every edition of the ' c Natural History 

 of Selborne," although it formed no part of the original 

 work. 



The tenth letter of the new series is of especial interest, 

 as having been penned only eleven days before White's 

 death, which took place on the 26th June, 1793 ; and hence 

 it may be regarded as the last of his agreeable essays on 

 Natural History, which to English readers must ever re- 

 main as delightful in style as they are instructive in 

 matter. 



It only remains to add that the notes appended to the 

 following letters are those which, at the request of the " Nor- 

 folk and Norwich Naturalists' Society," were written by me 

 in the spring of the present year, for publication in the 

 above-mentioned " Transactions." 



J. E. HARTING. 



August, 1876. 



