548 NATURAL HISTORY 



hope to be ready: and 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 sixth Report 

 of the Commissioners, &c. : it will entertain you, and furnish 

 you. with much matter, and many anecdotes respecting 

 Selborne, of which I could have availed myself greatly had 

 they been printed before I published my work. 1 My book 

 is gone to Madras, and several to France, and one to Swit- 

 zerland, and one copy is going to China with Lord Macartney, 

 but whether some Mandareen will read it, I know not. We 

 have a young gent, here now on a visit, the son of our late 

 Yicar Etty, who assures me, that at Canton he has seen the 

 Chinese reading English books; and has heard them 

 converse sensibly on the manners and police of this kingdom. 

 The Chif-Chaf of this village is the smallest willow wren of 

 iny History. 2 Once I had a spaniel that was pupped in a 

 rabbit burrow on the verge of Wolmer forest. Though I 

 have long ceased to be a sportsman, yet I still love a dog ; 

 and am attended daily by a beautiful spaniel with long ears, 

 and a spotted nose and legs, who amuses me in my walks 

 by sometimes springing a pheasant, or partridge, and 

 seldom by flushing a woodcock, of late become with us 

 a very rare bird. Remember the story of Py lades and 

 Orestes ; and do not say that exalted friendship never 

 existed among men. Chif-Chaf, the first bird of passage, 

 was heard here March 20 ; Swallow was seen, March 26 ; 

 Nightingale and Cuckoo, April 9 ; House Martins, April 12; 

 Redstart, April 19; Swift, April 14; Fern-owl heard May 

 19; Fly-catcher, the latest summer bird, May 20. We 

 have experienced a very black wet summer, and solstice ; 

 but none of those floods and devastations mentioned in the 

 newspapers ! Indeed we know no floods here, but frequent 

 rains. Yet in warm summers we have as fine melons, and 

 grapes, and wall-fruit as I have ever seen. July at an 

 average produces the most rain of any English month. 



1 This Report was printed in February, 1790. See p. 542. ED. 

 * See Letter XVI. to Pennant, p. 56, note 2. ED. 



