558 NATURAL HISTORY 



a French refugee, to take two or three views of this extra- 

 ordinary tree on folio paper, with an intent to have them 

 engraved. Qf this artist I have seen some performances, 

 and think him capable of doing justice to the subject. These 

 views my brother proposes to have engraved, and will probably 

 send a set to you, who deserve so well of all lovers of trees, 

 as you have made them so much your study, and have taught 

 men so much how to cultivate and improve them I have 

 told you, I believe, before, that the great Holt Oak has long 

 been known in these parts by the name of the Grindstone Oak, 

 because an implement of that sort was in old days set up 

 near it, while a great fall of timber was felled in its neigh- 

 bourhood. 



After a mild, wet winter we have experienced a very harsh 

 backward spring with nothing but IN", and N.E. winds. All 

 the Hirundines except the sand-martins were very tardy, 

 and do not seem even yet to make any advances towards 

 breeding. As to the sand-martins they were seen play- 

 ing in and out of their holes in a sand-cliff as early as 

 April 9th. Hence I am confirmed in what I have long 

 suspected, that they are the most early species. I did not 

 write the letter in the " Gent. Mag." against the tor- 

 pidity of swallows, nor would it be consistent with what I 

 have sometimes asserted so to do. 1 As to your recent 



1 The letter here referred to is no doubt a letter which had then 

 lately appeared in the " Gentleman's Magazine," dated Feb. 7th 1793, 

 and probably the reason why Marsham attributed this to Gilbert White 

 was that the writer had signed himself " A Parish Priest," and had 

 stated that his house was " about thirty miles from the sea-coast of 

 Hampshire." On the other hand it is evident that White disclaimed 

 the authorship because the observations of the writer in regard to the 

 supposed torpidity of Swallows were inconsistent with the views which 

 he himself had expressed in his book. See Letters X. and XXXVIII., 

 to Pennant (pp. 33, 115); and Letters IX. XII. and XVIII. to Dames 

 Barrington (pp. 161, 171, 191). 



Who then was the writer of this letter ? Not Dr. Stephen Hales, for 

 although at one time he resided about the same distance as White did 

 from the sea-coast of Hampshire, he died in 1761, or more than thirty 

 years before the letter in question was dated. 



Apropos of letters in the " Gentleman's. Magazine" attributed to 



