OF SELBORNE. 559 



proof of their torpidity in Yorkshire, I long to see it. But 

 as much writing is sometimes irksome, cannot you call in 

 occasionally some young person to be your amanuensis ? 



There has been no such summer as this, so cold and so dry, 

 I can roundly assert, since the year 1765. We have had 

 no rain since the last week in April, and the two first days 

 in May. Hence our grass is short, and our spring-corn 

 languishes. Our wheat, which is not easily injured in strong 

 ground by drought, looks well. The hop-planters begin to 

 be solicitous about their plantations. Here I shall presume 

 to correct (with all due deference) an expression of the 

 great philosopher Dr. Derham. He says in his Physico- 

 theology, "that all cold summers are wet:" whereas he 

 should have said most. 



Have you seen Arthur Young's " Example of France a 

 Warning to England ? " it is a spirited performance. The 

 season with us is unhealthy. 



With true esteem I remain, 



Your obliged servant, 



GIL. WHITE. 



[At the head of this letter is the following note in the handwriting of 

 Mr. Marshain : " This worthy man died this month." 



His death took place on the 26th of June, 1793, eleven days after the 

 date of this letter.] 



Gilbert White, it is perhaps not generally known that in the volume of 

 that periodical for 1781 appeared a letter under the signature "V" 

 (since proved to have been penned by White), in which an interesting 

 account is given of the writer's college acquaintance at Oxford with the 

 poet Collins. 



In the Memoir prefixed to the Aldine edition of that poet's works 

 (p. xxxi.), the editor has reprinted this letter entire, prefacing it with 

 the following remark : 



" It is here printed from the original manuscript, addressed * For Mr. 

 Urban. To the care of Mr. Newbery, at the corner of St. Paul's Church- 

 yard, London.' The letter bears the 'Alton ' postmark, and is from the 

 pen of Collins' s college acquaintance Gilbert White, the celebrated author 

 of the Natural History of Selborne.' " ED. 



