Vlll INTRODUCTION. 



Browne in early life travelled much and 

 was a voluminous writer ; he made many- 

 friendships with men celebrated in his day, and 

 his advice and assistance were sought and grate- 

 fully acknowledged by Dugdale, Evelyn, Ray 

 and Willughby, Merrett, Sir Robert Paston 

 (afterwards Earl of Yarmouth), Ashmole, Aubrey, 

 and others ; but his general correspondence 

 does not now concern us, my object being to 

 supply in a convenient form what I believe 

 will be acceptable to modern naturalists, namely, 

 an accurate transcript of his notes and letters 

 on the " Natural History of the County of 

 Norfolk." 



These notes and letters were first published 

 by Simon Wilkin in his Edition of Sir 

 Thomas Browne's Works in 1835, but they 

 were not treated from a naturalist's point of 

 view, and in some places were not correctly 

 transcribed, added to which, in the vast mass of 

 matter contained in Wilkin's four large volumes 

 (or in the closely printed three volumes of Bohn's 

 Edition), these interesting passages are in 

 danger of being overlooked or are inconvenient 

 for reference. Two letters, moreover, were 

 needed to make the correspondence with Mer- 

 rett complete, and these I have been enabled to 

 supply. I hope also that my explanatory notes. 



