LETTERS TO MERRETT. 



[MS. SLOANE. 1833. FOL. I4.J 

 No. I. 



'' My father to Dr. Meret July 13, 1668." 



Most honourd Sir, 



\FoL 14.] I take ye boldnesse to salute you as a 

 person of singular worth & learning and whom I very 

 much respect & honour. I presented my service to you 

 by my sonne some months past, and had thought before 

 this time to have done it by him again, but the time of 

 his returne to London being yet uncertaine, I would not 

 deferre these at present unto you. I should be very 

 glad to serve you by any observations of mine against 

 yr. second edition of your Pinax*™ which I cannot suffi- 

 ciently commende. I have observed and taken notice of 

 many animals in these parts whereof 3 years agoe a 

 learned gentleman of this country desired me to give 

 him some account, which while I was doing ye gentle- 

 man my good friend died. I shall only at this time 

 present and name some few unto you which I found not 



^ It is evident that Merrett was collecting a, considerable amount of 

 materials for an enlarged edition of his Pinax Renim Naturalium 

 Briiannicarum, on behalf of which Browne seems, by this introductory 

 letter, to have tendered his assistance, but the contemplated edition, 

 probably for reasons which I have mentioned elsewhere, never appeared ; 

 happily, these rough drafts have been preserved, although it seems not 

 unlikely that the letters themselves, should they ever be found, would 

 differ from them in some respects. 



