OF SELBORNE 65 



curious to remark whether they will call on us at their 

 return in the spring, as they did last year. 



I want to be better informed with regard to ichthyology. 

 If fortune had settled me near the sea-side, or near some 

 great river, my natural propensity would soon have urged 

 me to have made myself acquainted with their pro- 

 ductions : but as I have lived mostly in inland parts, and 

 in an upland district, my knowledge of fishes extends 

 little farther than to those common sorts which our 

 brooks and lakes produce. 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXII 



Selbornb, July 2, 1769. 

 Dear Sir, 



As to the peculiarity of jackdaws building with us under 

 the ground in rabbit-burrows, you have, in part, hit upon 

 the reason ; for, in reality, there are hardly any towers 

 or steeples in all this country. And perhaps, Norfolk 

 excepted, Hampshire and Sussex are as meanly furnished 

 with churches as almost any counties in the kingdom. 

 We have many livings of two or three hundred pounds a 

 year, whose houses of worship make little better appear- 

 ance than dovecots. When I first saw Northamptonshire, 

 Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, and the fens of 

 Lincolnshire, I was amazed at the number of spires which 

 presented themselves in every point of view. As an 

 admirer of prospects, I have reason to lament this want 

 in my own country ; for such objects are very necessary 

 ingredients in an elegant landscape. 



What you mention with respect to reclaimed toads 

 raises my curiosity. An ancient author, though no 

 55— c 



