OF SELBORNE 221 



LETTER L 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne, April 21, 1780. 



Dear Sir, 

 The old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to you so 

 often, is become my property. I dug it out of its winter 

 dormitory in March last, when it was enough awakened to 

 express its resentments by hissing ; and, packing it in a box 

 with earth, carried it eighty miles in post-chaises. The rattle 

 and hurry of the journey so perfectly roused it that, when 

 I turned it out on a border, it walked twice down to the 

 bottom of my garden ; however, in the evening, the 

 weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose mould, 

 and continues still concealed. 



As it will be under my eye, I shall now have an oppor- 

 tunity of enlarging my observations on its mode of life, 

 and propensities ; and perceive, already that, towards the 

 time of coming forth, it opens a breathing place in the 

 ground near its head, requiring, I conclude, a freer respira- 

 tion, as it becomes more alive. This creature not only 

 goes under the earth from the middle of November to the 

 middle of April, but sleeps great part of the summer ; for 

 it goes to bed in the longest days at four in the afternoon, 

 and often does not stir in the morning till late. Besides, 

 it retires to rest for every shower ; and does not move at 

 aU in wet days. 



When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it 

 is a matter of wonder to find that Providence should 

 bestow such a profusion of days, such a seeming waste 

 of longevity, on a reptile that appears to relish it so little 

 as to squander more than two-thirds of its existence in a 

 joyless stupor, and be lost to aU sensation for months 

 together in the profoundest of slumbers. 



While I was writing this letter, a moist and warm after- 

 noon, with the thermometer at 50, brought forth troops 



