LITTLE GADDESDEN. 1 97 



hear of it, but also told him the question which the great 

 Boerhave put to our learned Linnaeus, whether all the 

 Lapps were not full of scurvy because they dwelt in so 

 cold a climate? and Linnaeus' answer thereto. I have 

 thought it necessary to insert this here, so that nothing 

 should stand as my opinion that I do not own. 



The 28th March, 1748. 



In the morning we walked out on several grass-lands 

 and arable fields, fait och akrar, which lay around 

 Little Gaddesden. In the whole of the latter half of this 

 month the ground here was entirely bare of snow, bar, 

 and green, and the weather sometimes tolerably fair; but 

 for all that there is up to this date hardly a sign of the 

 trees putting forth their leaves, much less flowers ; so 

 that to all appearance they do not seem to see the trees 

 in leaf here so very much earlier in the spring than in the 

 southern provinces of Sweden. Hazel and some species 

 of willow were in flower now, but almost no other trees. 



Et stort fait. A large Common [Ivinghoe Com- 

 mon] lay on the N.W. side of Little Gaddesden, where 

 a number of sheep were pasturing. It was a down or 

 summit of the country, en hdgd. af landet, long-sloping 

 on all sides. [T. I. p. 198.] The soil was the same gravel 

 and sand of reddish-yellow or brick-colour as has been 

 described above. Here and there appeared tufvor, mole, 

 or anthills, enough. The whole table-land was overgrown 

 with furze and brackens, and a little grass in some places. 

 The ground, on the places free from furze and brackens 

 was very much choked with mosses. The districts 

 around Skofde in Vaster-Gothland, when Billingen is ex- 

 cepted, is very like England in appearance, although 

 there are granites, grastenar, instead of which in these 

 parts in England, flints lie on the arable and commons, 

 or 'outlands,' utmarker. 



