THE EET. GILBERT WHITE. XSIU 



of Hants, which you must get reduced so as to fold into a folio. 

 You should study heraldry, and give the coats of arms of our 

 nobility and gentry : till lately I was not aware how necessary 

 that study is to an antiquarian : it is soon leaxnt, I think. There 

 are in this county 253 parishes, most of which you should see. 

 The Isle of Wight must also come into your plan. 



Time has not yet permitted me to go through half Priestley's 

 Electrical Hist. ; but in vol. i. p. 86, I remark that Dr. Desa- 

 guliers proposed the following conjecture concerning the rise of 

 vapours : — " The air at the surface of water being electrical, 

 particles of water, he thought, jumped to it ; then becoming 

 themselves electrical, they repelled both the air and one another, 

 and consequently ascended into the higher regions of the 

 atmosphere.'' If this be always the case, what becomes of our 

 supposition, which is, that by contact and condensation, the water 

 in vapour is drawn from, the air to the water, and that thus 

 upland ponds are mostly supplied ? 



Yours, affect., 



Gil. White. 



I never saw an electrometer. Our neighbourhood is aJl bad 

 with colds ; and among the rest myself also : some have eruptive 

 fevers. 



It is toped that this short sketch of an observant out- 

 door naturalist, and true lover of nature, will not be found 

 uninteresting. There is something so pleasing ia tracing 

 Mr. White's pursuits, in contemplating Ms kind and ami- 

 able disposition, and in viewing his benevolent and christian 

 character, that we cannot but turn to the perusal of his 

 charming work with increased pleasure and delight when 

 the writer of it is more clearly placed before us. The 

 editing of it has been a labour of love and pleasure to the 

 present writer. Although a very humble follower and dis- 

 ciple of GrUbert "White, he attributes his own pursuits, as 

 an out-door naturalist, entirely to his example ; and with 

 him can truly declare, that they have, under Providence, by 



