Gilbert white and his Sussex connections. 449 



head." This passage will be a discovery for the Selborne pro- 

 posers of the Water Fountain Memorial, exactly in keeping with 

 Gilbert White's own approbation at Bentley, his brother's estate. 

 And it shows how Selbornian is the noble idea of giving pure 

 water from Cissbury to Worthing, that has suffered so sorely. 

 Homer would call it a work of the gods. 



And here end (1778) the yearly visits of Gilbert White to 

 Sussex, which seem to have been his wont from 1754 at least, — 

 twenty-four years, — as recorded in a previous article. There are 

 one or two notable mentions, however, of Sussex in the later 

 diaries, which shall form our conclusion. 1778 has a brief 

 record : " Sept. 23 and Oct. 9, Chilgrove : Eing Ousels. No 

 Stone Curlews. Oct. 24 : Shopwick. Oct. 26 : Distress for water 

 at Ringmer." The constant mention of " Timothy," now residing 

 at Selborne, are somewhat tedious ; but a passage shall be quoted 

 to show that White wrote playfully sometimes, as when he wrote 

 about the " majestic mountains of the Southdowns " ; and Lowell, 

 who must have been Scotch, could not appreciate the joke. With 

 "majestic Southdowns" compare the playfulness of the following : 

 " Sept. 1787 : Timothy, the Tortoise, who has spent the last two 

 months amidst the umbrageous forests of the asparagus beds, 

 begins to be sensible of the chilly autumnal evenings." 1782, 

 Aug. 3rd, twenty-six days before the 'Royal George ' sank, White 

 noted a vast shower near Petersfield. 1784, the first Swallow was 

 seen near Petersfield by G. W., April 12th. 1788, April 19th: 

 " The voice of the Cuckoo is heard in the land," quoting Canticles, 

 and so nearly matched the spring advent of Milton's bird of hate, 

 punctual then as now. "1789, April 17, Cuculus cuculat" 

 (quoting Linnaeus) : " The voice of the Cuckoo is heard in Black- 

 moor Woods." Two entries about Up Park and Goodwood 

 remain. " 1788, July 6 : The late burning season has proved 

 fatal to many deer in elevated situations, where the turf being 

 quite scorched up, the stock in part perished for want. This is 

 said in particular to have been the case in Up Park, in Sussex. 

 A want of water might probably have been one occasion of this 

 calamity. Some Fallow Deer have died in the Holt." Alas ! 

 1893 was also fatally dry for the poor deer. With regard to 

 Goodwood, the entry is 1792, Oct. 9th: " Selborne: The sound 

 of great guns was heard distinctly this day to the S.E., probably 

 from Goodwood, where the Duke of Richmond has a detachment 



