COMMON TORTOISE. 13 



several well attested examples being adduced of 

 its having considerably exceeded the period of a 

 century. One of the most remarkable instances 

 is that of a tortoise introduced into the archiepis- 

 copal garden at Lambeth, in the time of Archbi- 

 shop Laud, and as near as can be collected from its 

 history, about the year 1633, which continued to 

 live there till the year 1753, when it was supposed 

 to have perished rather from accidental neglect on 

 the part of the gardener, than from the mere effect 

 of age. This Tortoise has had the honour of being- 

 commemorated by Derham*, and many other 

 writers, and its shell is preserved in the library 

 of the palace at Lambeth f. 



The general manners of the Tortoise, in a state 

 of domestication in this country, are very agree- 

 ably detailed by Mr. White, in his History of Sel- 

 bourn. A Land Tortoise," says Mr. White, 



which has been kept thirty years in a little 

 walled court, retires under ground about the mid- 

 dle of November, and comes forth again about 



* In a copy of the work entitled Memoirs for the Natural His^ 

 tory of animals, from the French Academy, and which was once 

 the property of Derham, the following MS. note occurs : 



" I imagine Land-Tortoises, when arrived at a certain pitch, 

 cease growing. For that I saw, Aug. 11, 1712, in my Lord Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury's Garden, which hath been there ever since 

 Archbishop Juxon's time, and is accounted to be above 6o years 

 old, was of the same size I have seen others of, of larger size, and 

 much younger."' 



f This memorable Tortoise appears to have exceeded the usual 

 dimensions of its species ; the shell measuring ten inches in 

 length, and six and half in breadth. 



