ADVERTISEMENT. 
1 HE Author of the following Letters takes the Uberty,, 
with all proper deference, of laying before the public his 
idea oi parodnal h'ljlorv which, he thinks, ought to confifl: 
of natural produclions and occurrences as well as anti- 
quities. He is alfo of opinion that if fhationary men w^ould 
pay fome attention to the diftri(f!:s on which they refidcj, 
and would publiili their thoughts refpefting the objefts that 
furround them, from fuch materials might be drawn the 
mofl complete county -hiftories, which are ftill wanting in 
feveral parts of this kingdom, and in particular in the county 
of Southampton. 
And here he feizes the fn-fl opportunity, though a late 
one, of returiiino- his mofl; i^rateful acknovv'led2;ments to 
the reverend the Prefident and the reverend and worthy the 
Fellows of Magdalen College in the univerfity of Oxford, 
for their liberal behaviour in permitting their archives to be 
fearched by a member of their own focicty, fo far as the 
A evidences 
