151 
last week ; when behold, at four feet above the ground the girth 
proved to bo only 14 feet, when yours measured 12 ft. 6 in. ! 
Why this lino shafted tree, with it’s majestic head escaped the 
ax (sic) thirty years ago, when Sr. Simeon Stuart felled all it’s 
contemporaries, 1 cannot pretend to say. If you ever happen to 
see the Hamadryad of y r - favourite Oak, pray give my respects 
to her. She must bo a lino venerable old lady. For a diverting 
story respecting an Ilamadryal, see the Spectator, vol. 8, p. 128. 
Behind my house I have got an outlet of seven acres laid out in 
walks by my father. As the soil is strong, the hedges, which aro 
cut-up, aro prodigious. The maples about 35 feet in height, & 
tho haslcs, & whitethorns 20, winch, when feathered to tho 
ground, were beautiful : but they now, being 50 years old, have 
rather over-stood their time ; & besides, the severity of DecenT 
1784 has occasioned irreparable damages among the branches. 
Thus much for trees. Lord Stawell 2 has lately sent me such a bird, 
sprung & shot in his coverts, as I never saw before, or shall again. 
I pronounced it to bo a mule, bred between a cock pheasant, & a 
pea-hen. 5 * * 8 
You say wood-cocks in their passage strike against liglit-houses 
on y r coast : a Gent, tolls me, that at Penzance sea-fowls frequently 
dash in tho night against windows where they see a light. — My 
well is G3 feet in depth ; yet in very dry seasons, as last autumn, 
it is nearly exhausted : yet you would be surprised to see how few 
inches of rain falling will replenish it again. 4 How do rains 
5 Henry Stawell Bilson Legge, Lord Stawell, succeeded in 17S0 to the 
barony conferred upon his mother, and died in 1S20. — A.N. 
1 This was a hybrid between the Blackcock and Pheasant. It is noticed 
in the “ Observations on Birds,” under the head of ‘‘ Hybrid Pheasant,” 
where the author states that Mr. Elmer, of Farnham, the famous game- 
painter, was “ employed to take an exact copy of this curious bird.” The 
picture was subsequently presented to Gilbert White by Lord Stawell. See 
Jesse’s ‘ Gleanings,’ second series, p. 159. — J.E.II. 
It was engraved for ‘ The works in Natural History of the late Rev. Gilbert 
White,’ (which includes the second edition of ‘ The Natural History of Sel- 
borne’) vol. ii to face page 173 (not 123 , as the plate is lettered), and is now 
the property of Professor Bell at Selborne, where I have seen it. — A.N. 
4 Sixty-three feet is stated to be the average depth of the wells at Sel- 
bome, which, when sunk to that depth, seldom fail. See Letter I to 
Pennant.— J.E.II. 
