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LETTER Y1I. 
[Marsham to White.] 
Stratton March 1. 1791. 
Dear Sin, 
I was intending to write you my thanks for the 
favour of your pleasing letter of the 18 lh of Jan : but waited for 
something to arise that might afford you some pleasure ; when this 
day’s post brought me the honour of your letter of the 25 of 
Feb. Every article relating to that excellent man the late Dr. 
Hales, cannot fail of being pleasing to mo. I never saw him 
towards being angry, but when he talked against Gin. I think it 
was first from him that i heard Onions were good for people 
suffering with the Stone. T then thought but little about it : but 
as i have, for two years past, felt some painful symptoms of that 
malady, i often sup on roasted Portugal Onions, and hope i receive 
benefit from them. — My good Friend, when you touch upon Trees, 
you touch my mad string. My favourite Oak is 12 F. 6 I. but 
this is at one foot from the Earth, and S r Simeon Stuart’s 1 Oak is 
14 feet at 4 feet from the Earth. The best Oak i have, is 14 F. 
2 1. 1 at 5 feet, which is above 19 feet at one foot, and 16 F. 9 I. 
at 3 feet. But i lately was told that M r Archer of Hale near 
Downton in Wiltshire has eight Oakes in his park or pasture, for 
which he has been offered eight hundred pounds. This account is 
so extraordinary that i wish i knew any man that lived near the 
place, that i might enquire the measures of them. I forget whether 
i told you of M r Leigh’s Oaks at Stonlcigh Abbey in Warwickshire? 
The largest is at 5 feet, 23 F. 11 I. in circumfer*- 
As the following relates to our favourite Trees (Beech) i will intrude 
on your patience with a memorandum of mine dated May 26. 1752, 
when i was with my worthy friend M r Naylor at his Castle of 
Ilurstmonceux in Sussex, viz. “The finest Grove of Beeches in 
“the park that i ever saw. One felled two years ago, ran 81 feet 
“ before it headed. I felled one an underling very small in the 
“ Grove merely to guess the Height of its neighbours, which was 
“ + 62 feet to the head. I believe some, are above 100 f. high, 
1 Sir Simeon Stuart, of Harteley Mauduit in Hampshire, and M.P. for 
that county, succeeded his father in 1761. — A.N. 
