170 
peat cut hi Wolmer is prodigious ; in the year 1788 in one walk 
942 loads ; & in another Avalk the same year 423 loads, besides 
heath, & fern ; & in the same year 935,000 turves ; &c. &c. 
&c. Lord Stawell is the Lieutenant, or Grantee, whose lease expires 
in 1811, as I have said in my book. 4 That Nobleman did me the 
honour to call on me a morning or two ago, & sat with me two 
hours : he brought me a white wood cock, milk white all over except 
a few spots. 
My friend at Bramshot place, where I measured the great pollard 
oaks, & Sycamore last summer, has got a great range of chesnut- 
paling ; I shall tell him what Mr. Kent says respecting timber of 
that sort. The rain with us in 1791 was 44 in. 93 hund. : upwards 
of 8 inches of which fell in November ! the rain of the present 
year has been considerable. Our indications of spring this year 
are thus: Jan. 19. winter-aconite blows: Jan. 21. Hepaticas 
blow. Jan. 29. Snowdrop blows: 31. Hasels : Feb. 4. Crocus 
b. : 13. brimstone butter-fly ; 21. yellow wagtail appears. 
26. Humble bee: March 16. daffodil blows, and Apricot: 
19. peaches, & nectarines. I have read Boswell's Johnson 
with pleasure. As to Bishop Horne I knew him well for near 40 
years : he has often been at my House. Stillingfleet, I see, wrote 
his Calendar of Flora at your house : He speaks in high terms 
of the hospitable treatment that he experienced at Stratton. 5 
Wonderful is the regularity observed by nature ! I have often 
remarked that the smallest willow wren, (see my Book) called here 
the Chif-chaf from it’s two loud sharp notes, is always the first 
spring bird of passage, & that it is heard usually on March 20 : 6 
when behold, as I was writing this very page, my servant looked in 
at the parlour door, & said that a neighbour had heard the 
Chif-chaf this morning ! ! These are incidents that must make 
the most indifferent look on the works of the Creation with 
wonder ! 
< Letter IX to Pennant. On the expiration of the grant to Lord Stawell, 
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests resumed possession of the Holt. 
All the lands held by him, and two-thirds of the former open forest were 
subsequently enclosed and planted. — J.E.II. 
5 See the second letter of the present series, and note thereto.— J.E.II. 
6 The substance of this remark will be found already published in the 
“Observations on Birds ” under the head of “ Chiff Chaff.” — J. E. H. 
