180 
could liave felt, if i had not digged them, as i do not feel the 
want of the digging money. You see ’tis like Dean Swift in 
Gulliver of propogating a breed of Sheep with hair Instead of wool. 
But here is no injury, hut to self. By the bye i received a letter 
last post, informing me of a hollow Oak within a few miles of 
"Warwick 55 feet round at 3 feet. I tell you honestly i do not 
believe it. — I know there is a Baronet of the name of Cullum in 
Suffulk, hut i have never seen him. I have been to very few of 
the public meetings of Suffolk, & none in these last 50 years. 
Oct r 30. My infirmities force me to write by instalments, & 
Madam Procrastination will command the use of my pen. My 
man has just now shot me a bird, wdiich was flying about my house : 
i am confident i have never seen its likeness before. But on appli- 
cation to Willughby, i conclude it is the Wall-creeper, or Spider- 
catcher. I find he had not seen it in England. 1 It is very beauti- 
fully coloured, ’tho’ the chief is cinereous ; hut the shades of red on 
the wings, & the large spots of white & yellow, on the quil feathers, 
are uncommonly pleasing. You see Willughby does not mention 
thorn. 
I have asked several members for the Report, &c, hut yet with- 
out success : however, i have a few more in store. — I am surprised 
that M r Etty should hear the English language at Canton. If the 
Chinese can read English, it will be their fault as well as misfortune, 
if they do not read the Hist, of Selborne. I had the pleasure of 
recommending a Yol. to Northumberland. — I will not say i am 
glad you are older, but i may say, i am a gainer, that you had 
lost the furor which you had in 1756. I believe your people 
might smell the powder from Bagsliot ; for i think i have smelt 
the smoke of London at Windsor ; & Gunpowder is more pungent 
than culinary smoke. 
My dear Sir, pray pardon me for saying you ought to love your 
Spaniel as well as if you still was a sportsman. Dogs deserve to be 
1 Willughby’s words are : — “ In Anglia nostra earn invenire aiunt, quam- 
vis nobis nondum fuerit conspecta” ( Ornitholoyia , 1676, p. 99). Bay 
Englishes them : — “ They say it is found in England ; but we have not as 
yet had the hap to meet with it." (p. 143.) Who the authors were who 
made such an assertion I do not know. — A.N. 
