183 
wet, & the land-springs break forth so frequently, that men cannot 
sow their wheat in any comfort. Our barley is much damaged ; & 
malt will bo bad. 
Have you read Mr. Arthur Young’s 3 “travels thro’ France’’? 
He says p. 543, when speaking of the French clergy — “ One did 
not find among them poachers, or fox-hunters, who having spent 
the morning in scampering after hounds, dedicate the evening to 
the bottle, & reel from inebriety to the pulpit.” Xow, pray, who 
is Mr. Young ; is ho a man of fortune, or one that writes for a 
livelihood? He seems to reside in Suffolk, near Bury S. Edmund > 
so probably You can tell mo somewhat about him. 
Pray do wood-peckers ever damage, & bore your timber-trees ? 
not those, I imagine, of your own planting, but only those that 
are tending to decay. I had a brood this year in my outlet 
hatched, I suspect, in the bodies of some old willows. My disser- 
tation on the Caprimttlgus is almost finished. 
I remain, with all duo respect, & esteem, 
Your most obedient & obliged servant, 
Gil. White. 
LETTER XVI. 
[White to Marsham.] 
Dear Sir, 
Our two last letters seem as if they had 
crossed each other on the road ; but whether they conversed when 
they met, does not appear. 
5 Arthur Young, F.R.S. born 1741, (son of Arthur Young, Rector of 
Bradfield, Prebendary of Canterbury, and Chaplain to Speaker Onslow) was 
educated at Lavenham in Suffolk, became a farmer and impoverished him- 
self by rash agricultural experiments. In 1770 he published the * Farmer’s 
Calendar,’ followed by a periodical, ‘ The Annals of Agriculture,’ in which 
King George III. figured as a contributor. lie made many journeys through 
the British Islands and the continent, collecting information with regard to 
moral and political economy. On the establishment of the Board of Agri- 
culture he was appointed Secretary. Died 1S20. (Rose, ut supra, xii, 
p- 541. Iloefer, Biogr. G6n6r. xlv, p. 902).— A.N. 
