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parts, where they find the lioles almost ready made for their use. 
Several of the edible chesnuts that i have planted, have the wood- 
peckers holes in them ; which i think i remember to have been 
dead stumps. But i am not certain. — As to Arthur Young, i 
never saw the man ; but by the accounts of others, & from what i 
have read of his works, i conclude him an abominable coxcomb. 
We have a story of him, that a foreigner a Russian curious in 
husbandry, went to see him in Suffolk he not being at home, the 
stranger enquired of his wife, how many acres of potatos he had 
that year, to fatten his swine i think 500 1 She answered none ! 
They did not use potatos. — He, you know, gives some descriptions 
of Noblemen's & Gentlemen’s houses, & places. Several of 
which i have seen, where he is very erroneous. — I had minuted 
down some articles of his observations, & a friend told me, that no 
dependance could be had on his veracity. Lies in a pettyfoging 
writer, such as Farmer Young, do not signify much (tho he is a 
voluminous man) But when you find men of fame dealing in 
lies, or false quotations (which are the worst of lies) they arc 
shocking to an honest mind. Evelyn, e.g who had perhaps a 
larger share of it, than he deserved, abounded with both. But 
Addison’s false quotation from Bp Burnet’s travels 1 offends me 
most, as it gave occasion to others to abuse the Bp for lying. I 
conclude Addison was drunk in the evenings when he wrote his 
Travels ; but as they passed several Editions both he & Evelyn, 
should have had the honesty to have corrected their errors as a 
duty they owed to the public. — I wish your friend Daines Barring- 
ton was not sometimes inaccurate, e. g. in his zeal against the 
migration of birds, he urges an instance which makes directly 
against his opinion, viz if Wood-cocks crost the Sea, they 
1 It would seem that Marsham’s memory had deceived him and that he 
must have been thinking of some other author than Addison, whose character 
cannot he affected by what is above said of him. I have examined his 
‘ Travels ’ without being able to find therein any reflexion on Burnet, to 
whom, indeed, as the Rev. W. Elwin has kindly pointed out to me, a 
high compliment is paid in the preface : — “ Among the authors of our 
own country we are obliged to the Bishop of Salisbury [Burnet] for his 
masterly and uncommon observations on the religion and governments of Italy.” 
Mr. Elwin, and there can be no better authority, is fully persuaded of tho 
groundlessness of the charge against Addison. Nor can that against Evelyn 
be maintained. Marsham’s advanced age must be his excuse. — A. N. 
