193 
torpidity of Swallows. Symptoms point as if it might be written 
by you. I had the lie about the toad in the block of stone in the 
Phil. Trans, fairly detected . 8 But i have also a proof of torpidity 
of Swallows in Yorkshire, that i cannot doubt. If you wish for 
the particulars, i will transcribe them for you. Again Adieu. 
LETTER XX. 
[White to Marsham.] 
Selborne : June 16 . 
1793 . 
Pear Sir, 
From my long silenco You will conclude that 
Proci-astination has been at work, & perhaps not without reason, 
But that is not all the cause : for I have been annoyed this spring 
with a bad nervous cough, & a wandering gout, that have pulled 
me down very much, & rendered me very languid, & indolent. 
As you love trees, & to hear about trees, Y~ou will not be dis- 
pleased, when You are told that Your old friend the great Oak in 
the Holt forest is, at this very instant, under particular circum- 
stances. For a brother of mine, a Man of Yirtd, who rents Lord 
Stawell’s beautiful seat near the Holt, called Moreland, is at this 
“ It is here printed from the original manuscript, addressed “ For Mr. 
Urban. To the care of Mr. Newbery, at the corner of St. Paul’s Church- 
yard, London.” The letter bears the 1 Alton’ postmark, and is from the pen 
of Collins’s college acquaintance Gilbert White, the celebrated author of the 
Natural History of Selborne.” — J.E.II. 
* I am unable to find any reference to this circumstance, nor can Mr. 
White the Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society, who has kindly made 
search for me, throw any light upon it. — A.N. 
