388 
III. 
LETTERS RELATING TO THE NATURAL HISTORY 
OF NORFOLK. 
Communicated by Mrs. Richard Lubbock and 
Alfred Newton, M.A., F.R.S. 
Read i%tli December, 1877.* 
[The following letters, the originals of which are in the possession 
of Mrs. Lubbock, Professor Newton, and Mr. Stevenson, contain, 
it is believed, much that cannot fail to interest the members of this 
Society, not only in throwing light on the condition of the fauna 
of the county at the time when they were written, but as affording 
additional insight into the pursuits and doings of some of the 
many earnest naturalists of Norfolk and Suffolk who flourished 
in the first half of this century. It is hoped, also, that their 
publication may not only show the importance of preserving such 
letters, but prove the means of bringing to light similar literary 
remains, stored up and possibly forgotten, in the houses of many 
of our county and city families. 
The letters addressed to Mr. Selby and to Mr. Y arrell have been 
supplied by Professor Newton, to whose custody they were confided 
by the daughter of the former, and the executor of the latter, of 
these two distinguished naturalists. It will here be only necessary 
to remark that Selby, the author of many well-known works, was 
a Northumbrian gentleman, who died 28th March, 1867, in the 
87th year of his age ; and that Yarrell, whose reputation needs no 
further notice, died at Yarmouth, 1st September, 1856, aged 72. 
The letters addressed to Mr. Lubbock by his intimate friend 
Charles Girdlestone, of Yarmouth, and by Yarrell, have been 
* The introduction and footnotes have been added subsequently, by 
Professor Newton and Mr. Stevenson. 
