178 
NATURE NOTES. 
The Lord Monteagle, Sir Alec Wilson, Ernest George, Esq., F. 
(jeneral Sir George Higginson, K.C.B., H. O. Arnold Forster, Esq., M.P., the 
Countess of Radnor, Sir Frederick Leighton, Charles McLaren, Esq., M.P., Sir 
J. E. Millais, and Edmund Gosse, Esq. 
Grilbert White’s House (p. 155). — Photographs of the above were sold 
some years ago at Mr. Maxwell’s shop in Selborne village — I remember purchas- 
ing one there. Maxwell’s still flourishes ; it is the largest shop in the place, a 
grocery and drapery establishment combined, and there, in one of my pilgrimages 
to Gilbert White’s grave, I discovered that Mr. Maxwell sold photographs of the 
old hallowed house. Should “ G. O.” not be able to procure one, I will unearth 
mine and send it to her to get copied. It was a photograph of the place in Mr. 
Bell’s time, when but few alterations had, I believe, been made in it. I attended 
Mr. Bell’s sale and purchased, amongst other things, a small round table which, 
it was said, had belonged to White. There was no written authority given with it, 
and I have always doubted its ever having been used by a very little man to write 
on, for it is too high to sit at comfortably. I have greater faith in the authenticity 
of a wee glass spoon, a sort of tea caddy spoon, and two tumblers, or glass mugs 
with handles. 
Berry Grove, Liss. Helen Watney. 
A Plea for the Goldfinch.— The goldfinch, which is one of the most 
beautiful of English birds, is in danger of extermination. I have been reading 
in Mr. A. PI. Macpherson’s book on British Birds that — “ The goldfinch has been 
exterminated in many districts by the carelessness of our legislators, who neither 
enforce its protection efficiently during a too limited close season, nor trouble to 
prevent the grey-headed nestlings being caught out by a system of organised 
ruffianism as soon as they gather into small flocks in autumn. No reasonable 
person can doubt that the goldfinch should be protected from harm during the 
entire year, and the callous indifference with which the public continue to allow 
this beautiful finch to be exterminated is lamentable. The goldfinch nests in 
May in gardens and orchards, and builds in fruit trees, in hawthorn, ash, furze, 
sycamore, alder, horse-chestnut, fir, &c. The nest is usually a beautiful spherical 
structure of moss and fine bents, &c. , but we once examined five little goldfinches 
rocking snugly in a nest in a small plum tree, composed wholly of dry grass and 
devoid of any kind of lining. Usually it is carefully lined with down and feathers. 
The earliest br(5ods fly in June, but unfledged goldfinches may be found in their 
nests in September, two and even three broods being reared in a fine season.” 
I hope that all members of the Selborne Society will do their utmost to protect 
the goldfinch and to prevent this beautiful bird being exterminated. 
Hasely Hall, IVarwick. Maud Sawyer. 
Extermination of Butcher’s Broom. — On August 9th, while ram- 
bling in Epping Forest, I met a labouring man laden with a bale of butcher’s 
broom nearly as large as a truss of hay, and pulled up by the root. Asking 
what he was going to do with it, he told me it was used in Bermondsey for 
dressing leather. Whether this statement was fact or “ flam,” the destruction of 
an interesting and not too plentiful shrub was equally an accomplished fact, nor 
can it long exist in the Forest if plundered on this scale. 
J. T. P. 
Gilbert White’s Sermon (p. 133). — The Manchester Guardian of July 
24th summarises the Earl of Stamford’s interesting note on this sermon, and adds, 
“ Lord Stamford omits to mention that in 1863 this discourse, which had proved 
serviceable on so many occasions, was printed in the Journal of Sacred I.iteratiire. 
Possibly it is destined to yield still further aid to the clerical profession.” 
Clapton (Lower Lea Valley) Branch.— On Saturday, September 2nd, 
an excursion will be made to Waltham. Train leaves Liverpool Street at 
2.15 p.m., and slips a carriage at Waltham Cross at 2.40. Third Class return 
ticket, IS. yd. Mr. W. B. Gerish has promised a paper entitled “Waltham — its 
Abbey and Cross.” 
