SELBORNIANA. 
97 
in the rules for compositors printed for the Clarendon Press, and generously 
supplied by them to all who care to write for a copy, tells us to write Ctedmon, 
and says it is incorrect to separate the letters. This disagreement of doctors is 
puzzling to the lay mind. 
The most popular of the three volumes under notice is undoubtedly the 
Annals of a Quiet Valley, in which binder, printer and illustrator have com- 
bined to produce a pretty and dainty book. It is eminently readable, moreover, 
and gives a vivid picture of life early in the century in the out-of-the-way valley 
in the Lake District, the name of which is not given. Mr. John Watson, whose 
name appears, we believe correctly, as author on the cover, stands on the title- 
page as editor of the volume, where the author is said to be “A Country Parson.” 
We do not see what is to be gained from this attempt at mystery. It is full of 
good stories, some of which have also been localized elsewhere, of records of old 
customs, portraits of quaint characters, evidences of days when the schoolmaster, 
if abroad, exercised a strange and well nigh incredible number of occupations in 
addition to those more especially connected with his office. We say this in the 
supposition that the extraordinary document on p. 36, which space will not allow 
us to reproduce, is genuine ; but we confess to some doubt on the subject. The 
wills and other documents from the church chest afford interesting reading. 
Selbornians will peruse with especial interest the accounts of the two 
naturalists, John Gough and John Dalton, who, though not actually natives of the 
dale, were closely associated with its history. Gough, the “ blind philosopher,” 
as he was called, was a friend of Wordsworth, who commemorated him in verse. 
He became blind when about two years old, but from his earliest days was 
devoted to natural history. His knowledge of wild flowers was extraordinary ; 
by touching them with his fingers and tongue he was able to distinguish them 
readily, and attempts to puzzle him were unsuccessful. John Dalton, whose 
name we usually associate with the atomic theory, was a pupil of Gough ; his 
plants are preserved in ten volumes in the Manchester Public Library. We are 
not quite clear that the writer has so accurate a knowledge 01 plants as these 
earlier folk possessed ; anyway, we do not know what the “purple iris” can be 
which “towers over all” on the borders of the tarn, nor are we clear as to the 
“ bugloss ” on the edges of the bog. But this is a pleasant book to read, either 
in the quiet valley or the arm chair, and the author has done well to put his 
memoirs into print. 
SELBORNIANA. 
From a Window. — The list of birds seen by myself from the study window 
of this house now contains over fifty species, and may interest some of your readers. 
We came to the house in October, 1887, and the observations extend to the present 
date. The window is a large bow- window, opening to the ground, and facing 
due west, but with a good telescope or opera-glass (I always keep both so that 
they can be used at a moment’s notice), one can see some distance to the north- 
west and south-west. The list of species is : — Missel-thrush, fieldfare, song-thrush, 
redwing, blackbird, redstart, redbreast, blackcap, willow-wren, hedge-sparrow, 
long-tailed tit, great tit, coal tit, marsh tit, blue tit, nuthatch (has bred three 
successive years in a nest-box on a Scotch fir twenty yards from the window), 
wren, tree-creeper, pied wagtail, white wagtail (once only), tree-pipit, spotted 
flycatcher, swallow, martin, sand-martin, greenfinch, hawfinch (I saw four at the 
same time one day last week), house-sparrow, goldfinch (a pair once only), linnet, 
chaffinch, brambling (we have had both these two species in swarms this winter), 
bullfinch, starling, jay, jackdaw, rook, skylark, wryneck, green woodpecker, 
greater spotted woodpecker, lesser spotted woodpecker, cuckoo, barn owl, kestrel, 
mallard, wood-pigeon, stock dove, turtle dove, pheasant, red-legged partridge, 
gray partridge, moorhen, and whimbrel. We often hear the tawny owl, but have 
never yet seen him, and can hear the nightingale almost any evening during the 
early part of May. 
