SELBORXIAXA 67 
birds’ feathers should be dealt with, it is hoped that the Bill as 
outlined will do a great deal of good. 
A Grangerized “Selborne.” — On Wednesday last Messrs. 
Hodgson sold by auction the only copy of a grangerized “ Natural 
History of Selborne” that has come into the market — at any rate, 
of late years. The edition was that in Bohn’s Illustrated Library, 
with notes by Jesse and Jardine, and the single volume has been 
extended to three by the insertion of more than 500 extra illus- 
trations. These consist of portraits, which include those of Plot, 
Linnaeus, Buffon, Pennant, Sir Joseph Banks, Daines Barrington, 
Bewick, Dyer, Derham, Pope, Archbishop Laud, Queen Anne, 
John Hunter, and Jenner, and a curious silhouette of Pallas; 
views of places mentioned in the text, famous trees, among 
which is the Fairlop Oak, and pictures of animals, plain and 
coloured. Both the binding and the character of the extra 
illustrations show that the book was grangerized before the days 
of the Selborne Society and the spread of Nature study, to which 
there is no reference. The original volume cost 5s. ; the work 
as submitted on Wednesday was purchased by Mr. Maggs for 
£2 los . — The Field, January ii, 1908. 
A Partially Unpublished Letter by Gilbert White. 
— Mr. Rashleigh Holt- White has kindly forwarded us a tran- 
script of a letter from White to Banks which has recently come 
into his possession, and which was published in part in Professor 
Bell’s edition of the “Selborne,” vol ii., pp. 241-2. It is as 
follows : — 
Selborne, 
Near Alton, Hants. 
April 21, 1768. 
To Joseph Banks, Esq. 
Sir, — Lest you should suspect that I forget my promise, I 
take the liberty to acquaint you, that either the unusual dryness 
of last month or some unknown cause has retarded the blowing 
of the Lathnea squammavia. It does not yet appear above 
ground as usual : when it had appeared I should not have failed 
to have sent you an offset in a pot, with the Coleoptera, its 
constant attendants; but now I find last night by a letter of Mr. 
Pennant’s dated from Chester, that you are going to leave ye 
kingdom again in pursuit of Natural knowledge. 
I was greatly in hopes once that both you gentlemen would 
have honoured me with yr. company this spring ; but now it 
seems that unless Mr. Skinner, of C.C.C., should happen to come 
(as he has partly promised), I must plod on by myself with few 
books and no soul to communicate my doubts or discoveries to. 
The district round this village is, I believe, a fine field for 
Botany : we have great variety of aspects and soils, and many 
shady stony lanes for Capillaries ; not to mention chalky hills, 
sands, boggs, clays, and vast shady woods. Here are moors that 
