21a 
this is a fecret he rarely trufts with any 
but his real friends ; and, indeed, it may 
be prefumed, that he had few correfpon- 
dents in whofe opinion he would not be 
leflened by fuch a notion. Addifon, in 
his admirably humorous portrait ot the 
‘country-fquire in the Freebolder, makes 
this belief one of the Arengeft inftances of 
vulgar party-credulity. On defcending 
from the Monument, {ays he, ‘ oblerving 
an Englifh infcription upon the bafis, he 
read it over. feveral times, and told me 
he could fcarce believe his eyes, for that 
he had often heard from an old attorney, 
who lived near him in the country, that it 
was the Pre/byterians who burned down the 
city.” Mr. Cole, had he not) been led 
away by oppofite prejudices, would, pro- 
bably, as a ftlaunch aniiquarian, have paid 
the jame credit to am infeription cul in fivne, 
that this honef&t gentleman is reprelented 
as doing; but while his partiality to ihe 
Papifts induced him to excnerate them 
from the charge, he was refolved to lay it 
elfewhete, rather than admit the fire to be 
accidental. It is probable that, at that 
period, the Prefbyterizns and Independents 
poffeffed more then half of the property 
of the city of London; and to imagive 
that they would burn their own houfes 
and goods out of {pite to the Church and 
King, requires a faith large enough to 
{wallow the Monument itfeif! .N.N, 
Yo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR; 
O* opinions gererally received, it is 
defirable that theit truth fhould be 
eftablithed, or their fallacy deteéied ; but 
credulity or prejudice too often jead rea- 
fon aftray, and bewilder it in idle fpecuia- 
tion. I was much Jeurprized to find your 
correfpondent in the February Magazine, 
p- 16, deny the irrefragable proofs we 
have of toads being found in ftones and 
trees; but I fhould not have treubled you 
with thefe ftriGtures, had nota cafe of this 
nature come under my obferyation*. As 
fome men were-fawing a large elm_tree 
into planks, they cut through fome fub- 
ftance to which they were ftrangers, and 
having called their mafter and mytelf, who 
happened to be with him, we found it was 
a toad, which muft have becn ki'‘led by the 
fiw, as appeared by the brightnels of its 
fparkling eyes, and the general moifure 
of iis body. From the number of annual 
circles from its hole to the extremity of 
the wood, it-muft have been there at leait 
thirty-five years; for, I fuppefe, the ani- 
mal muft have got into a cavity of this 
* For further proofs, fee Monthly Maga-~ 
wine, Vols. iv. and v. 
Toad in the Trunk of a Tree.—Tartarian Lamb. [April 1, 
tree for his winter refidence, and that, in 
fpring, the wood grew over him, where 
he remained till difcovered by us. If 
toads, then, can live fo long without the 
neceflary aliment of other animals, I fee’ 
no reafon.to doubt the authenticity of their 
being found in freeftone, flate, and even » 
blocks of marble. 
Ray, the naturalif, mentions reports 
of fuch phenomena b-ing prevalent in his 
time, but to which he gave little credit. 
I have beard: it afferted they will live i 
vacuo beiow a certain temperature; but \ 
with how much truth, I know not. 
The fame correfpendent mentions the 
Agnus Scyihicus or Tartarian lamb ; but 
had be known what that {uppofed zoophyte 
really is, he would not have been much 
aftonifhed at the credulity of the learned, 
and the wonders attached to it by the vulgar. 
It is now well known to be the palypodium 
barometz of Lin.a {pecies of fern, whofe 
inferior roots pufh vp the foliage of the 
plant in an horizontal direction, oftentimes 
afluming the figure and fructure of a 
lamb, from whence it fakes its name ba. | 
romel%, ignitying lamb. With the al- 
fiftance of a little art, it has been fhown 
in the mufeums of the learned as a moft 
wonderful natural produétion, and Sir 
Hans Sloane poffeiled many of them, which 
he defcribed in Phil. Tranf. No. 287. 9 
Abr. vol. ii. p. 646. Its noxious quali- 
ties deftroy the furrounding herbage, 
whence arofe the idea of their eating it, = 
and the fap has very much the appearance 
of blocd. In India the yellow down with — 
which it is covered, is externally ufed to ~ 
ftanch blood. Dr. Hunter, in his Evelyn’s 7 
Sylva, has given the figure o! one very ‘ 
much refembling a fhecp, ard ia Dr. De 
la Croix’s Connubia Fiorum we have the 
following fimple and eleg sn: lines: ) 
Eft ubi preteréa tingit fua purpura fuccos, a 
Itque cruor nottro fimilis : Qui Cafpia fulcant 
fEquora, five legant foumota Borifthenis ora 7 
Sive petant Afiam velis, et Colchica regna, 7 
Hinc atq: inde ftupent vifu mirabile mone “Ne 
ftrum. i ee 
Surgit humo* Borames. Precelfo in ftipite ~ 
fructus q 
Stat quadrupes. 
fronte 
Lanea, nec defunt occuli: 
Olli vellus. Duo cornua ~ 
(Ce 
rudis accola credit 
Et citctim exefis pafci radicitus herbis. 
Carnibus ambrofiz fapor eft, fucciq: rubentes, ~~ 
Pofthabeat quibus alma fuum Burgundia — 
nectar 3 
Aig: loco fi ferre pedem natura dediffet, 
Balatu'ft poflet opem implorare, voracis. 
Ora Lupi contia, credas in Airpe federe 
Agnum equitem, gregibufq: agnorum al- 
befcere colles. ; 
* ELorames, Agnus Scythicus. 
