of Hants, which you must get reduced so as to fold into a folio. You should study heraldry, and give the coats of arms of our nobility and gentry: till lately I was not aware how necessary that study is to an antiquarian: it is soon learnt, I think. There are in this county 253 parishes, most of which you should see. The Isle of Wight must also come into your plan.

Time has not yet permitted me to go through half Priestley's Electrical Hist.; but in vol. i. p. 86, I remark that Dr. Desaguliers proposed the following conjecture concerning the rise of vapours :-" The air at the surface of water being electrical, particles of water, he thought, jumped to it; then becoming themselves electrical, they repelled both the air and one another, and consequently ascended into the higher regions of the atmosphere." If this be always the case, what becomes of our supposition, which is, that by contact and condensation, the water in vapour is drawn from the air to the water, and that thus upland ponds are mostly supplied?

Yours, affect.,

GIL. WHITE.

I never saw an electrometer. Our neighbourhood is all bad with colds; and among the rest myself also: some have eruptive fevers.

It is hoped that this short sketch of an observant outdoor naturalist, and true lover of nature, will not be found uninteresting. There is something so pleasing in tracing Mr. White's pursuits, in contemplating his kind and amiable disposition, and in viewing his benevolent and christian. character, that we cannot but turn to the perusal of his charming work with increased pleasure and delight when the writer of it is more clearly placed before us. The editing of it has been a labour of love and pleasure to the present writer. Although a very humble follower and disciple of Gilbert White, he attributes his own pursuits, as an out-door naturalist, entirely to his example; and with him can truly declare, that they have, under Providence, by

keeping the body and mind employed, contributed to much health and cheerfulness of spirits; and, what still adds to his happiness, have led him to the knowledge of a circle of friends, whose intelligent communications will ever be considered a matter of singular satisfaction and improvement.

I am indebted to one of my daughters for the following short poetical summary of the Rev. Gilbert White's amiable character:

He lived in solitude-'midst trees and flowers,
Life's sunshine mingling with its passing showers;
No storms to startle, and few clouds to shade,
The even path his christian virtues made.

Yet not alone he lived! Soft voices near,

With whisper'd sweetness, soothed the good man's ear;
He heard them murmuring through the distant trees,
While, softly wafted on the summer breeze,

The hum of insects and the song of birds

Spoke to his heart in tones more sweet than words.

Him in those quiet shades the poor might bless,
Though few intruded on his loneliness;
He fed the hungry, pitied the distress'd,
And smooth'd their path to everlasting rest.
Thus hearing Nature speak in every sound,
Goodness and love in all her works he found,
Sermons in stones and in the running brooks;
Wisdom far wiser than in printed books,
And in the silence of his calm abode

In nature's works he worshipp'd nature's God!

MATILDA HOUSTOUN.

POEMS,

SELECTED FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS OF THE

REV. GILBERT WHITE.

B

INVITATION TO SELBORNE.

SEE, Selborne spreads her boldest beauties round
The varied valley, and the mountain ground,
Wildly majestic! What is all the pride
Of flats, with loads of ornaments supplied ?—
Unpleasing, tasteless, impotent expense,
Compared with Nature's rude magnificence.

Arise, my stranger, to these wild scenes haste;
The unfinish'd farm awaits your forming taste:
Plan the pavilion, airy, light, and true;

Through the high arch call in the length'ning view;
Expand the forest sloping up the hill ;
Swell to a lake the scant, penurious rill;
Extend the vista; raise the castle mound
In antique taste, with turrets ivy-crown'd:
O'er the gay lawn the flow'ry shrub dispread,
Or with the blending garden mix the mead;
Bid China's pale, fantastic fence delight ;
Or with the mimic statue trap the sight.

Oft on some evening, sunny, soft, and still,
The Muse shall lead thee to the beech-grown hill,
To spend in tea the cool, refreshing hour,
Where nods in air the pensile, nest-like bower; *
Or where the hermit hangs the straw-clad cell,†
Emerging gently from the leafy dell,

* A kind of arbour on the side of a hill.

A grotesque building, contrived by a young gentleman, who used on occasion to appear in the character of a hermit.