LETTERS TO MERRETT.
Reading edition
[MS. SLOANE. 1833. FOL. 14.]
No. 1.
"My father to Dr. Meret July 13, 1668."
Most honourd Sir,
[Fol 14.] I take ye boldnesse to salute you as a person of singular worth & learning and whom I very much respect & honour. I presented my service to you by my sonne some months past, and had thought before this time to have done it by him again, but the time of his returne to London being yet uncertaine, I would not deferre these at present unto you. I should be very glad to serve you by any observations of mine against yr. second edition of your Pinax[99] which I cannot sufficiently commende. I have observed and taken notice of many animals in these parts whereof 3 years agoe a learned gentleman of this country desired me to give him some account, which while I was doing ye gentleman my good friend died. I shall only at this time present and name some few unto you which I found not in your catalogue. A Trachurus [see Note 61] which yearly cometh before or in ye head of ye herrings called therefore an horse. Stella marina testacea [see Note 87] which I have often found upon the sea-shoare, an Astacus marinus pediculi marini facie [see Note 81] which is sometimes taken with the lobsters at Cromer in Norfolck. a pungitius marinus [see Note 75] wereof I have known many taken among weeds by fishers who drag by ye Sea-shoare on this coast. A Scarabæus capricornus odoratus[100] which I take to be mentioned by Moufetus fol. 150. I have taken some abroad one in my Seller which I now send he saith nucem moschatam et cinamomum vere Spirat to me it smelt like roses santalum & Ambegris. I have thrice met with Mergus maximus Farensis Clusij, [see Note 11] and have a draught thereof. they were taken about the time of herring fishing at yarmouth one was taken upon the shoare not able to fly away about ten yeares agoe I sent one to Dr. Scarborough. Twice I have met with a Skua Hoyeri [see Note 10] the draught whereof I also have. one was shot in a marsh which I gave unto a gentleman which [sic] I can sende you another was killd feeding upon a dead horse neere a marsh ground. Perusing your catalogue of Plants. upon Acorus verus,[101] I find these wordes found by Dr. Browne neere Lin. wherein probably there may be some mistake, for I cannot affirme nor I doubt any other yt. is found thereabout. Some 25 yeares ago I gave an account of this plant unto [this crossed out] Mr. Goodyeere:[102] & more lately to Dr. How[103] unto whome I sent some notes and a box full of the fresh Juli. This elegant plant groweth very plentifully and beareth its Julus yearly by the bankes of Norwich river [fol. 13 verso] chiefly about Claxton and Surlingham. & also between norwich & Hellsden bridge so that I have known Heigham Church in the suburbes of Norwich strowed all over with it, it hath been transplanted and set on the sides of Marish pondes in severall places of the country where it thrives and beareth ye Julus yearly.
Sesamoides Salamanticum Magnum.[104] Why you omit Sesamoides Salamanticum parvum this groweth not far from Thetford and Brandon and plentifull in neighbour places where I found it and have it in my hortus hyemalis answering ye description in Gerard.
Urtica Romana[105] which groweth with button seede bags is not in yr. catalogue I have founde it to grow wild at [Golston crossed out] Golston by Yarmouth, & transplanted it to other places.[P]
[MS. SLOANE 1830. FOL. 39-40.]
No. II.
Fol. 39.]
"My second letter to Dr Meret Aug xiiii 1668."
Honord Sr I receiued your courteous letter & am sorry some diuersions have so long delayed this my second vnto you. You are very exact in the account of the fungi. I have met with two,[106] which I have not found in any Author, of which I have sent you a rude draught inclosed. The first an elegant fungus Ligneus found in an hollow sallowe I haue one of them by mee butt without a very good opportunitie dare not send it fearing it should bee broken vnto some it seemed to resemble some noble or princely ornament of the head & so might bee called fungus Regius vnto others a turret, top of a cupola or Lanterne of a building & so might bee named fungus pterygoides, pinnacularis or Lanterniformis you may name it as you please. The second fungus Ligneus teres Antliarum or fungus ligularis longissimus consisting [of crossed out] or made of many wooddy strings about the bignesse of round poynts or Laces some about half a yard long shooting in a bushie forme from the trees wch serue vnderground for pumpes. I have obserued diuers especially in norwich where wells are sunck deep for pumpes.
The fungus phalloides found not farre from norwich large & very fetid answering the description of Hadrianus junius I have a part of one dryed by mee.
Fungus rotundus maior I haue found about x inches in Diameter & half [sic, have?] half a one dryed by mee.
Another small paper containes the rude draughts of fibulæ marinæ pellucidæ, [see Note 90] or sea buttons a kind of squalder & referring to vrtica marina which I haue obserued in great numbers by yarmouth after a flood & easterly winds. They resemble pure crystall buttons chamfered or welted on the sides with 2 small holes at the ends. They cannot bee sent for the included water or thinne gelly soon runneth from them.
Vrtica marina minor jonstoni [see Note 90] I haue often found on this coast. [Continued on fol. 39 verso.]
Physsalus [see Note 89] I haue often found also I haue one dryed but it hath lost its shape & colour.
Galei & caniculæ [see Note 56] are often found I haue a fish hanged up in my yard of 2 yards long taken among the Herrings at yarmouth which is the Canis carcharias alius Johnstoni. Tab. vi fig. 6.
Lupus marinus you mention upon an handsome experiment butt I find it not in the catalogue. This Lupus marinus or Lycostomus is often taken by our seamen wch fish for cods I haue had diuers brought mee. they hang up in many howses in Yarmouth.
Trutta marina is taken with us—a better dish than the Riuer trowt butt of the same bignesse.
Loligo sepia a cuttle page 191 of your Pinax [see Note 80] I conceiue worthy Sr it were best to putt them in 2 distinct lines as distinct species of the Molles. The loligo, calamare or sleue I haue often found cast up on the seashoare & some haue been brought mee by fishermen of aboue [20 crossed out] twentie pound wayet.
Among the fishes of our Norwich riuer wee scarce reckon salmons [see Note 92] yet some are yearly taken. butt all taken in the Riuer or coast haue the end of the lower jaw very much hooked which enters a great way into the upper jaw like a socket. you may find the same though not in figure if you please to read Johnstonus fol 101 I am not satisfied with the conceit of some authors there that is [it?] is a difference of male and female for all ours are thus formed. The fish is thicker than [oth crossed out] ordinarie salmons and very much & more largely spotted whether not rather Beccard gallorum or Anchorago Scaligeri I haue bothe draught & head of one dryed either of wch you may command.
Scyllarus or cancellus in turbine tis probable you have [see Note 84]. haue you cancellus in nerite a small testaceous found upon this coast.
[Fol. 40.] Haue you mullus ruber asper [see Note 63].
Haue [you] piscis octangularis Bivormii?[Q] [see Note 66, also pp. 65 and 87 infra].
vermes marini larger than earthwormes [see Note 91] digged out of the sea sand about 2 foot deepe at an ebbe water for bayte they are discouered by a little hole or sinking of the sand at the top aboue them.
Haue you that handsome colourd [bird crossed out] jay [see Note 49] answering the description of Garrulus Argentoratensis & may be called the parret jay I haue one that was killed upon a tree about 5 yeares ago.
Haue you a may chitt a small dark gray bird [see Note 29] about the bignesse of a stint wch cometh about may & stayeth butt a moneth. a bird of exceeding fattnesse and accounted a daintie dish. they are plentifully taken in marshland and about wisbich.
Haue you a [caprimulgus or written above] dorhawke a bird as bigge as [a] pigeon [see Note 42] with a wide throat bill as little as a titmous & white fethers in the tayle & paned like an hawke.
Succinum rarò occurrit[107] pag 291 of yours. [Should be p. 219] not so rarely on the coast of norfolk. tis usually found in small peeces [butt crossed out] sometimes in peeces of a pound wayght. I haue one by mee fat & fayre of x ounces wayght—jet more often found I haue an handsom peece of xii ounces in wayet.
No. III.
[Fol. 40 verso.]
"My third letter Sept xiii."
Sr I receaued your courteous Letter and with all respects I now agayne salute you.
The mola piscis is almost yearely taken on our coast [see Note 58] this [last crossed out] year one was taken of about 2 hundred pounds wayght diuers of them I haue opened & haue found many lyce sticking close vnto thier gills whereof I send you some.
In your pinax I find onocrotalus or pellican [see Note 25] whether you meane those at St. James or others brought ouer or such as haue been taken or killed heere I knowe not. I haue one hangd up in my howse wch was shott in a fenne ten miles of about 4 yeares ago and because it was so rare some conjectured it might bee one of those which belonged vnto the King & flewe away.
Ciconia rarò hue aduolat. I haue seen two [see Note 14] one in a watery marsh 8 miles of, another shott whose case is yet to bee seen. [See Appendix D.]
Vitulus marinus. In tractibus borealibus et Scotia [see Note 53]. no raritie upon the coast of Norfolk at a lowe water I haue knowne them taken asleep vnder the cliffes. diuers haue been brought vnto mee. our seale is different from the Mediterranean seale. as hauing a rounder head a shorter and stronger body.
Rana piscatrix I haue often known taken on our coast & some very large [see Note 59].
Xiphias or gladius piscis or sword fish wee haue in our seas [see Note 55]. I haue the head of one which was taken not long ago entangled in the Herring netts the sword aboue 2 foot in length.
Among the whales you may very well putt in the spermacetus [see Note 51] or that remarkably peculiar whale which so aboundeth in spermaceti. about twelve years ago wee had one cast up on our shoare neer welles wch I discribed in a peculiar chapter in the last edition of [Fol. 41] my pseudodoxia epidemica. another was diuers yeares before cast up at Hunstanton. both whose heads are yet to bee seen.
Ophidion or at least ophidion nostras [see Note 69] com̄only called a sting fish hauing a small prickley finne running all along the back, & another a good way on the belly, with little black spotts at the bottom of the back finne if the fishermens hands bee touched or scrached with this venemous fish they grow paynfull and swell the figure hereof I send you in colours they are com̄on about cromer see Schoneveldeus de Ophidiis.
Piscis octogonius or octangularis answering the discription of Cataphractus Schoneveldei [see Note 66] only his is discribed with the finnes spread & when it was fresh taken & a large one howeuer this may bee nostras I send you one butt I haue seen much larger which fishermen haue brought mee.
Physsalus [see Note 89]. I send one which hath been long opened & shrunck & lost the colour when I tooke it upon the sea shoare it was full & plump answering the figure & discription of Rondeletius. there is also a like figure at the end of [Rondeletius crossed out] muffetus I haue kept them aliue butt obserued no motion [butt crossed out] except of contraction and dilation when it is fresh the prickles or brisles are of a brisk green & Amethest colours—some call it a sea mous.
Our mullet is white & imberbis [see Note 63] butt wee haue also a mullis barbatus ruber miniaceus or cinnaberinus somewhat rough & butt drye meat. there is of them maior & minor resembling the figures in Johnstonus tab xvii Rotbart.
Of the Acus marinus or needle fishes [see Note 64] I haue obserued 3 sorts. The Acus Aristotelis called heere an Addercock Acus maior or Garfish with a green verdigris backbone the other saurus Acui similis Acus sauroides or sauriformis as it may be called much answering to the discription of saurus Rondeletij in the hinder part much resembling a makerell opening one I found not the backbone green Johnstonus writes nearest to it in his Acus minor. I send you the head of one dryed butt the bill is broken I haue the whole draught in picture. this kind is more rare then the other wch are com̄on & is a rounder fish.
[Fol. 41 verso.] Vermes marini are large wormes [see Note 91] found 2 foot deep in the sea sands & are digged out at an ebbe for bayt.
The Avicula Maialis or may chitt [see Note 29] is a litle dark gray bird somewhat bigger then a stint which com̄eth in may or the later end of April & stayeth about a moneth. A marsh bird the legges & feet black without an heele the bill black about 3 quarters of an inch long they grow very fatt & are accounted a dayntie dish.
A Dorhawke a bird not full so bigge as a pigeon [see Note 42] somewhat of a woodcock colour & paned somewhat like an hawke with a bill not much bigger then that of a Titmouse [& very wide throat added above] known by the name of a dorhawke or prayer upon beetles, as though it were some kind of accipiter muscarius. in brief this accipiter cantharophagus or dorhawke [a word smeared out] is Avis Rostratula gutturosa, quasi coaxans, scarabæis vescens, sub vesperam volans, ouum speciosissimū [word smeared] excludens. I haue had many of them & am sorry I have not one to send you I spoake to a friend to shoote one butt I doubt they are gone ouer.
of the vpupa [see Note 35] diuers have been brought mee & some I haue obserued in these parts as I trauuyled about.
The Aquila Gesneri I sent [aliue added above] to Dr. Scarburg [see Note 3] who told mee it was kept in the colledge it was brought mee out of Ireland. I kept it 2 yeares in my howse I am sorry I haue only one fether of it to send you.
A shooing horn or Barker from the figure of the bill & barking note [see Note 38] a long made bird of white & blakish colour finne footed, a marsh bird & not rare some times of the yeare in marshland. it may upon vewe bee called Recuruirostra nostras or Auoseta much resembling the Auosettæ [species crossed out] species in Johnstonus tab (54). I send you the head in picture
[A smeared out] stone curliews I haue kept in large cages [see Note 37] the[y] haue a prettie shrill note, not hard to bee got in some parts of norfolk.
[Fol. 42] Haue you Scorpius marinus Schoneueldei [see Note 68]
haue you putt in the musca Tuliparū muscata[108]
That bird which I sayd much answered the discription of Garrulus Argentoratensis [see Note 49] I send you it was shott on a tree x miles of 4 yeares ago. it may well bee called the Parret Jay or Garrulus psittacoides speciosus. the colours are much faded. if you haue it before I should bee content to haue it agayne otherwise you may please to keep it.
Garrulus Bohemicus[109] probably you haue a prettie handsome bird with the fine cinnaberin tipps of the wings some wch I haue seen heere haue the tayle tipt with yellowe wch is not in the discription.
I haue also sent you urtica mas [see Note 105] which I lately gathered at Golston by yarmouth where I found it to growe also 25 yeares ago. of the stella marina Testacea which I sent you [see Note 87] I do not find the figure in any booke.
I send you a few flies[110] which some unhealthful yeares about the first part of september I haue obserued so numerous upon plashes in the marshes & marish diches that in a small compasse it were no hard matter to gather a peck of them I brought some what my box would hold butt the greatest part are scatterd lost or giuen away for memorie sake I writ on my box muscæ palustres Autumnales [See Appendix D.]
worthy Sr I shall be euer redie to serue you who am Sr your humble Seruant
Tho Browne.
Norwich, Sep 16. 1668.
No. IV.
"The fourth Letter to Dr. Merrett Decemb xxix." [1668]
[Fol. 42 verso.] Sr I am very joyfull that you haue recouered your health whereof I heartily wish the continuation for your own and the publick good. And I humbly thank you for the courteous present of your booke.[111] with much delight and satisfaction I had read the same not once in English I must needs acknowledge your com̄ent more acceptable to me then the text which I am sure is an hard obscure peice without it. though I haue not been a stranger unto the vitriarie Art both in England and abroad.
I perceiue you haue proceeded farre in your Pinax. These few at present I am bold to propose & hint unto you intending God willing to salute you agayne.
A paragraph might probably be annexed unto Quercus. Though wee haue not all the exotick oakes, nor their excretions yet these and probably more supercrescences productions or excretions may bee obserued in England.
Viscum—polypodium—Juli pilulæ—
Gemmæ foraminatæ [formicatæ?] foliorū—
excrementū fungosum verticibus scatens—
Excrementum Lanatum—
Capitula squamosa jacææ æmula.
Nodi—melleus Liquor—Tubera radicum
vermibus scatentia—Muscus—Lichen—
Fungus—varæ quercinæ.[112]
[Fol. 43.] Capillaris marina sparsa fucus capillaris marinus sparsus sive capillitius marinus or sea periwigge.[113] strings of this are often found on the sea shoare. but this is the full figure I haue seen 3 times as large.
I send you also [several words smeared out] a little elegant sea plant[114] which I pulled from a greater bush thereof which I haue resembling the back bone of a fish. Fucus marinus vertebratus pisciculi spinum referens Icthyorachius or what you thinck fitt.
And though perhaps it bee not worth the taking notice of formicæ arenariæ marinæ or at least muscus formicarius marinus[115] yet I obserue great numbers by the seashoare and at yarmouth an open sandy coast, in a sunny day many large and winged ones may bee obserued upon & rising out of the [shoare crossed out] wet sands when the tide falls away.
Notonecton an insect that swimmeth on its back [see Note 98] & mentioned by Muffettus may be obserued with us.
I send you a white Reed chock[116] by name some kind of Junco or litle sort thereof I haue had another very white when fresh.
Also the draught of a sea fowle called a sherewater [see Note 17] billed like a cormorant, feirce & snapping like it upon any touch. I kept 2 of them aliue 5 weekes cramming them with fish refusing of themselues to feed on anything & wearied with cramming them they liued 17 dayes without food. They often fly about fishing [ves crossed out] shipps when they cleans their fish & throwe away the offell. so that it may bee referred to the Lari as Larus niger gutture albido rostro adunco.
Gossander videtur esse puphini species [Pinax, p. 184]. worthy Sr that wch we call a gossander [see Note 19] & is no rare fowle among us is a large well colourd & marked diuing fowle most answering the [mer crossed out] Merganser. it may bee like the puffin in fattnesse and [Ranknesse crossed out] Ranknesse butt no fowle is I think like the puffin differenced from all others by a peculiar kind of bill
[Fol 43 verso.] Barganders [see Note 18] not so rare as Turn [Turner] makes them comm̄on in Norfolk so abounding in vast & spatious warrens.
If you haue not yet putt in Larus minor or a sterne [see Note 13] it would not bee omitted, comm̄on about broad waters and plashes not farre from the sea.
Haue you a Yarwhelp, Barker, or Latrator [see Note 39] a marsh bird about the bignesse of a Godwitt
Haue you Dentalia [see Note 83] which are small vniualue testacea whereof sometimes wee find some on the seashoare
Haue you putt in nerites another little Testaceum which wee haue [see Note 83].
Haue you an Apiaster a small bird calld a Beebird.[117]
Haue you morinellus marinus or the sea Dotterell better colourd then the other & somewhat lesse [see Note 28].
I send you a draught of 2 small birds the bigger called a Chipper or Betulæ Carptor [see Note 48] cropping the first sproutings of the Birch trees & comes early in the spring. The other a very small bird lesse than the certhya or ox eyecreeper called a whinne bird
I send you the draught of a fish taken sometimes in our seas [see Note 69]. pray compare it with Draco minor Johnstoni. this draught was taken from the fish dried & so the prickly finnes less discernible.
There is a very small kind of smelt [see Note 71] butt in shape & smell like the other taken in good plenty about [wh crossed out] Lynne & called Primmes.
Though Scombri Or Makerells [see Note 73] bee a com̄on fish yet [in crossed out] our seas afford sometimes strange & large ones as I haue heard from fishermen & others. & this yeare 1668 one was taken at Lestoffe an ell long by measure & presented to a Gentleman a friend of myne.
Musca Tuliparum moschata is a small beelike flye [see Note 108] of an excellent fragrant odour which I haue often found at the bottom of the flowers of Tuleps.
[Fol. 44.] In the little box I send a peece of vesicaria or seminaria marina [yo crossed out] cutt of from a good full one found on the sea shoare [see Note 91].
Wee haue [two or three words smeared out here] also an eiectment of the sea very com̄on which is fanago [see Note 91] whereof some very large.
I thank you for communicating the account of Thunder & lightening some strange effects thereof I haue found heere butt this last yeere wee had litle or no Thunder & lightening. [No signature.]
No. V.
Dr. Browne To Merrett.
[This letter which was originally printed in the "Posthumous Works," will be found in MS. Sloane 1911-13, fol. 106, where it is headed in pencil as addressed to Sir Wm. Dugdale, but it was restored to its proper place by Wilkin in the 1836 Edition of the Works, i., p. 404.]
Honoured Sir
[Fol. 106.] I am sorry I have had [diuersions above] of such necessitie, as to hinder my more sudden salute since I receiued your last. I thank you for the sight of the Sperma Ceti, and such kind of effects from [Lightning & Thunder written above] I have known and about 4 yeares ago about this towne when I with many others saw fire-balls fly & go of when they met with resistance, and one carried away the tiles and boards of a leucomb Window of my owne howse, being higher then the neighbour howses & breaking agaynst it with a report like a good canon. I set downe that occurrence in this citty & country, & haue it somewhere [in crossed out] amongst my papers, and fragments of a woman's hat that was shiuered into pieces of the bignesse of a groat. I haue still by mee a little of the spermaceti of our whale, as also the oyle & balsome wch I made with the oyle & spermaceti. Our whale was worth 500 lib. my Apothecarie got about fiftie pounds in one sale of a quantitie of sperm [see Note 51].
I made enumeration of the excretions of the oake which might bee obserued in england [see Note 112], because I conceived they would bee most obseruable if you set them downe together, not minding whether there were any addition by excrementum fungosum vermiculis scatens I only meant an vsuall excretion, soft & fungous at first & pale & sometimes couered in part with a fresh red growing close vnto the sprouts. first full of maggots in little woodden cells which afterwards turne into little reddish browne or bay flies. of the tubera indica vermiculis scatentia I send you a peece, they are as bigg as good Tennis-balls & ligneous.
The little elegant fucus [see Note 114] may come in as a difference of the abies, being somewhat like it, as also unto the 4 corrallium in Gerard of the sprouts whereof I could never find any sprouts wings Or leaves as in the abies whether fallen of I knowe not, though I call'd it icthyorachius or pisciculi spinam referens yet pray do you call it how you please I send you now the figure of a quercus mar. [inus] or alga which I found by the seashoare differing from the com̄on [see Note 114] as being denticulated & in one place there seemes to bee the beginning of some flower pod or seedvessell.
[Fol. 106 verso.] A draught of the morinellus marinus or sea doterell I now send you. the bill should not have been so black & the leggs more red, [see Note 28] & [the crossed out] a greater eye of dark red in the feathers of wing and back: it is lesse & differently colourd from the com̄on dotterell, wch [wee haue crossed out] cometh to us about March & September. these sea-dotterells are often shot near the sea.
A yarewhelp or barker [some words smeared out] [see Note 39] a marsh-bird the bill 2 inches long the legges about that length the bird of a brown or russet colour.
That which is knowne by the name of a bee-bird [see Note 117] is a litle dark gray bird I hope to get one for you.
That whch I call'd a betulæ carptor & should rather have calld it Alni carptor [see Note 48] whereof I sent a rude draught. it feeds upon alder [budds mucaments or written above] seeds which grow plentifully heere & they fly in little flocks.
That [calld by some a written above] whin-bird is a kind of ox eye butt the shining yellow spot on the back of the head [see Note 48] is scarce to bee well imitated by a pensill.
I confess for such litle birds I am much unsatisfied on the names giuen to many by countrymen, and vncertaine what to giue them myself, or to what classes of authors cleerly to reduce them. surely there are many found among us whch are not described; & therefore such whch you cannot well reduce may (if at all) bee set downe after the exacter nomination of small birds as yet of uncertain classe or knowledge.
I present you with a draught of a water-fowl not com̄on & none of our fowlers can name it [see p. 79 infra] the bill could not bee exactly expressed by a coale or black chalk, whereby the litle incuruitie [at the end written above] of the upper bill & small recurvitie of the lower is not discerned. the wings are very short, & it is finne footed. the bill is strong & sharp, if you name it not I am uncertaine what to call it pray consider this Anatula or mergulus melanoleucus rostro acuto.
[Fol. 107.] I send you also the heads of mustela or mergus mustelaris mas. et fæmina [see Note 21] called a wesel from some resemblance in the head especially of the female wch is brown or russet not black & white like the male. & from their praying quality upon small fish. I have found small eeles small perches & small muscles in their stomacks. Have you a sea phaysant [see Note 22] so com̄only calld from resemblance of an hen phaisant in the head & eyes & spotted marks on the wings & back. & wth a small bluish flat bill, tayle longer than other ducks, long winges crossing over the tayle like those of a long winged hawke.
Have you taken notice of a breed of porci solidi pedes.[118] I first obserued them above xx yeares ago & they are still among us. [See also p. 80 infra.]
Our nerites or neritæ are litle ones [see Note 83].
I queried whether you had dentalia [see Note 83] becaus probably you might haue met with them in england. I neuer found any on our shoare butt one brought mee a few small ones with smooth with [sic] small shells from the shoare. I shall inquire further after them.
Urtica marina minor Johnst. tab. xviii. [see Note 90] haue found more than once by the sea side.
The hobby and the merlin would not bee omitted among hawkes the first coming to us in the spring the other about the autumn. Beside the ospray wee have a larger kind of agle, calld an erne [see Note 3]. I haue had many of them.
Worthy deare Sr, if I can do anything farther wch may bee seruiceable unto you you shall ever readily com̄and my endeauours; who am, Sr, Your humble & very respectfull seruant,
Tho. Browne.
Febr 6 [1668-9.] Norwich.
No. VI.
[MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. MS. SLOANE 1847, FOL. 198.]
[This volume contains a Miscellaneous collection, mostly letters to his son Edward, and some to "Tom." The following (as all in the volume) is on letter-sized paper, 7-1/2 × 6 in.]
Worthy Sr
[Fol. 198.] Though I writ vnto you last monday. yet hauing omitted some few things wch I thought to have mentioned I am bold to giue you this trouble so soone agayne haue you putt in a sea fish calld a bleak [see Note 74] a fish like an herring often taken with us and eat butt a more lanck & thinne & drye fish.
The wild swanne or elk [see Note 8] would not bee omitted, [here crossed out] being com̄on in hard winters & differenced from [the crossed out] our River swanns by the Aspera Arteria. [See also pp. 80 and 83 infra.]
Fulica and cotta Anglorum [see Note 23] are different birds though good resemblance between them, so some doubt may bee made whether it bee to bee made a coote except you set it downe fulica nostras. & cotta Anglorum I pray consider whether that waterbird whose draught I sent in the last box & thought it might bee named Anatula or mergulus melanoleucos may not bee some gallinula. it hath some resemblance with gallina hypoleucos of Johnst Tab 32 [31] butt myne hath shorter wings by much & the bill not so long [Fol. 198 verso] & slender & shorter leggs & lesser & so may ether be calld gallina Aquatica hypoleucos nostras or hypoleucos or melanoleucos Anatula or mergulus nostras.[119]
Tis much there should be no Icon of Rallus or Ralla Aquatica I haue a draught of one & they are found among us
Feb xii 1668.
The vesicaria I sent is like that you mention [see Note 91] if not the same the com̄on fanago resembleth the husk of peas this of [Part crossed out] Barly when the flower is mouldred away. [See also p. 89 infra, where Merrett aptly compares the latter to the flowers of the Grape Hyacinth.]
No. VII.
[BIBLIOTHECA BODLEIANA. MS. RAWLINSON D. cviii. SR THO BROWN TO DR. MERRETT.]
[Fol. 105.] Sr I craue your pardon for this delayed returne unto your last, whose courteus acceptance & worthy entertaynment [?] deserued [a speed blotted out] even a speedier reply. The small plant may fitly come in among the corallines upon the [diff crossed out] account of articulation Icthyorachius [see Note 114] I think will bee a good Diference [?]. whether you will subexpand [?] the word I referre it to yourself. certhia may best bee vertice aureo [word blotted out] or vertice aureo penicello vix imitando. morinellus marinus [see Note 28] I think rather then Aquaticus becuse it is seen most about the sea coast. Anas alis oculatis[120] rather then Anser for it is not altogether so longe as a wild duck. of porci solidipedes [see Note 118] there are still in this country in some places. and I am promised a pigge by a Gentleman that hath still a boar and sow of that kind. I tooke notice of them 26 years ago & having not lately [met with crossed out] met with any thought the race had been worne out butt I perceue it is not—they are whole footed in the forfeet & have [only crossed out] a seame only in the hinder. so they are animalia duplici nomine im̄unda. The wild swans or elk [see Note 8] in [very crossed out] lasting cold winters are most plentifull. It is larger then the River swan somewhat gray & of a lowder note & [differenced call crossed out] a recuruation of the Aspera arteria in the sternon as I noted in the margin long agoe in vulgar errors. the blicca marina [see Note 74] may well be named Harengiformis. [several words smeared out] I have the draught of that an Herring & a pilcher in one paper upon that account [Fol. 104 verso] I belieue [?] you were well informd of the cotta [see p. 79] & fulica of our Ralla Aquatica I enclose a draught.
Of porci solidipedes there are diuers still in the country in some places I am promised a pigge by a friend who cherisheth that [new crossed out] breed. I tooke notice of them 26 yeares ago, & hauing not lately minded them thought they had been worn out butt I perceiue they are not—some are more plainly wholefooted then others & especially in the fore feet & in the rest there is no thorough fissure butt at most a superficiall seame, so they are [No. 3 cap 27 above] Quadrupedia duplici nomine im̄unda.
[This last paragraph seems to have been written by way of emendation of what appears above on the same subject. A photograph of a portion of the above letter will, by the courtesy of the Bodleian Librarian, be found as a frontispiece to this volume. Mr. Jenkinson, the Librarian of the University of Cambridge, and through him, Mr. G. F. Warner and Mr. Kenyon, of the Department of Manuscripts of the British Museum, have kindly interested themselves in the transcript of this letter, which was very difficult to decipher.]
No. VIII.
BIBLIOTHECA BODLEIANA (MS. RAWL. D. cviii.)
[Draft of a letter from Sir Thomas Browne, described in the Catalogue of the Rawlinson MSS. as to the Secretary of the Royal Society, but from its contents evidently written to Merrett, whose letter, dated 8th May, 1669, is in part a reply to it.]
[Fol 58.] Honord Sr I humbly thank you for your care of my sonnes paper & the Royll Societie for their acceptance of it. If hee bee in health I knowe hee is mindfull of their com̄ands receiued aboue 2 months ago by a letter from Mr. Oldenburg.[121] I haue not heard from him of late the last I receiued was from Komorn[R] in Lower Hungary and hee was then going to the mine countryes. I think the Rowd may bee calld Rutilus ventre magis compresso[122] wch is the first discoverable difference to the eye. The weazelling [see Note 60] is as you see in the draught a long fish figura ad teretem vergente. somewhat of the shape butt differing in the head from the mustela viuipara of Schoneueld. butt not lozenged on the back though the back bee much darker then the other parts. I send you the figure of the head of a cristated wild duck. it is black blackish [sic] in the greater part of the body some white on the brest & wings blewish legges & bill & seems to bee of the Latirostrous tribe perhaps you haue it not. it may bee called Anas macrolophos [Fol. 59] as excelling in that kind.[123] there is also a draught of one sort of mergus cristatus resembling that of Aldrovandus or Johnstonus where there is only the figure of the head only this is also ruffus butt the head sad red.[124] wee haue a kind of teale which some fowlers call crackling teale from the noyse it maketh[125] it is almost of the bignesse of a duck coming late of the yeare & latest going away hath a russet head & neck with a dark yellow stroak about a quarter of an inch broad from the crowne to the bill winged like a teale a white streake through the middle of the wings and edges thereof the tale blackish. it may be calld Querquedula maior serotina. I send you the figure in litle of a pristis[126] wch I receaued from a yarmouth seaman. you may please to compare it wth yours. the asper you mention is much like our Rough or Aspredo.
I forgot in my last to signifie that an oter [an other?] Elk or wild swan was headed like a goose that is without any knobb at the bottome of the bill. [See p. 80 and Note 8.]
Haue you had the duck called Clangula in Ald. [drovandus] & Johnst.[127] wee haue one heere wch answereth their descriptions exactly butt [i.e., except] only in the colour of their leggs & feet.
Haue you a willock a sea fowl like a rook or crowe.[128]
No. IX.
[MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. MS. SLOANE 1847, FOL. 182.]
[Fol. 182.] Sr I craue your pardon that I haue no sooner sent unto you. I shall be very reddie to do you service in order to your desires And shall endeavour to procure you such animalls as I haue formerly met with & any other not ordinary wch [shall crossed out] are to bee acquired. though many of my old assistants are dead. & sometimes they fell upon animalls, [not to bee crossed out] scarce to bee met with agayne. I wish I had been acquainted with your desires 3 yeares ago. for I had about fortie hanging up in my howse. wch the plague being at the next doores the person intrusted in my howse, burnt or threw away. The figure of the weasell Cray [see Note 60 and p. 82] was in a long paper pasted together at the ends & I make no question you will find it otherwise I would send another [the willick wee in crossed out] that fowl wch some call willick, [see Note 128] wee meet with sometimes. The last I met with was taken on the sea shoare. the head and body black the brest inclining to black headed and billd like a crowe, leggs set very backward wings short leggs set very backward (sic) that it move overland very badly only. it may bee a kind of cornix marina. [The latter portion very badly written and difficult to decipher.]
[Fol. 184 verso.] That litle plant upon oyster shells [see Note 91] I remember I haue seen & surely is some kind of vescaria or calicularia
of what that other [was crossed out] electricall body was Mr. Boyle[129] showed [smear] by this time more tryall hath probably been made, something of jet it might consist of.
I thank you that you were pleased to enquire of those German gentlemen concerning my sonne I receiued a letter lately from him he hath not been unmindfull of the R. Society's com̄ds & hath been in Hungaria in the mines of Gold, sylver & copper at Schemets, Cremitz & Neusol & desired mee to signifie so much to Mr. Oldenberg.
[The above is hastily scrawled; it was evidently indited to Merrett, as indicated by the reference to the German gentlemen, &c.; the date would therefore be some time in the year 1669. Wilkin prints it in the 1836 Edition, Vol. i., p. 408, but it is not in Bohn's reprint.]