Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk - Sir Thomas Browne

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Dr. Robert Plot (1640–1696) was born at Sutton Barne, Kent, in 1640; he graduated M.A. in 1664, and D.C.L. at Oxford in 1671. He was chiefly noted as an antiquary, and was Secretary of the Royal Society from 1682 to 1684, also the first custodian of the Ashmoleian Museum and Professor of Chemistry at Oxford. In 1677 he published his "Natural History of Oxfordshire," the first local work of the kind which appeared; it was illustrated by sixteen plates. In 1686 he also published "The Natural History of Staffordshire," and subsequently many other books and papers. He was evidently acquainted with most of the learned men of his time. Plot died at his family estate Sutton Barne, on the 30th of April, 1696, and was buried at Borden in Kent. Dr. Plot was a friend of Browne's, and his companion in a tour in England in 1693.—"Dict. Nat. Biog."

      I have endeavoured to reproduce as accurately as possible the text of the notes and letters, which, as will be seen from the example photographed for the frontispiece of this volume, was often very difficult to decipher. The originals of the notes and of seven of the nine letters to Merrett, as also the two letters in Appendix A., are in the Sloane Collection of MSS. in the British Museum Library; those numbered vii. and viii., as well as two letters in Appendix D., which have not hitherto been printed, are in the Bodleian Library; and the letter to Dugdale in Appendix B. is extracted from the "Eastern Counties Collectanea." All the MSS. in the Sloane Collection I have transcribed myself; of those in the Bodleian Library, No. vii. is from a photograph, the remainder were copied for me by a person recommended as being highly reliable. I thought it best to retain all the erasures and interlineations in order to show as much as possible what was passing in their author's mind: in the foot-notes I have sought to acknowledge in situ the valuable help I received from numerous correspondents to whom my best thanks are due, but I owe a special debt of gratitude to Professor Newton, at whose instigation the work was undertaken, for his kind assistance and for the loan of scarce books which it was necessary to consult in the interesting investigations needful to elucidate, if possible, some of the obscure passages in the text, a task in which if with the best intentions should I have sometimes failed, I must ask the reader's indulgence.

      It may be truly said of Sir Thomas Browne that a prophet hath no honour in his own country; the writings of this remarkable man are little known in the city of his adoption, and a recent movement to erect a monument to his memory has hitherto met with feeble support.

      T. S.

      Norwich, December, 1901.

      

      Notes and Letters

      ON THE

      Natural History of Norfolk.

      [MSS. SLOAN. 1830. FOL. 5–19. AND 31.]

      [The first four pages in the volume of Manuscript consist of two inserted letters from Merrett to Browne (see Appendix A.); these are on ordinary letter paper 6–¼ inches by 7 inches. The notes commence on folio 5 and are continued to folio 19; one leaf, containing an account of the Roller (numbered 31), is bound up with the notes on the Fishes, &c., which are numbered consecutively with the Birds; the paper of the volume is foolscap, 11–½ by 7–½ inches, and written, with a few exceptions, which appear to be subsequent additions, on the right-hand opening only. There are four folios after the Birds, the first of which is blank; the others, numbered 20, 21, and 22, contain rough memoranda on the Birds and Fishes, the substance of which is embodied in the other notes; the Fishes commence on folio 23. There are many erasures, interlineations, and substituted words which indicate hasty writing, and the alterations are not in all cases complete, thus rendering the sense occasionally obscure; these emendations I have thought it best to preserve as indicating the author's line of thought. In the foot-notes which follow I have endeavoured to identify the species treated of. This, notwithstanding the kind assistance of the friends whose help I gratefully acknowledge, I may not in all cases have successfully accomplished; the conclusions arrived at are occasionally only conjectural, and it may be that in some instances I have erred. Should such be the case I must plead in excuse the difficulty arising from vagueness of description, the frequent use of vernacular names which have long since become obsolete (see Note 22), and the imperfection of the record. This especially applies to the Marine Animals, and one of my correspondents rightly remarks that "the early accounts of marine beasts are so vague, and the figures (where referred to) so incomplete and often fanciful, that it is difficult even to make out the family, to say nothing of genera and species." Any assistance or correction in this respect would be gladly received by me.]

      [Fol. 5.] I willingly obey your comands[1] in setting down such birds fishes & other animals wch for many years I have observed in Norfolk.

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