LETTERS FROM THE REV. WM. DERHAM, D.D. 173
My head is so bad, yt I hope you will excuse me for forgetting
divers things I have to say, as I am sure I have done.
One thing I intended to say but had like to have forgotten is,
that I shall be glad to perswade you to be a Member of the Royal
Society. That you may see how honble & ingenious persons many
of them are wth wch you are to associate, I have sent you the last
years List of them.
Derham, like most inhabitants in those times of the districts
of Essex near to the Thames, appears to have suffered greatly
from ague, as did also his correspondent. Dacre Barrett. I can
remember when ague was common round Belhus, and my father
when it was pretty general, but now a case is quite rare. The
reason for its disappearance of late years is not easy to understand,
as no fresh drainage has taken place in that district, nor has any
special war been waged against the mosquitoes, which, according
to recent discoveries, are the origin of that scourge. John Norden,
in his description of Essex written in 1594, speaks of contracting
while there "a moste cruelle quartene fever," while Arthur Young,
writing nearly 200 years later, does not give the climate of the
Essex Marsh country a much better character ; yet in their days
the marshes were drained much as they are now. Indeed the
word "Marsh" as applied to those broad stretches of meadows
bordering on the Thames is a misnomer, as they are dry, and
intersected with drains with no boggy spots. The word "Levels,"
as the late Rev. W. Palin5 used to contend, would seem more
appropriate to them than that of "Marshes."
The relative values of Plot's Histories of Oxford and Stafford-
shire appear to have been reversed since the Doctor wrote. In
those days the former was evidently more costly than the latter ;
whereas of late years the Staffordshire history has been sold at
prices varying from £21 to £2 2s., and that of Oxford from
£4 4s to £1 1s.
The proper title of the book he speaks of as "Willoughbie
and Ray on Birds" is Ornithologiae Libri Tres, Totum Opus
Recognovit Digessit Supplevit J. Raius, published 1767.
Francis Willoughby—1635-1672—was a Warwickshire Squire
and, comparatively speaking, a rich man. A great friend of John
Ray, with whom he travelled on the Continent.
They collaborated in writing the above work ; and Ray
always acknowledged that he got much of the material for other
5 Author of Stifford and its Neighbourhood, etc.