White quotes Barker

My slow read of Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne walked into my weather-register project today. Letter XXII to Pennant ends like this:

The vast rains ceased with us much about the same time as with you, and since we have had delicate weather. Mr. Barker, who has measured the rain for more than thirty years, says, in a late letter, that more has fallen this year than in any he ever attended to; though, from July 1763 to January 1764, more fell than in any seven months of this year.

Mr. Barker is Thomas Barker of Lyndon in Rutland, who married White’s sister Anne. I transcribed his rain record month by month a few days ago, from his own papers in the Philosophical Transactions. So I could check what he told his brother-in-law. The letter is dated January 2, 1769 (more on the date below), so “this year” is the year just ended, 1768.

• “More has fallen this year than in any he ever attended to.” 1768 comes to 30.905 inches. That’s the wettest full year in his record up to then (1737–1768). The next wettest is 1763, at 28.741.
• “From July 1763 to January 1764, more fell than in any seven months of this year.” July 1763 to January 1764 sums to 22.902 inches. The wettest run of seven consecutive months inside 1768 is June to December, at 20.973.

Both hold.

What this check is and isn’t: Barker’s numbers are on both sides, his remark as White passes it on and his own printed register. So it shows that White relayed the remark faithfully and that the register bears it out. It’s no independent check on Barker’s rain gauge.

One small thing about the date. The Project Gutenberg text I’m reading (#1408) dates this letter “July 2, 1769”, and I copied that into my notes without thinking. It can’t be right. Letter XXIII, dated February 28, 1769, thanks Pennant for the answer to a question asked in this one, so this one came first. Another Gutenberg edition (#20933) prints “Jan. 2nd, 1769”, which fits both that and the rain.