CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS FAMILY. 136 



LETTER XXVIII. 



TO MRS. BARKER. 



Selborne, Sep. 2, 1778. 

 DEAR SISTER, 



MY thanks are due for your kind letter. I have now the 

 pleasure of seeing my house full of friends. My niece Anne 

 Barker pleases me much, and is a sensible intelligent young 

 woman. Mrs. H. Isaacs has not been here for 25 years, and, 

 finding every thing much altered, hardly knows the place 

 again. Molly White and y r daughter seem well pleased to 

 meet again ; Jenny and Becky White are to come to Newton 

 this week. Mrs. Yalden pressed their mother much to come ; 

 but she is in a very poor way, and chose to wave the journey. 

 Mrs. Snooke has just written to me with her own hand ; she 

 did not complain much. Last post I had a letter from Black- 

 burn : my brother's state of health and spirits is much the 

 same ; my poor sister makes sad complaints, and laments the 

 state of their family ; indeed they both merit the compassion of 

 their friends. My great parlor * is now of singular service ; 

 but while it is so empty the echo is very troublesome. I have 

 a new bed in my little red room, and have put my old white 

 bed up in my late drawing-room, where I lie as you ordered 

 me t- Bro. Harry's school thrives: he has just got three new 

 pupils, and expects one more; his house is now quite full. 

 My peaches ripen, but, the summer considered, are not so 

 fine as might be expected. We have fine wheat and a vast 

 crop of hops. Barley and oats are lean and poor. The failure 

 of turnips is miserable ! 



Your loving brother, 



GIL. WHITE. 



* [Built the previous year. T. B.] 

 t [In which room he died. T. B.] 



