180 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS FAMILY. 



LETTER LIII. 



TO SAMUEL BARKER. 



Selborne. 

 DEAR SAM, 



I THINK Mr. Dobson would have done better to have followed 

 Mr. Warton's advice. Have you seen Mr. Colman's transla- 

 tion of Horace's Art of Poetry? In his comment the trans- 

 lator objects to Mr. Kurd's exposition of that epistle, and, I 

 think, with great reason. Mr. Hurd says the Epistle to the 

 Pisos was intended to illustrate the usages of the Eoman 

 stage, whereas Mr. C. avers that it was purely a dissuasive 

 letter to the elder Piso not to be in too much haste to publish 

 some poem, probably a domestic one, which that writer, as a 

 nobleman, might have submitted to his friend Horace. I 

 would wish you to see the publication. I have just bought 

 Somerville, & am surprized to find, not having read it these 20 

 years, that his c Chase ' exceeds most of our poets in its cadences 

 and the sweetness of its numbers. Mr. Warton highly extols 

 his ' Hobbinal,' which does not strike me so much, though its 

 numbers are elegant. 



Your affect. 



GIL. WHITE. 



LETTER LIV. 



FROM THOMAS WHITE TO HIS BROTHER GILBERT. 



London, Nov. 9, 1775. 

 DEAR BROTHER, 



I SHALL be glad to see you in town, but know not what to 

 say concerning the disorder that is very general here. I be- 

 lieve most people that have it felt ill some time ago; but I am 

 not conversant enough amongst sick people to say positively 

 there is no fear of your taking it now. Molly and the whole 



