xxxvi MEMOIR. 



married in 1760, but she was left a widow in ten months 

 afterwards. An early and witty contribution to the 

 1 Rambler'*, the sad but interesting story of "Fidelia" 

 in the ' Adventurer'!, and some other minor publica- 

 tions evinced much talent ; but the work which made her 

 famous was her ' Letters to a Young Lady on the Im- 

 provement of the Mind/ published in 1773. She died 

 at Hadley in 1801. Some verses addressed by her to 

 Timothy, Gilbert White's now celebrated tortoise, oc- 

 casioned its owner's long and amusing jeu d* esprit in 

 reply in Timothy's name. She was a frequent visitor at 

 the vicarage of Newton Valence, of which Edmund White 

 was incumbent. Her brother was an intimate friend of 

 Gilbert White's at college ; and we find repeated entries 

 in his account-book of excursions with " Tom Mulso " at 

 that period, and the intimacy continued during life. 



Having thus glanced over that period of his life in 

 which his connexion with his birthplace and future 

 home had been more or less interrupted by his college 

 education, his university offices, and his brief clerical 

 appointments, we come now to the time when he entered 

 upon his permanent residence in the old parish with 

 which his name is ever associated no more to quit it, 

 except on visits to his friends or occasional journeys to 

 the metropolis, still in pursuit of his favourite study. 

 Here, then, he became permanently established in the 

 spring of 1755. We find him, however, early in the 

 previous year, entertaining friends at the vicarage and 

 performing other offices there, from which it would ap- 

 pear that he was residing in the vicarage for a time, 

 possibly during the temporary absence of the vicar; but 



* No. 10. April 21, 1750. 

 t Nos. 77, 78, 79. July 1753. 



