MEMOIR. xxx vii 



it was certainly not until the date above mentioned that 

 he can be considered as the settled inhabitant of the 

 parish. Whether, in fact, he at that time took up his 

 residence in his father's house, afterwards his permanent 

 home, I am not informed. His father died in 1758; and 

 in a letter, written shortly after that event, from John 

 White, then at Gibraltar, dated January 1759, we have 

 the following allusion to his father's place: "I was 

 much pleased with your description of the Hermitage, 

 and hope, some time or other, to visit that delightful 

 spot once more. I beg to hear if you intend to continue 

 the occupier of those beautiful environs of my father's 

 house, or if the sweet shades and solitudes of Baker's 

 Hill, &c. are to fall a prey to the merciless hands of the 

 farmer and hedger." 



He became the actual possessor of the property only 

 on the decease of his ancle Charles, the rector of Brad- 

 ley, in 1763. The deed is thus endorsed in Gilbert's 

 handwriting: 



" Copy for the Wakes my dwelling house," &c. 



Shortly after his father's death he became curate of 

 the neighbouring parish of Faringdon, about two miles 

 distant. The first marriage registered there as solem- 

 nized by him was in September 1762; and there he 

 continued to officiate very regularly until 1784, when he 

 resigned the curacy of Faringdon to resume that of his 

 native parish, of which he gives notice in a letter to his 

 sister, Mrs. Barker, dated October 19 of that year: 

 " Mr. Taylor, our new Vicar, has taken possession of his 

 living ; and I have re-assumed the curacy, after an inter- 

 mission of twenty-six years ! " 



From the time of his taking up his residence at Sel- 

 borne he renounced all intention of accepting any cleri- 



