16 LETTERS TO GILBERT WHITE 



Letter 11. 



To Mr White King square Court 



At Oriel CoUege, Oxon. Oct. 27, 1746. 



Dear Gil : 



You misunderstood me about ye Affair of the Beds, & 

 are in one of Mr Bays's Puzzles. I must referr You to my Letter 

 to see if I don't set it in this" Light : that I must stay 'till my 

 Father & Mother go to bed to one another before I can offer 

 You a Bed at our House, but that I will take ye first Opportunity 

 of doing it ; which I am so unhappy as not to be able to do yet, 

 for my Mother's bad Health still keeps my Father at a Distance. 



I wish you joy of having pass'd ye fiery Ordeal of M.A. but 

 I am sorry You ended so furiously as to burn your Works ; 

 why was not Augustus at your Elbow to rescue those unfortunate 

 Compositions ? To say Truth I should have been glad to have 

 seen Them, for tho' I might not copy, I might imitate, and I 

 want a modell, & for that want's sake, I deferr setting about any 

 Thing of that nature ; tell me your whole Proceeding, tell me 

 your Questions, tell me your Theses, tell me your Examination, 

 your Masters, your — let me into ye whole Funk. I desire you 

 would always have wet brown Paper about You, that is, I desire 

 you would not mislay or carry away, or lend out, or any other 

 way distrain the Scheme, which upon your Promise I now call 

 mine. I should be glad to have it here if You could contrive it. 



How does Tom Mander's System of Physics go on ? Is He 

 Master of ye weight & ye Power? Has He settled Sr Isaac's 

 & Grimadi's Dispute of ye Eefrangibility or Dispersion of Bays ? 

 will He venture down in a diving Bell, or is He yet as distress'd 

 as a Cat in an Air Pump ? You may give my Love to Him, if his 

 apparatus does not forbid your Approach. 



You tell me Mills is not come up, and then add, Don't You 

 hear what an Estate Sr Richard has left Him. — I don't quite 

 understand You ? do You mean that Sr Richd Musgrave has got 

 an Estate, or Sr Richd Mills has left Mills one ? clear it up, for I 

 should be glad to hear ye last. 



'Tis well that You desire me to forgive ye altering ye metre 

 in your Ode.* How dare You ravish from me ye only Handle 

 of finding Fault, don't You know ye Pleasure of criticizing? & 

 yet I don't know whether I ought to find fault even there, as 

 You have managed it. I like your little Child much. I think 

 you have adapted the funalia, vectes, & marinae veneris latus 

 &c : very well to ye present time : & there is a Delicacy peculiar 

 to your self when You come to flagello tange Cloen ; but You 

 have a happiness in picking out ye ipsissima verba. 



* A translation of Horace Od. III., 26. 



