24 LETTERS TO GlIiBEBT WHITE 



Letter 16. 



Sunbury, 



Oct : 26, 1749. 

 Dear Gil : 



Upon the very Day in which your last Letter arriv'd 

 (which I am afraid is a Month ago) we were just setting out upon 

 a Jaunt of Pleasure, my Father & Yes Papa in the Chair, Tom & 

 I on Horseback. We went to the Top of Cowper's Hill, which I 

 shall not enter into a Description of, because Denham has done it 

 in Verse,* & You shall have an Opportunity of shining in Prose 

 or beating Denham at his own weapons, for I don't know any 

 Body better at Description than yourself. From thence we rode 

 about Windsor Park, to the Duke's Lodge ; to ye Top of the 

 Eoad which looks upon ye Castle, in Short spent the morning in 

 skirring about, 'till we had just Time to get to Egham to Dinner, 

 where Hunger recommended a plain Meal, but we compensated 

 that by the Elegance of our Entertainment, which was the 

 reading of your Letter, & which I had hoarded up for that Pur- 

 pose. I shall only say upon our Expedition, that I thought the 

 Scenes it afforded us well worth going to see, even after the many 

 beautiful ones which you took such kind Pains to show me. I 

 all the while thought with Satisfaction that I had found out a 

 Subject of Entertainment for You ; and I know it will please You 

 the more, because you will own the Ground to be irregular & I 

 shall call it going up Hill & down Hill. I have another little Hill 

 in Eeserve for a shorter Kide, but it is not of equal Beauty, tho' 

 it takes in the Hemisphere. 



I am now relaps'd into the Misery of a solitary winter, being 

 deserted by the Family ; & indeed it has had a stronger effect 

 upon Me than I would own to any but yourself, but you know 

 that my Spirits when they sink, sink low indeed. On Fryday 

 fortnight They went for London, and on Monday after did that 

 bold Girl Heck venture down into Northamptonshire in the Chair 

 with my Father. They were favour'd wth weather & got down 

 very well, & there I believe she will stay 'till the middle of next 

 month when the Bishop & Family come to Town. She finds 

 Peterboro' very agreable, but the Church strikes her ; She writes 

 " the Cathedrall which I have a View of from my Chamber 

 window, as White says, enlarges me." Tom & Pressy & Ned are 

 in Town, Ned is in & in for Life, if He pleases, being now a 

 regular Clerk. Jenny & her Father are still at Hampton where 

 I have taken Lodgings & there reside chiefly. I have been Nurse 

 to Her, for She has been very ill, & She has a little return'd the 

 Compliment for I have had a bad Cold which fell upon my 



* Sir John Denham (1615-1669) published a poem on " Cooper's Hill " in 

 1602, in which he described the scenery about his house at Egham. 



