LETTER XXII 37 



Letter 22. 



Sunbury, 



Aug. 9, 1750. 

 Dear Gil : 



If pleading Poverty would excuse depositing, I should be 

 at a word the most unconcerned beggar of the world. But alass 

 for Me ! I am so very a Beggar, that I am unqualified to answer 

 both those whom no words will satisfy, or those whom Nothing 

 but words will satisfy. You know this is an Answer to two 

 Letters of Your's. However I must say that You was the 

 Occasion of not hearing from me before : for your Mention of 

 ye Expedition you are now upon,* which had no other Date but 

 ye vague word soon, was ye Eeason that I wrote no more of a 

 Letter than ye two words which You see at the Top, which have 

 stood there this Month, & will be of use thro' all the Years of my 

 Life. But I could not prevail upon myself to add any more ; for 

 the nonumq prematur in Annum will not do for my writings : 

 If ye Letter had lain at Selbourne 'till your Eeturn, it would 

 not have been good even for ye last Use to which my Letters 

 should be put. They are like ye petites Pat6e8 ; even their 

 French Name gives One a little Partiality to them while they 

 are fresh & warm, but Nothing is more disgusting to a good 

 Taste than cold Fat. I am sorry You are disappointed in your 

 Scheme upon ye Devizes. Pressy is in Town, where She arrived 

 in a Carravan which shock'd her Bones, with two women who 

 shocked her Modesty ; & a polite wit of ye lower Class, who 

 observed her drooping & lowspirited, undertook to rouze them 

 by whistHng wth that Shrillness wth which You alarmed ye 

 Eooks of Merton Grove. Pressy You know is a little of the 

 Prude, & a little of ye delicate, so that She suffer'd much both 

 by ye good & ill will of the Company. 



My Girl has deserted me & is gone, whither I escorted her 

 in a Post Chaise, to Captain Young's at Eickmansworth. Her 

 Sister was brought to Bed of a Son last Sunday, & she stays 

 wth Her 'till She is up again. What a Chasm is here in ye 

 Pleasure of my Summer ! Captain Young's House is very pretty, 

 the Situation puts Me much in mind of Dr. Burton's at Itching : 

 It is a hanging Garden & bounded wth a good Trout Eiver. But 

 the Eoads all around are narrow & bad, a circumstance which 

 would put me out of Conceit with the best House & Gardens 

 in England. I am glad to hear that your Garden has answer'd 

 this Season, but I shall hardly see it this year. Even your 

 Sister, who ought to be my strongest Temptation to come, abates 

 my Courage by her Challenges ; for how can I hope to be pleasing 



* During August and September of this year Gilbert White visited in 

 Wiltshire and Devonshire. 



