LETTER XXVI "" 47 



Faculty) is my great Danger. As to your advice about the 

 Bristol Hot Wells, I have no Thoughts of them, & I hope I shall 

 soon be able to say. No Occasion for them : Besides ye Vicarage 

 of Sunbury does not permit a Eegimen which demands either 

 much Money or Time. I was threat'ned wth a cold Bath, & 

 therefore do not know whether your Advice would have tallied 

 with the Other. 



If I have not mentioned the Bishop & Ld Exeter's Dispute, 

 it is because Matters remain quite undetermined : They have in 

 the most amicable & complaisant Manner on both Sides, referred 

 the Decision to Council, who have not given Judgement ; But 

 You seem to think that ye Decision would immediately affect Me, 

 whereas surely I told You that ye Living would go to Bp Hayter 

 who at my Uncle's Desire gave St Bride's to my Brother Wills 

 for ye first Living which fell. If my Ld Exeter gets it, it will 

 go to Young Proby : I am sorry that your Aunt's Friend Ld 

 Gainsborough is dead, & that He died very poor. I congratulate 

 You on Merit's being taken Notice of in Dr Hales's* being made 

 Clerk of ye Closet to ye Princess of Wales, & that, by ye King's 

 own Nomination : His Majesty's whole Behaviour is in ye highest 

 Degree Princely & Heroic, & that in ye highest Degree of it, in 

 Xtian Heroism. The Lords' Address upon his Message is looked 

 upon to be a fine Piece ; it was sent by a full House & from the 

 Heart. The Duke of New Castle spoke upon ye Message & 

 there were some great Strokes in his Speech. Dr Ayscough is 

 entirely discarded, & going to retire to his Livings in the Country. 



My Jenny, by whom I write, & to whom I showed your kind 

 Letter, desires her Service to You, — Love to You, she says, if I 

 have a Mind. You see what it is to say *' that You shall rejoyce 

 to see Me a married man " : I dare not say that ye following 

 Sentence gave her Pleasure for Fear of Delicacy being wounded 

 if she sees this : but I think of it wth redoubled satisfaction, & 

 an advance of paternal Love. 



Our Church is not begun to be pulled down, but we advance 

 towards it's Demolition by sure Steps, tho' slow in Order that 

 its Eevival may be sure. The Church of St Paul's have given 

 £50 and the Duke of Beaufort has talked of his Mite, but what 

 that will be I do not know. I had ye Honour of a very genteel 

 Letter from his Grace up on ye Subject, & have returned an 

 answer, which I beleive will bring down Something : He will 

 certainly leave ye Parish this Summer. 



I shall mention your Intention about ye Circuiteers, but I can- 

 not yet tell you ye Particulars of ye Summer Circuit. I remember 



• Dr. Stephen Hales, F.R.S. (1677-1761) physiologist and inventor, was 

 Rector of Faringdon, the adjoining parish to Selborne, though not often 

 resident there. He was well known to Gilbert White and to his father. 



