60 LETTERS TO GILBERT WHITE 



Letter 32. 



Hampton. 



July 24, 1752. 

 Dear Gil : 



But that every Year is not a Year of Proctorial Dignity ; 

 but that I foresee that in the earlier Months of next Year I shall 

 not be able to leave Sunbury ; and that by coming just at this 

 Time, I meet Tom upon his Journey and save Him the setting 

 out again ; or I should not be fond of the Party just at this time. 

 As to Women they are never to be depended upon in Schemes, & 

 I am never secure of their Company 'till they are actually at the 

 Place where they propose to go to. I am quite vexed that we 

 could not have them, & now center the Happiness of the Jaunt 

 entirely in You, whereas I had hopes of seeing You made but as 

 a Party & not a Principal ; which would have been ye Case if 

 Ladies had been present, who absorp all our Considerations. I 

 suppose Tom settled wth You ye Time of our being at Oxford, it 

 is upon ye sixth of Augst. But alass I am greivously disap- 

 pointed ; I had hopes of capering down to Oxford upon my own 

 Horse ; which tho' it would not much have raised Me in ye Eye 

 of ye University, yet I know it would in your's. But all my 

 riding is now again at an End for a long Time. I have been 

 forced to put her into a Farrier's Hands to cure her Lameness, 

 which was so great that She could not go six Miles. The Man 

 who has her is reckon'd a good skillfull Man, & he says he can 

 cure her. The Proof will be hereafter, but he makes his Applica- 

 tion at her Shoulder, & is clear that her Ail is there, & that She 

 has very good Feet, where Tom always told me ye Cause of her 

 Lameness lay. The upshot of this is, that Ned & I must come 

 by ye Coach, & that if we circuit about Oxford it must be upon 

 Horses which You must get for Us in ye University. Your 

 knowledge of Me, Your Skill as a Jockey, & your Interest & 

 Gravity as a Proctor will be all employed upon this Occasion. 



I am sorry that "We by this Means force You from your green 

 Retreats, which must be now doubly pleasant -o You, as You 

 have been absent fm them not by Choice, but Necessity. And 

 that we must bring a Journey into the Expences which we shall 

 put You to.* And now the University is so thin of Beaux, that 

 You cannot retaliate upon ye gold laced waitcoats & unstatutable 

 Pertnesses. I suppose I shall miss of seeing Dr Bentham, which 

 I am very sorry for. We must ask Mr White's Pardon for robb- 

 ing Him of your Company before your Time. You know that I 

 make a Sacrifice in order to see You ; that I leave my dear Girl 

 at Hampton : & know too that I leave her the Day before her 

 Birthday, which every One would not have sufifer'd ; but she is 

 too generous to raise Objections to a Party of this Nature. 



* The Proctor had gone to his father's house at Selborne on June 20th- 

 21st. On August 5th-6th he returned to Oxford " to meet the Mulsos," as his 

 expenses book records. He returned to Selborne Aug. 17th-18th. 



