70 LETTERS TO GILBERT WHITE 



Letter 38. 



Sunbury, 



Aug: 4, 1763. 

 Dear Gil : 



I received Your's dated July 28th yesterday in a Frank 

 fui King Square Court, where I thought You had known that 

 the Squire's Name was Thomas & not John. I likewise own that 

 I thought the said letter was very long in Coming, it being now 

 a considerable Distance of Time since You feloniously stole 

 Yourself away from Me about a fortnight & some odd Days 

 sooner than You had given me Expectations of such Departure ; 

 I therefore look upon You as Debtor upon an old Score a fort- 

 night & odd Days Visit, besides what may be lawfully expected 

 as a Visit at the Time when You shall next have it in Your 

 Power to come hither. However I was glad to see your letter at 

 last, which in many respects pleased me ; & most, to find that the 

 Waters " agree so well with You. I very often wish to be wth 

 You, & do so particularly at the Place where You are, because I 

 certainly want crisping as You term it, very much. I have 

 been out of Order this Week very much & have been taking 

 Saline Draughts for an inward Heat, being a burnt Child like 

 Yourself. Yet I have been on Horseback every Day, & was 

 yesterday at Kew wth two Potions in my stomach, & am much 

 better today. I shuddered at your account of poor John Bosworth, 

 whom I heartily pity upon his own Score ; & whose Sufferings 

 gave me a chill of Fear, lest I should lie in ye same Plight, 

 having the same Distemper, tho' I thank God in no great Degree ; 

 but all weak Spirits are fancifull. I am charmed with the 

 Description of the Place You are in, having heard it very slightly 

 commended, tho' I must own from a f^jmale Description ; where 

 there not being Room for Routs & Assemblies, &c : the Praise 

 was the more languid. But it looks green in your Letter; & 

 when I say so, I say a Thing for which I have only a distant 

 Idea & Desiderium, there being no such Colour in our Part of 

 the World, except in some charitable Lady's Gown. My Mare 

 has been stabled this Week & was near starved for want before, 

 tho' I took her up almost every Day ; but I don't know that 

 there is a blade of Grass where She used to fatten. Thank God 

 we have got a little Rain at last : I sat wth great Pleasure 

 under a Tree in my way to Kew yesterday, escaping an intro- 

 ductory Shower; & tho' I was not clear of it's Violence, the 

 Singing of it was like an Opera, while I consider'd it as washing 

 away the Plague of Flies by which we have been Fellow 

 Sufferers wth many Parts of England ; & which have devoured 

 all the green Fruits of the Earth. Miss Heck was some Time 

 ago down at Hampton from whence She went to Town & was 



* The Hot well at Bristol. 



