100 LETTERS TO GILBERT WHITE 



Damoiselle that You mention, that your wishes might be oom- 

 pleated, & that I might say I know & have a value for Mr White 

 of such a Place, for now You are of no Place for a fortnight, a 

 perfect Cup of unsettled. My Garden is walled round & I defy 

 the Hogs. I send a Mess of Peas to the Bishop next Thursday 

 out of it ; the Blights are extraordinary this Year, & the Apple 

 Trees about Us all faint. Apricots in vast Plenty. 



The Pumble are pretty well : Pressy a Crook still. All at 

 Vaux Hall last Night wth the Misses Thomas, who left me at 

 Kew. My Sister is going wth Pressy soon to make a long Visit 

 to a Mrs Dews in Warwickshire. My Father has a miserable 

 Cough which is ye Effect of his Paralitic Disorder, but rides a 

 good deal & I think it is his best Medicine ; but he will not be 

 regular in his Hours. He is certainly in a hazardous way, but 

 he cannot turn over the Clerk of the Assizes Place to Tom which 

 he would be glad to do. 



Let rae hear of your Health & Changes of Place ; I heartily 

 wish the first to You & all your Friends & am 



Dear Gil, Afftely Your's, 



J. Mulso. 



Letter 55. 



Hampton, 



Sepr. 18, 1755. 

 Dear Gil : 



Whether or no I ever answer'd a Letter of Your's which I 

 find dated July 10th, My Memory is not good enough to assure 

 me. If I have, I have some Reason to be angry wth You, 

 who by your Description of your own Way of Life must have 

 leizure Hours in plenty. If I have not, I must plead an Excuse 

 'till about five Weeks ago, since which I have one to give, which, 

 as We say in our Pumble, will content but not satisfy. I have 

 had an Illness which began wth a Giddiness in my Head, which 

 held me for about a Week in Spite of Valerian Draughts &o : 

 but then turn'd to a Fever upon my Spirits, for which I was 

 attended by Dr Hawley, & went thro' the Process of bleeding, 

 blistering, emetic, cathartic, & so forth ; I have outlived the 

 Doctors, & am now pretty tight again but have a Bottle of 

 Hysteric Mixture at my Elbow. I find Laughing-Fits are not 

 half so good as Fits of laughing. I kept my Bed about ton Days, 

 & was much more in it than out of it, for a great while ; so that 

 I have been very weak. You see that riding will not do every 

 thing for me tho' it will for You ; for surely this Sort of Illness 

 ought not to have followed in Course after an observance of your 

 Prescription greater & closer than I ever thought I should have 

 paid. I think my Life was saved (under God) by my nurse ; 



