LETTER LVI 103 



three, two or three times in a Year, & it is chiefly on your 

 account that I try Him. But a Sheet, Gil, tho' it holds more, 

 costs no more than a half Sheet in ye postage. You have paid 

 your Debt in Gold, it is valuable & it lies in a small Compass. 

 But I am very well pleased that my Letter reached You, which 

 has given me Spirit to write again, tho' indeed I return to an old 

 Direction now ; but I had mislaid your Direction to West Dene 



6 have not yet found it, tho' I have poaked among a precious 

 Hoard of your Letters. Your Hare reached London, but as 

 usual fell into ye Claws of that Harpy Miss Young ; but indeed 

 She had this Time a better Excuse for her Ravening than meer 

 Hunger, for She knew that I was at the Bishop's at Kew, & 

 the Beast was got to ye End of his keeping & was tout a fait 

 hazard^e. I am very much obliged to You for it, but am much 

 more so for your Lr for I did nob know but your Present might 

 have been a handsome Eeproach for not writing as I feared my 

 Letter had miscarried. I am sorry that your Duty is so 

 increased as to be grown troublesome, yet methinks I am glad 

 that You are got near enough to be more a Comfort to Mr 

 White ; * I am sorry to hear that he is so tender ; I can pity 

 Him from fellow-feeling, which awakens Compassion to a very 

 lively Sense. I have not been to London since last Spring, & am 

 almost afraid to venture even to my friends, as I am pretty sure 

 to suffer wth the Headach. I am afraid of a London Living, yet 

 there my Hopes naturally turn. 



Jack Adey (not the Captain) called on me ye other Day ; he 

 came from Town to soUicite the Bishop thro' me to recommend 

 him to the Church of Eochester for a little Living : he has been 



7 Years & a half Curate to Mr Frewen in my Uncle's Diocese, 

 which was indeed ye best Strength of my Recommendation. I 

 shall be very glad if I have done Him Service, for he told me 

 that this was ye ne plus ultra of his Hopes : but I think he had 

 a better Friend than ye Bishop, which was Dr. Hodges, who has 

 interested himself for Him ; I was glad to see a Lr of his wrote 

 so steadily. It hurt me to see a gay old Friend so humbled ; 

 but thank God, he went away satisfied wth what I had done for 

 Him whether it succeeds or no ; and it is but a poor thing at 

 best, God knows. 



I do not remember what I said about riding, but I assure 

 You that I ride on, a little at a Time ; & I have broke the Ice 

 this Winter wth my Horse's Hoofs. We have very deep Waters 

 here, & a most dreadfull Winter, so that our Common & Roads 

 are as bad as ye distant Counties ; for ye Farmers had just 

 ploughed up ye Roads, before the Wet came. My Horse is 



* Gilbert White had temporarily undertaken duty at Newton Valence, as 

 well as at West Dene for Mr. Edmund Yalden, senior, who held both livings. 



