104 LETTERS TO QILBEKT WHITE 



broken- winded, & would not hold out, I am afraid, to Selbourne, 

 if I had a Purpose of coming that Way : which however is no 

 "Winter Scheme. Yet tell me of your Vases and obelisks ; let 

 me see them in Imagination, if not in reality ; I have a pretty 

 good Idea of your Grounds, (all but the 7 Gates, which are 

 mysterious) place me at my proper Distance, and let me see 

 your Antonines & Trajans wth their Egyptian Hieroglyphics. 



I suppose That which takes up the Conversation of ye Town 

 engrosses that of the Country, the Fate of Lisbon. "^^ It is indeed 

 a common Concern, as well as to Numbers of English Families 

 B particular Grief : tho' it is a peculiar Providence, that the 

 Auto de F6 should save the Hereticks. 



Cannot You make that idle Rogue Jack -f (who has never been 

 near me) change Duties for some Time, when he is disposed to 

 visit his Father ? He has but weekly Duty at Barnet, & only a 

 Sermon at London ; You might supply wth Ease for Him, & 

 then we should have hope of seeing You a little more ; It is very 

 long in my mind since ; I have grown several Years older in 

 Constitution. I should be much mortified if You should stay 

 'till You do not know me. You see by this last foolish Sentence 

 that my Spirits are not at the best. 



My Father has been in Northamptonshire; I thank God, he 

 holds up pretty well, but cannot get rid of his Cough, which is 

 ft frightfull One, & of the paralytic kind. My Aunt Thomas is 

 returned from Bath wth Sukey & her Cicisbei : Yet she has had a 

 Return of the Complaint for which She went thither. My Sister 

 is pretty well, but as fat as Miss Young, yet I cannot suspect 

 the Sincerity of either of them ; & You have no good Reason, 

 (or at least it does not pass current amongst us fleshly Folks) 

 for they continue to mention You, as great a Stranger as You 

 are, wth the same Esteem they used to do. Poor Pressy is 

 indeed f aithfully fallen away. She has sad health, & is a great 

 Sufiferer, but has Flows of Spirits at the Sight of a Friend. 

 Come & do Pressy good ; Tom will be obliged to You ; & to 

 give Him his Due, he is a Man worth obliging. Ned has his 

 old Complaint & is often bad, but wth Youth on his Side is dying 

 one Hour & at a Concert the next. Mr Young goes on feebly, 

 but has no particular Illness. Harman has two Daughters, he 

 is a fond father; & Mrs. Leece, tho' She expresses herself 

 foolishly behaves well enough as a Wife & Mother in material 

 things. You see I tell You about all my friends, I like those 

 parts of your Letters which mention Your's. I think it the 

 most serviceable part of epistolary writing ; tho' You can add 

 the Elegance which compleats it. 



* The town had been nearly destroyed by an earthquake, 

 t Gilbert White's brother John. 



