160 IiETTERS TO GILBERT WHITE 



Letter 98. 



Thornhill, 



April 29, 1761. 

 Dear Gil— 



(for I cannot bring Myself to write Dear Sr as You do 

 to me, at least 'till You are a Dean, Arch Deacon or Bishop,) 



— You give Us a great Satisfaction in hearing that your Sister 

 has got 80 successfully thro' her Inoculation, I heartily hope She 

 may never feel any ill Effects fm it, but only the happy Security 

 it brings wth it of not being mawled by that cruel Distemper ye 

 Small Pox. We have had it very near Us, but my Children have 

 escaped it as yet : The Young Farmer that You recommend as 

 my Physician (who by the by is some Years older than Myself) 

 has had his three Sons down wth it; which has a little inter- 

 rupted our neighbourly Intercourse. I cannot say that I have 

 been well of late, & am now writing wth a red Cloath on my 

 Face, having been afflicted wth a Sharper Toothach than I ever 

 felt before ; and I assure You it is no Joke, no more than many 

 other Love Pains that are commonly held as good Ones. I am 

 willing to shift ofif the cause of my ails upon ye weather which 

 has been very unkindly ; insomuch that I have lost all my 

 forward Peas & I am afraid my wall Fruit, having had dry N.E. 

 winds, & frosty nights for a long Time. 



I think I may say that I do not indulge in a phlegmatic way ; 

 and the worst Symptoms & most Disorder that I have felt of 

 late, was while I was at York, where the novelty of the Place 

 & Gayety of the Time would naturally have flung it ofif, being 

 the Election, where I attended to pay my Compt to my Patron 

 Sr George Savile. I was there bloodied & dosed & all the Time, 

 (as well as before & some time after my Eeturn) deaf of my right 

 Ear, from which no one that has not had ye Complaint can tell 

 what Trouble Stupidity Confusion and Vapours I felt. Perhaps 

 You would think it a Blessing to be deaf at an Election ; but it 

 did not feel like a Blessing. I intend now to be better again : 

 there is a little Rain & the wind is got into a softer Corner : and 

 the first Swallows that I heard of were seen by my Gardener on 

 Sunday Apl 19. I have seen many since. Do You expect I 

 shd say something of my York Journey? — Well. — I rode away 

 between Eight & Nine, like a Person of some Figure wth my 

 two Servants in Livery to Pontefract (or Pomfret) which is near 

 15 miles, without drawing Bit ; for which I was a fool & 

 sufifer'd accordingly. I stayed 'till past Twelve & saw a neat 

 Church & a neat Town ; but of ye old blood-stained Castle, little 

 Remains are to be seen ; nor any habitable Thing but a Pidgeon 

 House; (alass for me! the only thing of mine that is not 

 inhabited.) There is an old deserted Church that looks well at 

 a distance. Here I took Post Chaises & wth One of my men 



