162 LETTEBS TO GILBERT WHITE 



Yet Something of advantage must accrue, if it please God we 

 all live. But I leave it to Time & my Uncle's tried affection 

 to determine how, where, & what it shall be. 



I congratulate You on having got the Anguhis iste : I observe 

 that You are not for Us this Spring; There is a wall between 

 us, but I hope no Gulph. Indeed we long for ye Sight of You. 



Mrs Mulso's & my Love & Comps. attend Yourself, Sister & 

 whole Family. Mr Y's & Miss Chardavoyne's Comps. 

 I am, Dear Gil, Your affte & faithful! Friend, 



J. Mulso. 



I have bought a few flow'ring shrubs for an odd nook or two, 

 but cannot afford to turn my rough garden into a modem one. 



Letter 99. 



Thornhill, 



Sepr 7, 1761. 

 Dear Gil : 



I am very glad to find that your Sussex Air has had so 

 good an effect upon your Nerves as to enable You to hold a Pen ; 

 for I was in a bare Expectation of ever hearing from You again. 

 I hope You have bottled up some of it to carry into Hampshire, 

 to refresh your Imagination when it is languid ; (as the Gentle- 

 man of Grey's Inn did by the Hampstead Air) that You may not 

 relapse now You are returned to Selbourne : tho' by Hercules ! 

 & by the Dragon on the Cynic Tub I swear, I ought not to be 

 forgotten upon Selbournian Ground ! ! 



How different am I now, from what I was, when our Corres- 

 pondence first began ? I should then, from ye Metropolis of 

 human Glory, have been delighted in sending You the daily 

 Chat of all these Scenes of Grandeur that are now taking Place ; 

 with Accounts of my own Hopes & Fears, of seeing or not seeing 

 a Part of the Whole. — I am now felicitating Myself in Yorkshire 

 upon a Distance that robs me of all Temptation to join in this 

 noble croud ; & which I preferr to any Employment that would 

 oblige me to reside in London. Perhaps You find Something 

 languid in this Thought : To say Truth I have not of late been 

 so well as I hoped to be ; & am to Day confined wth the 

 Eemains of a violent Head ach of last Night, which forced 

 me home to Bed from a Neighbour's where I was spending the 

 Ev'ning wth Company that was the more precious, as I can 

 have it but a very short Time, viz : my Father's, my Brother 

 Tom's, & Miss Chardavoyne's. Yet this Day is not lost to good 

 Thoughts tho' I cannot go to Church, since I seriously thank 

 God for preserving so valuable a Friend to write to, now in ye 

 twentieth Year of our Friendship. 



