LETTER CII 169 



of only giving Eise to a Metamorphosis,* without being able 

 to describe my own change so well as You do. I like your 

 Verses extremely; the Thought is happy, & the Execution en- 

 tirely in the vein of Ovid. The 4th line I have some Objections 

 to : the 19th wants of Smoothness, but is easy & careless. I am 

 pleased to catch You versifying : You will never be Old. I have 

 now & then a rising Thought; but, like my unfortunate Fish 

 Pond, it runs off & is lost before it properly fills my Head : Yet 

 Mrs Mulso still vows that She will stew You some Tench, that 

 shall make You hazard a Feaver or an Erysipelas, as much 

 as the Eels did at Sunbury. 



If we are rightly informed, on This Day Miss Thomas gives 

 her Hand to the Revd Mr BuUar. This You know is a Bar in 

 my way of the eligible Things in Hampshire; Yet, would to 

 God that every one of them had married Clergymen, if it would 

 have made them happy ! 



[But of this — in ye Melon Ground I ] 



1 am sorry the Abbess of Quedlingburgh has any Complaint 

 but what She ought to have, & that her Husband is liable to 

 Complaints which are so much ye Effect of his way of Business. 

 I hope your Sister Barker & all her family are well. I take the 

 more immediate notice of her now, because I hope You will soon 

 pay my Compliments to her in your way Northwards. 



I wish you joy of Martinico, & hope soon to do so of the 

 Havannah. Commodore Young lias, alass, no Hand in all these 

 things ; In a Post of Trouble, & no Profit or Honour, He is not 

 the Gallinae filius albae. 



I would add a good deal from Mrs Mulso, but as I hope 

 I may now look upon You as a Man coming this way, it may 

 not be so proper to tell You how much She loves You and longs 

 for You, as little yellow as there is in my proper Colours. It 

 likewise gives me so much Pain in my Head to write on, that 

 You will excuse my adding only that I am (with due Comps. 

 to all your friends) 



Dear Gil, Affectly Yours, 



J. Mulso. 



P.S. My Pond is again broke down since I began to write. — 

 Pounds & Patience ! ! I 



* Gilbert White was always an enthusiastic melon grower. " The 

 Gentlemen's Magazine," in 1783, printed some verses, written of him in 1748, 

 describing his being changed into a melon, under the heading of "The 

 Metamorphosis." 



