172 LETTERS TO OIUaKBT WHITE 



I have one Child coming that You can lay no Claim to. Mrs 

 Mulso 'tis true is sick, but it is not wth the Sight of You. I 

 expect your Congratulations on the taking of the Havannah. 

 I wish Commodore Young had had a Share in it ; but as they 

 will not let Him take Places, he is going to take a Wife. I 

 must hasten my Conclusion, even after so long a Letter. I wish 

 you loved to write to me as I do to You ; methinks while I write 

 I am conversing with You ; and even this Deception is Some- 

 thing, when it is all we can. My Wife desires as much Love 

 as is consistent with anger, if You remember your Ovid as well 

 as Scrope you will remember that is a great deal. I think you 

 have used me ill, yet I am, as usual, 



Dear Gil, Unalterably & afftely Your's, 



J. Mulso. 



Letter 104. 



Thornhill. 



Febry 26, 1763. 

 Dear Gil, 



You must not attribute my long Silence to a Besentment 

 of your often serving me in this way, tho' I had threat'ned it 

 in one of mine ; there was a Feebleness in the Tbreat, & my 

 own Vanity only could make me believe it carried any Terror. 

 I have passed a bad winter, having been much troubled with 

 rheumatic pains, & greatly in my Head, and having been ill 

 of a worse sore Throat than ever I had in my Life, wth much 

 Tooth ach ; which Transition fm one Pain to another, & often 

 a Complication of most of them together has made me too 

 much a Grumbler for a Correspondent : You may have slept 

 out the winter, harmless & snug in your Aurelia State, but 

 I have been kept much awake by my own & another's Pains. 

 But now Mrs Mulso has doffed her purple Gown, & this is 

 the fourth day after her bringing me a Thumping Yorkshire 

 Tyke ; the Boy is noisy & lusty, & the Mother, I hope like to 

 do well, & hopes to be all the Mother in Spite of the accident 

 that once happened to her Breast. But, my dear Gil, I hope, 

 (and She desires me to add her Hope to it) that your Sister 

 Woods has had, or will have, a better Time than She had ; 

 which began on Monday 4 o'Clock, Morng & did not end 'till 

 Wednesday after Six, morning, wth inexpressible Pains. She 

 is now however, beginning to be the chearfull Creature that 

 She ever was, & to chear that Heart again that You will easily 

 think has been upon the Eack for Her. 



I saw in the Papers that Mr. Snooke ■' is dead ; Mrs Woods f 



* Mr. Henry Snooke of Bingmer near Lewes, who had married Gilbert 

 White's aunt Rebecca. 



t Gilbert White's youngest sister. 



