194 LETTERS TO GILBERT WHITE 



Sun has not appeared this Month, & we have had black Frosts & 

 Fogs and dark Weather for ye longest continuance that I ever 

 remember. Mrs Mulso has rejoyced : It has been free from 

 winds & has pinned me down to ye fireside ; so we have altern- 

 ately taken up the Spectacles to read to one another, the Boxes 

 of the sounding Gammon or Cards. But this let me say for ye 

 Credit of Matrimony & to encourage You, that I have not found 

 this Confinement irksome. Let me enjoy my Health, & be free 

 from the Plague of having Rogues about me, & I want few Enjoy- 

 ments from Home, & relish None so well. I have been forced to 

 make a Reform in my menials : I have dismiss'd my old Gardiner, 

 whom I take to be a consummate Villain, and my Livery Servant. 

 I have now Two in their Room, who are sober & I hope honest ; 

 I have prayed as much to find such, as ever Priest did for a 

 Bishoprick, or as ye present Irish Clergy do for ye Primacy of 

 Armagh. I hope I have : my Footman is low, slow, & fat ; but 

 he is sober & of good Report, & Nature ; & a DarUng of ye Maids 

 because he plays on the Fiddle ; so we have had old dusting of my 

 Stone Floor this Xmas time. My new Gardiner sets about work 

 vigorously ; but I cannot judge of his Abilities in other Repects, 

 as I have none Myself ; & this I am the more convinced of because 

 he has shown me that my last Fellow ruined my Trees by his 

 Manner of pruning, in which I took it for granted that he 

 excelled. I have sacrificed almost all my wall fruits for ye 

 present, & replapted my Walls, convinced that I had better be 

 without for some Time to have more Plenty hereafter, please God 

 I live to see it. 



I have had a Lr from Dr Scrope wth some Subscriptions &c ; 

 You have heard fm him on ye same Subject I make no Doubt. I 

 had but 4, which I have disposed of. I am glad he is got so 

 clear-headed again : The Nature of ye work savours a little of 

 Dejection, & the Occasion of it is some Reflexion on You Gentle- 

 men of Oriell, but he kindly hides it from ye Public. Let me 

 hear from You soon. 



I am ever, dear Gil, Afftely Your's, 



,T. Mulso. 



Letter 116. 



To the Rev. Mr White, Thornhill, 



at Selbourne, near Alton, Hants. March 9, 1765. 



Dear Gil : 



As Mrs Mulso has been of late in ye groaning way, I was 

 resolved to stay 'till ye Affair was over, before I answer'd your 

 last. I have been always better to you than you deserve in 

 this Subject of writing ; You were ever dilatory. Take Care of 

 That, it will encrease wth age. Now I can acquaint you that my 



