198 LETTERS TO GILBERT WHITE 



To whet your Inclination to come Northward, I let you know 

 that my Sister Chapone is now wth Us, & will I hope stay wth 

 Us as long as a Southern Visitor can well bear, 'till the winter 

 threatens to lock us up, & we look sadly in each other's omber'd 

 Faces over our Seven- Month Fires. My Sister very kindly 

 hast'ned her Coming to be a Comfort the sooner to my poor 

 dear Wife, who is still in a very weak way both in Strength 

 & Spirits, but gets out on her Horse for about a Mile out, every 

 practicable Day. 



I have a Horse which Sr George gave me, & I should have 

 thought Myself fitted, but ye provoking Creature takes Fright 

 & turns short round wth me, which is especially dangerous in 

 this Country, where we are often mounted on high Causeways 

 only wide enough for one Horse, which is our only Winter 

 Ground. Do not you think that it was a bold undertaking in 

 Mrs Chapone to set out alone from London & be hurried away 

 in Chance Company in the Leeds Machine. This Machine 

 comes to Wakefd about 7 in ye Ev'ning of ye 2d day ; the 

 charge is about £2. 5. 0, & ye Expence on the Koad very little, 

 because you have but little Time to stop : My Sister bore the 

 Fatigue surprizingly well ; I met her last Fryday Night at 

 Wakefd & conducted her Home in a Post Chaise. 



I saw in my last Paper that Dr Blake's Death has vacated 

 the Living of Tortworth : pray is not that in your Option as 

 Fellow ? I am impatient to know whether You are Kector of 

 Tortworth : if so, clap in a Curate as Soon as possible, & come 

 away after Institution, Induction &c : They can better bear 

 your Absence before they are well acquainted wth You than 

 they can afterwards. 



Mrs Mulso & I were very much shock'd at the Accounts 

 of the Accident & End of the poor little Boy, It seems however 

 to have settled you in your Debates upon Matrimony, & con- 

 firmed you in your State of Celibacy : for you observe wth a 

 Formality of Stile, which you drop in the next Sentence, that 

 wedlock hath also numbers of Cares &c : as if you had excerped 

 the Observation fm a Treatise upon the Expediency of dying an 

 old Batchelor. 



Our Soil being something like your's, we suffer wth You in 

 the Depredations which the unseasonableness of the weather has 

 made upon Us. I shall be forced into cutting some of my Grass 

 next Week : for tho' we have now a mixture of Cold, wet, & 

 Sunshine, yet my Grass will grow no more. My Fruit is blasted 

 & blighted & ruined utterly, except Apples of which there is a 

 great Promise. Whether we could rival you in Vegetation, I 

 doubt ; but here they have a Hatred to a great Tree ; they cut 

 away at 20 Years' End, & have no Eespect to the Glory of an 

 Oak in it's honourable Hundreds. This totally prevents the 



