LETTER CXXI 203 



I suppose You now wait to tell me of the arrival of my Brothers 

 & Sisters at your House ; but why need you do that ? I shall 

 force them into a Course of Letters, as soon as I hear that You 

 are all got together* I want to hear from You ; I presume never- 

 theless that in your next you will be able to give some account 

 of my Family, for I cannot know Any thing certain from Them, 

 who (at ye time of their last writing) were themselves in Un- 

 certainty as to their Motions. They were to make a Visit at 

 Parnham in their way, but then they were not to set out 'till 

 they had reed your Summons. I owe a Letter to my Brother 

 Mulso but I could not return an answer to London. I sent 

 a Lr to your House long ago for my Sister Chapone, of which 

 no notice has been taken, so I conclude that you detain it at 

 Selborne. Let me however have a Lr from you, that I may 

 know where to address my own Brother & Sisters. Let me 

 in it know the State of your young Folks that were ill of ye 

 Meazles ; & pray mention in it your Brother John, & whether 

 he is alive or dead. These Summer Visitants of Your's are 

 great Hindrances to a certain Scheme, which you once told 

 me should be soon undertaken, if it was ever to be undertaken 

 at all : It was a Scheme to prevent your marrying your Maid 

 when You was Sixty or Seventy. 



I shall not let you go above a Year or two more, before I 

 begin to take ye other Side of ye Question, & inveigh agst your 

 undertaking this Yoke of Wedlock at all ; & that, because the 

 chances will go more agst You, whether You may or may not 

 live to see your Children Christianly & Virtuously brought up. 



We have had an Accident which has put a Stop to Population 

 for Some Time wth Us : for on the 16th of last month Mrs Mulso 

 miscarried. She is very well again ; I really think much better 

 than She was before. The Concern is not very great, tho' the 

 name of Mulso is of such Consequence to ye world ; for Two of 

 a Sort was just my Choice, & That is just what I have, thank 

 God ; & may he preserve them to Us as Blessings, & we will 

 not desire More or less. I have not given a formal Intimation 

 of this to Any, but Admiral Young & ye Bishop's Family, because 

 I did not know, as I said before, where to catch my Brother ; & 

 I desire you to let them know, that this was the Cause & nothing 

 else. 



I hope I am recovering again from a very bad Bout, but I 

 have still a Deafness in my left Ear & Confusion in my Head, 

 which I take to be of ye nervous Order: I am afraid You will 

 begin to find Something of that same Confusion in my Stile & 

 Manner of writing : but You must accept of an old Friend with 

 all his Infirmities. 



Invalids are always finding some external Causes for their 

 Failures, which are, as I always held, laid in wth the Stamina 



