226 LETTERS TO GILBERT WHITE 



down this week, if the weather will let me, all by the Side of the 

 Grove, and repair & paint the rest next Spring. 



I hope You found your Brothers & Sister well, & that You 

 told Harry how much I was mortified at not seeing him ; I hope 

 we shall not be such great Strangers hereafter. 



Our Neighbour Mrs Smith is in a miserable way : but I was 

 glad to find that the Man who died of the amputated Limb was 

 not my Neighbour wth a family, but a Relation, & a Batchelor, 

 which, pace vestra, is not of so much Concern to Society. I saw 

 no Mortal of my Acquaintance at Oxford, but I sent to let Mr 

 Etty know how & when we left his Bror & Sisr. 



I here conclude wth repeated thanks & Love fm all, 

 especially, 



Dear Gil, Your obliged & affte Friend & Servant, 



J. Mulso. 



P.S. I shall send this tomorrow to Oxford by Robin, who 

 goes from me wth a Haunch of Venison to ye Bp of Oxford. 



Letter 138. 

 To the Revd Mr White, Witney. 



at Selboume near Alton, Hampshire. Deer 8, 1770. 



Dear Gil : 



I imagined that when You received the Account of my 

 Accident, all those Horrors would seize You that were natural 

 to arise upon ye Recollection of your Uncle's Misfortunes. But, 

 I thank God, mine was not any thing like so dreadfull a Case 

 as his. The Dislocation of ye great Bone was as great as was 

 possible, as it totally left the Ancle, & protruded to ye Side 

 of ye foot; but the Fibula was broken, but not displaced much, 

 so that my greatest Ailment is from the Dislocation. But small 

 as this Accident was upon Comparaison, yet it confined me 



5 weeks to my Bed, being only once moved out of it to a Couch, 

 where I lay extended ; and I recover but slowly, the weather 



6 my own Time of Life making agst me. Yet I am assured that 

 I shall walk as well as ever, tho' I hobble upon Crutches to my 

 Study, & cannot get my Knee strait, or my Heel to ye Ground, 

 and am urging these points several Times a day with considerable 

 Pain to my Self. If the Montacute Family should lose their 

 excellent Picture, I could sit for a Beggar of Antwerp. I am 

 got no farthur towards Exercise, tho' my Fall was on Octor ye 

 6th. But I hope that I am duly sensible of God's Mercy in ye 

 Gentleness of this Visitation, which might have been very dread- 

 full to us All. 



I thank You for your very kind Letters on this Occasion, 

 which express the warmth of our old friendship : — (I am inter- 

 rupted — oh, it is Dr Sandford hurrying to Cirencester ; he has 

 brought me an Oxford Almanac & a pot of Sausages. He is gone 



