LETTER CLVIII 251 



We are sorry to hear so poor an Account of Miss White. ^ We 

 have just reed advice of the arrival of Sr Peter Dennis at Spit- 

 head, so we hope to see Lt Will : Young soon. Sister Chapone 

 comes next week or the week after. As to our making You a 

 Visit, it is in Nubibus ; I shd like to do it very much : but, non 

 Cuivis homini contingit adire — which Sentence is not so well 

 applied as by Master Howell in his Letters. 



We have been flaccid since You left Us : My Eheumatism 

 plaguing in more Shapes than One. It's being at present in my 

 Head, & my Eyes failing me will I hope excuse me for here 

 subscribing Myself, 



Dear Gil, Ever afftely Your's, 



J. Mulso. 



P. S. Comps. fm all to all. 



Letter 158. 



Eeverend Mr White Meonstoke. 



at Selbourne near Alton, Hants. Oct : 20, '74. 



Dear Gil : 



By the last Turn of ye Stage Coach We sent home [your 

 Books. We franked them to Alton, & if any Charge accrued 

 after That from our desiring them to be forwarded to You, I 

 desire I may repay You. The Books amused Us much, especi- 

 ally Brydone. Since we read him, our Nephew Will : Young 

 came from ye Mediterranean ; he had not seen the Books, nor 

 had he ever been in Sicily ; but he took up a Volume from the 

 window, & I desired him to read ye Description of the Bay of 

 Naples, where he had anchored. He said if Brydone was as 

 Poetical in the rest as he was in That, he might be very amusing, 

 but that They who look'd for ye Scenes as he described them, 

 would be much dissappointed ; for that, tho' it was true that 

 all the Places lay where he had assigned them, yet that You 

 could not bring them into one View unless You were 50 Miles 

 out at Sea, & then they could not be distinct ; & that they had 

 not the Appearance that he had described ; for, as to ye Fronts 

 of Palaces in ye Rocks, as he had never been told of them, he had 

 never found them out, tho' he had lain opposite to them a great 

 while ; &, I may add for him, he is a Young Man of Curiosity 

 & Gusto. 



I have been very much chagrined that I could not hook in 

 a Visit to You : But the high Tides & perpetual Eains kept us 

 fm all Thought of travelling, & my Horses have carted & ploughed 

 every day since, So that they have only carried us a Mile or 

 so thro' all this beautiful Fortnight. On Wednesday next We 

 go to our Winter Quarters at Winton, so we are in a high Fuss 



