292 LETTERS TO GILBERT WHITE 



have but One advantage of taking Us all together, whioh is, as 

 I have heard, that deaf People hear best in a Noise & Croud. 



If I see You, I shall talk to you on the Subjects of your 

 Letter ; but if We cannot see You at Selbourne, I hope we can 

 see You at Meonstoke, You being Single & loco-Motive wth Ease. 

 I depend upon it. Be so good as to write hither as soon as 

 possible. 



The Bishop desired his Comps. to You. We join in Love 

 & Comps. 



I am, My dear Gil, Ever very Afifectly Your's, 



J. Mulso. 



Mem : Mrs M. must be set down at any Door where she visits 

 for She cannot walk to gain it. 



Letter 188. 

 The Reverend Mr White, Meonstoke, 



at Selbourne near Alton, Hants, -f at Alton. Aug : 16, 1780. 



Dear Gil ; 



I pass'd along the Faringdon Lanes on ye 4th & looked 

 frequently to my left hand, coveting much to see my old Friend, 

 ife the Scenes of Selbourne always new. I was the more uneasy 

 at turning ye " unwilling Steed another way," for the Reason 

 which caused it, the Sickness of your Brother.* I have allowed 

 a little Time to pass before I sit down to enquire after his 

 Amendment, because I know ye Obstinacy of that dreadfull 

 Distemper, & that to quell it is a Work of Time, much more 

 to eradicate it totally. I hope to hear from You, with an 

 Account that your Brother is in a good way : He who has had 

 Apollo as well as Vulcan for his Patron should have immortal 

 Defences & be plus quam ferreus. I desire my affte Comps. 

 & best wishes to Him : and the Services of an Old Man to his 

 fair Daughter. For in fact, my dear Friend, old I am, & even 

 older than my Years. I am, without the Gout which I do not 

 acknowledge, lame of both my Legs ; I am dunny, if not deaf ; 

 (fe I am dull, not to say Stupid. You have owned Yourself three- 

 score wth only One Infirmity ; I come close behind & tread upon 

 ye Heel of your Age, & am a Valetudinarian from Head to Foot, 

 it is now many Years ago, since exhibiting to You Some of my 

 Failings at Petersfield, I hinted that you should not tell your 

 Sisters All: I think You need not tell your Niece All now; but 

 I have not the same Reasons now for fearing a Detection of 

 Infirmity as I had then. Yet I have learnt that to complain too 

 much is to get ill-will. So say No more about it. 



We left the Bishop excessively low, not only from ye Melan- 



• Thomas White, who was sufiering from ague. 



