LETTER CXCIX 307 



Letter 199. 

 Keverend Mr White Meonstoke. 



Selbourne near Alton, Hants. + at Alton. Aug : 7, 1782. 

 Dear Gil : 



I brought from Winchester a bad Complaint in my 

 Bowells, as I thought, & I had exceedingly increased my Suffer- 

 ings by a Fall, as I walked ; by which I bruised Parts that were 

 before injured ; and other bad Circumstances availed themselves 

 of this Mischance, so that wth these & an Oppression on my 

 Breath, I was hardly able, when I came hither, to move at all ; 

 & even now make but a very poor Figure in walking : nor can 

 I bear to go to any considerable Distance in the Chaise ; not so 

 far as to Alresford, whither I was tempted to go to meet my 

 Sistr Chapone at Dr BuUer's : Mrs Mulso & Hester went, & 

 Jane nurst me. Whether my Sister is now there I cannot tell, 

 but beleive She is: She has lost a Friend, Mrs El: Burrows, 

 since She left Town, & intended to return to comfort ye family, 

 if they seem'd to desire it. But I think they would hardly 

 require it : She has bequeath'd her a very kind & substantial 

 Mark of her Friendship, an Annuity of ten Pounds for Life. We 

 shall soon see her here, I hope, if She does not quit Hampshire : 

 Tho' sure there never was so little Temptation to go out of a 

 Door as in this Summer, which is with Us a perpetual Eain : I 

 have however been very lucky in my Hay, having got it all in 

 perfectly well ; & in plenty, for ye Size of my Land. I see a 

 great deal spoiling about me, & some of Neighbour Wyndham's 

 amongst the rest. The World is indeed very green, for the very 

 Corn hardly changes yet from that Colour : You must be in 

 great Beauty in your verdurous Spot. How are You in your 

 Health ? and how able are You as a Horseman ? Do You amble 

 about your Neighbourhood ? Do You yet serve Farringdon or is 

 ye new Eepresentative of Mr Cage come to exclude You, & to 

 enlarge You? I purposed this Summer to have come to you, & to 

 have seen into all this : but I fear that I shall be unequal to 

 such an Excursion. That need not hinder your Coming hither, 

 when your Convenience serves : You may be sure that I do not 

 stay from You out of Neglect of You : My old Partialities would 

 call me thither, and a Curiosity to witness your new Improvement 

 would add an Incitement. But You & your Place are among the 

 Prejudices of my Youth, & my Mind dwells upon them with a 

 Fondness that I do not feel for newer & grander Things. Even 

 my old Wife, who is so little of a Moveable, laid out Selbourne 

 as a Frisk of her this Year's Life, and my two Girls think of it 

 as of a Ball or a Eeview. But I fear that I shall be forced to 

 dissappoint them & mortify Myself. 



My Son John is at Oxford, & I have not had ye Time of his 

 Coming fixed. If his Absence is short from Oxford, he will take, 



