310 LETTERS TO QILBEBT WHITE 



I could have wish'd to have had my Girls fall in wth your 

 Nieces.* The Performance by two Ladies at a Time & Barney's 

 Compositions are no Strajigers to us, as the Miss Ogles (Betsey 

 is now Mrs Streatfeild) & even ye little Miss Bakers perform 

 in that Way, & several other young Ladies here, ye Miss 

 Blackstones particularly. May your Generations increase 'till 

 you come to ye Measure of the Stature of the Fullness of your 

 Avunculate ! 



I have as yet past a very dull winter, having been much 

 confined by my own Fire, & losing fine Musical Meetings as well 

 as friendly ones. Among other Complaints a Deafness on one 

 Side^ or rather Dunniness & Stupefaction, almost made me crazy. 

 Thank God it is gone again ; & I bear rheumatic Cramps & Cricks 

 A gouty Twinges wth more Spirits, — tho' not with much neither 1 

 Mrs M. is pretty well, tho' rheumatic like myself in some Degree. 

 My Daughters are well, and I assure you that it was a great 

 Mortification to them that we could not see Selborne last Year. 

 It was indeed no tempting One in point of Weather. They all 

 join in afifte wishes wth, my dear Gil, 



Your old & hearty Friend, 



J. Mulso. 



The Wartons are very capable of replying to perverse 

 Opponents ; & ingenuous enough to submit to just Criticism 

 properly introduced to them. I did not hear before the name 

 of Bitson.] You rightly observe why they are attack'd ; it is 

 from Envy. The Rowleian Contest I detest & abominate ; as I 

 did that of the Erse Poetry. All which ended, as this rmist do, 

 in Nothing. 



Letter 201. 

 Revd Mr White, Meonstoke, 



Selborne near Alton, Hampshire. + at Alton. July 12, 1783. 

 Dear Gil : 



I feel a good deal ashamed upon the Receipt of your 

 Letter, to find that You had been so long neglected, but at ye 

 same time I was much surprised ; for You was one of those 

 whom I thought of advertising of our removal to this Place, & I 

 really imagined I had done it. It seems by yr Lr that I had 

 not executed my Purpose. I ought certainly to have returned 

 You my thanks for your Interest in the Election of Mr Allen, 

 & am happy that the Consent of ye College fell in wth the 



• Mary and Elizabeth, daughters of Gilbert White's sister, Mrs. Barker. 



t Joseph Ritson (1752 — 1803), Antiquary, published, in 1782, observations 

 on Thomas Warton's " History of English Poetry," in which his disregard 

 of the decencies of literary controversy raised strong resentment. 



