LETTER CCVI 317 



Adml Gambier : Now we are told that this Gentleman has given 

 o£fence & is recalled; so that we are a little in the Suds there. 



Farewell, my dear Gil ; this is early post, & every body about 

 me in a Hurry. One waggon gone, another setting out. But 

 this was meant to inform you of my Eemove. 



I am ever, Dear Gil, Your Old & Afifte Friend, 



J. Mulso. 



Letter 206. 

 Eeverend Mr White, Meonstoke. 



Selborne near Alton, Hants. + at Alton. June 24, 1784. 



Dear Gil : 



I reed your kind Letter dated June 16th. I thank you 

 very much in my own & family's Name for your Invitation to 

 Selbourne, which we should all of Us have been very glad to 

 have accepted, but I will tell You how we are circumstanc'd, 

 as You have acquainted me on your Part. My Aunt Donne is 

 now with us, & a Miss Lucy Elyott, whom I brought wth me 

 fm Winchester yesterday upon a former Invitation, & these will 

 stay wth me for Some time : by the Time These leave me will 

 come in the Hay Harvest, which, if we guess by the present 

 dreadfuU Season, must be both waited for with Skill, & attended 

 to wth Diligence. In that Season therefore I cannot be absent. 

 Soon after that your Eelations will fill your House ; so that you 

 see that I can by no means set a Time. This gives me great 

 Discontent, for I had set my heart upon visiting You this Year. 

 My Family long for it ; and Hester says that we shall find her 

 set out one of these Mornings alone ; for She wants to enrich 

 her Imagination wth Selbornian Scenes. I should think that, 

 if it pleases God to send Us the weather of the Season, the Hay 

 & Corn will come forward very fast : as to Hay, I speak of 

 Water Meadow Hay ; for there is a vast deal of other Grass got 

 in, or cut down & spoiling. I was at Winchester yesterday, & 

 there heard that Dr Mackettrie is in the utmost Danger. I never 

 was out in two Hours heavier Eain in my Life, than in my 

 Eeturn last night. 



My Son wishes for a Curacy, as he is now in Priest's Orders. 

 He must have a Place to put his head in, &, I suppose, to board ; 

 but it need not be in the Place, if You could get him that of 

 Farringdon,* but of this I have not heard him advance any thing : 

 he said he should like Selborne, for which he may have more 

 Reasons than One, but I should think that the Confinement 



* Owing to the non residence of Mr. Taylor, who succeeded Mr. Etty as 

 Vicar of Selborne, Gilbert White gave up his Farringdon curacy for that of 

 his native parish soon after this date. 



V 



