322 LETTERS TO QILBEBT WHITE 



Letter 210. 

 Bevd Mr "White, Meonstoke. 



Selborne. Aug : 12, 1784. 



Dear Gil : 



I return You a thousand thanks for all the kind Attentions 

 that You paid to me & Mine, for all ye Trouble that You took 

 about Us, & for all the Effects of your old and true Friendship. 

 As Ukewise to Mrs White for all her Assiduity & Obligingness, 

 which I fear gave her Pain in ye Event ; a sad Keturn for her 

 giving Us Pleasure ! She seem'd often suffering by Headaches, 

 & I doubt we left her in much Suffering from it. The young 

 Ladies & Nowell are gone out to Jiazard a Walk, & Mr Charles 

 Etty is on his Visit. They are such good & obedient Children, 

 that I doubt we shall not tempt them to stay tomorrow, so that 

 we shall have little of the young Gentleman's Company. 

 Timotheus has been prurient of Poetry, & surely now ♦' his flying 

 Fingers have swept the Lyre ; " he has shewn a great vivacity, 



i'oined wth Sentiment & Solidity. I hope he will not content 

 limself wth speaking once, like Balaam's ass ; but will exercise 

 his Gifts, having once spoken so well.* 



I relapse into Indolence here, not having ye Temptations to 

 move that You gave Us at Selborne, sweet Sojourn of Friendship ! 

 — I hear that Mr Yalden has caught a Cold, & tremble lest it 

 should be owing to standing by our Chaise without his Hat in 

 the Damp. 



The moist weather still continues, but I have heard ye Sound 

 of the Flail in a Neighbour's Barn in my Village. I hope ye 

 young Bearers of this will get home safe. With true Love & 

 many thanks from me & all here, to You, Mrs White, & yr good 

 Neighbours, I conclude myself your oblig'd & very affte 



J. Mulso. 



Letter 211. 

 Eeverend Mr White, 



Selborne near Alton, Hants. + at Alton. Winton. 



Dear Gil : Saty March 19,-85. 



I reed Your Letter last night, the Contents of which con- 

 firmed what ye Newspapers had inform'd us of, the Death of 

 Mr Yalden. I was not surprized when I met it there, for Mr 

 Beal had been wth me some time ago, & told that his Death was 

 expected daily. You have lost some very good Men & true 

 Christians from your Neighbourhood of late. For God's sake 



• Mulso's second daughter, Hester, had sent some verses to Gilbert 

 White as from his tortoise, ' Timothy,' which produced in return the well 

 known letter " From Timothy the Tortoise to Miss Hecky Mulso." 



