328 LETTERS TO GILBERT WHITE 



work, if all Farmers fared as ill ! The Kains will at least make 

 good After-Grass, or Edish, or, as we called it in Yorkshire, Fog. 



Mrs Bale has been on a Visit to Mrs Davies ; She spoke in 

 very high Terms of Mr Ventris. We hear that Mrs Williams has 

 got a Daughter ; & that young Charles Blackstone is in a Treaty 

 of Marriage. 



We have had a good many Visitors lately, which You would 

 hardly think from the Essay of Solitariness that Mrs White & 

 You made at my House. We shall be glad to hear of ye Wellfare 

 at proper times, of yr Studies & Observations. 



I am. Dear Gil, Ever afltely Yours, 



J. Mulso. 



Letter 215. 



Reverend Mr White, Meonstoke. 



Selborne near Alton, Hants. + at Alton. Sepr 4, 1785. 



Dear Gil: 



I received your Crocus* in it's triple Shape, & I like it in 

 all. The Original is an ingenious Thought, piously as well as 

 poetically imagined, & happily express'd. Of the two Transla- 

 tions I like the first and shortest the best, but I do not approve 

 of the Stop ; after summa Potestas ; — Horarum Deus &c : is the 

 Answer to the Question. If it is added, whose Power is supreme 

 cui summa Potestas ; as it must be construed if stop'd so strong, 

 then Ipse is wanted before Temperat. But if it intends, Whose 

 supreme Power tempers &o then it should have no Stop. It is 

 concise & just. The other, more at large, is likewise well done ; 

 but the same Objection occurrs at the same Place. And I fear 

 that calet & liquet are applied as active Verbs, which is not usual 

 Latin, unless I have forgot it ; which is not much to be wonder'd 

 at, as ray Memory is in most things Sieve-like & untenacious. I 

 have likewise had a Vexation lately, in which I am still employed, 

 that has a little hurried me & unhing'd my Intellects, & dis- 

 qualified me for a Critic, who should be clear & cool & candid. 

 The Vellication of the eighth pair of Nerves, (as You call it) is apt 

 to make ye Milk of human Nature a little subacid ; inclines ye 

 Judgment to Severity, & Criticism to find Fault where it is not 

 required. I take great Pleasure, however, in the Perusal of yr 

 Poetry. 



Mrs Mulso is better, tho' her Fastidiousness of Appetite will not 

 yet let her dine at the Table. Jane bumps out on a hard- trotting 

 Horse & is recovering apace. Hester has her Head Aches. My 

 Sister is pretty stout for her, & considering ye unseasonable & 



* The verses " On the Early and Late Blowing of the Vernal and Autumnal 

 Crocus." 



