46 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBORNE 1746 



On August 1st, 1746, Mulso writes to Selborne — 

 "I have a little longer deferred writing to dear Gil, 

 suspecting that the charms of Todnam* would occasion my 

 letters lying unopened at Selbourne if I wrote sooner, and 

 I cannot believe you passed by Tom Mander so quiet as you 

 told me you would : if I know him he has the Art of engag- 

 ing a little longer, and yet a little longer tarrying. Lucre- 

 tius's * suave mari magno, ' etc., was not the reason I laughed 

 so heartily at your stage-coach sickness, which you have 

 now recovered. I hope you will forgive me. I believe it 

 was rather the circumstances of the sickness than the sick- 

 ness itself, that diverted me. I don't think there is a better 

 answer to the Question of Original Sin than a groan ; or a 

 better satire on woman's disputing it, than your cascading." 



This infirmity was no laughing matter, however, 

 to his friend ; since his sufferings from it prevented 

 him, as he told Pennant (in an unpublished letter), 

 from making the long journey to Flintshire on a 

 visit to Downing, Pennant's seat there. Perhaps 

 this was the reason why he so constantly rode every- 

 where, the names " hussar parson " and " a centaur 

 not fabulous" being bestowed on him by Mulso. 



The letter continues — 



" I have just received a letter from Collins, dated Antwerp. 

 He gives a very descriptive journal of his travels through 

 Holland to that place, which he is in raptures about, and 

 promises a more particular account of. He is in high spirits, 

 though near the French. He was just setting out for the 

 Army, which he says are in a poor way. ... I dare not tell 

 you how much we think ourselves obliged to you for your 

 company in town." 



* Todenham, near Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire, where lived a 

 college friend, Thomas Mander, who became a Fellow of Oriel. 



