48 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBORNE 1747 



at once became curate to his uncle (by marriage), 

 the Kev. Charles White, Kector of Bradley and 

 Swarraton, Hants, with duty at Swarraton. Not- 

 withstanding the fact of this curacy — which, how- 

 ever, seeing that his stipend was only £20 a year, 

 probably only entailed Sunday duty — he came up 

 to Oriel again on July llth; whence, as he kept a 

 mare at this time at livery, he seems to have con- 

 tinued his weekly attendances at Swarraton. 



During the summer he again visited his college 

 friend, Tom Mander, at Todenham, in Gloucestershire, 

 where Mulso addresses him on August 21st, 1747 — 



"I presume you are popping and snapping so that a 

 Farmer can't walk his own fields in security for you. Tom 

 can walk farthest, but you shoot best ; I fancy I have drawn 

 your characters, tho' I may add Tom drinks cyder longest, 

 but you take the larger glasses at first. I thank you for 

 your account of yourself at Chalgrave. There is no man 

 understands a Retreat I see better than yourself." 



Miller's * Gardening Dictionary,' apparently the 

 first book he possessed which relates to his favourite 

 studies, was purchased during this year. 



On October 16th, 1747, Gilbert White was laid up 

 at Oriel with an attack of small-pox. Some of the 

 entries found in his pocket-book under the heading, 

 "Expenses in the Small-pox," seem to imply a 

 different treatment of the disorder from that now 

 adopted, and are worth reproduction. 



