11749 LEAVES SWARRATON CURACY 57 



compliment. Perhaps we may steal into the pit and take 

 another laugh together, unless you think it beneath your 

 dignity. But you shall rule; and indeed this is a compli- 

 ment which I owe to you, who referred everything to my 

 arbitration, and submitted everything to my content and 

 ])leasure when I was in Hampshire. . . . Tell me about the 

 curacy and whether you have taken it." 



From the last sentence and an entry in his account- 

 book of the receipt of a year's salary (£20) for 

 serving the curacy of Swarraton to March 21st, 

 174f, it would seem that Gilbert White had been 

 without regular duty for some months. 



The bishop mentioned in this letter was Dr. 

 Thomas, Bishop of Peterborough, and subsequently of 

 Salisbury and of Winchester, who had been tutor to 

 the Prince of Wales (afterwards George III.) and his 

 brother Prince Edward, who died young. He had 

 married Mulso's aunt, Susanna. Though he never 

 gave Gilbert White a living, he was, as will be seen 

 later, a remarkably benevolent uncle to John Mulso. 



On January 24th, 174^^, Mulso writes : — 



" I thank you for entrusting me with Horace ; I have long 

 expected his coming, as I overheard several hints from him 

 the last time I saw you. . . . Wherever I have carried him 

 it is agreed that he is as well dressed, and presents that easy 

 wit and humour, which he exhibited when Mr. Pope brought 

 him and introduced him to the town some years ago. The 

 Bishop of Peterborough, who remembers him in his Roman 

 dress, and indeed before he could speak English, thinks it 

 wonderful that he should be so well reconciled to our 

 language and manners. He is perfectly naturalized. But 



I 



