62 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBORNE 1751 



them, I should have material for a very useful and agree- 

 able Pockett volume. ... I follow you in imagination, and 

 indeed, according to your description of the South-hams, 

 it is the only way in which I can follow you thither." 



In November, Harry White, who was going into 

 residence at Oriel, was accompanied to Oxford by 

 his eldest brother, who spent the term there. At 

 this time he bought *' a Pontipool snuff-box for aunt 

 White," and "14 yards of stuff for sister Becky." 

 A loss occurred, since his second, or "portmanteau" 

 horse, as he terms it, died on the return journey 

 to Selborne. Oxford was, however, losing its charm 

 for the Fellow of Oriel. Writing to him there on 

 December 13th, 1750, his friend Mulso observes: — 



"I love the thoughts of Oxford, yet I agree with you 

 that it has not the same charms for me that it had. . . . 

 I suppose Harry is heir to your old go'iit for a college life." 



After Christmas the quiet life at Selborne seems 

 to have been resumed. 



In January, 1751, the family circle at "The 

 Wakes " lost another member ; since Miss Anne 

 White was married to a gentleman whom she had 

 probably met at her uncle, Mr. Isaac's, rectory at 

 Whitwell, Mr. Thomas Barker, of Lyndon Hall, 

 Kutland ; a member of a family long settled in that 

 county, of which Sir Abel Barker, Bart., of Hamble- 

 ton, was the head. 



This year (1751) is remarkable for the inception 

 of a kind of diary, consisting chiefly of daily events 

 in the garden, which was continued year by year 



