68 GILBEKT WHITE OF SELBOKNE 1752 



a longing desire to see you in your new station, but then I 

 want to bring in each hand a girl.* . . . How prettily would 

 they adjust your Sleeve and give a more rakish air than 

 suits the Academic Form ! How would they admire the Tuft, 

 and how would they fancy the Flap ! . . . I have had a great 

 cold. Heck and Missy resolved to take a post-chaise and 

 come and nurse me at Sunbury. How did they wish that 

 Mr. Proctor White was here with them ! The weather was 

 tempestuous, but we read Pope, etc., longing for your 

 indicative finger to point out the beauties, though it affronts 

 our judgment by preventing it. ..." 



He goes on to mention another '' scheme of 

 pleasure" which might prevent the Oxford visit. 



"And perhaps of all years this is that in which you might 

 be least glad of our company. And I must own it would 

 have an odd sound, when the Provost sends to know what 

 noise that is in his college at One in the morning, to have 

 him answered, 'Sir, it is the Proctor with two girls and 

 the mad Parson of Sunbury.' So see you to it. ... I reckon 

 you often turn your eyes southward, and pine after the 

 romantic vicarage with the 'pensile nest-like bowers' of 

 Selbourne." 



Probably upon the authority of Edmund White 

 (Vicar of Newton Valence), Professor Bellf relates 

 the following amusing occurrence during the Proctor- 

 ship. It appears that, as the Proctor was going his 

 nightly round, he found a dissipated undergraduate 

 lying in a drunken sleep at the back of the Schools. 

 Next morning the culprit was dismissed with a 



* Evideutly his fiancee, Miss Young, and his sister, 

 t Vide Bell's edition, vol. i. pp. xxxii., xxxiii. 



