70 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBORNE 1752 



generous hospitality, with habitual prudence, punc- 

 tilious formality, and methodical habits which was 

 so characteristic of his after life." To Mr. Bell's 

 book the reader who desires to look into some 

 phases of ordinary college life at this period may be 

 referred. Here it will suffice to say that Mr. 

 Proctor seems to have fully entered into the social 

 life of the University, going to concerts on "choral 

 nights," entertaining his friends with ''A bowl of 

 rum Punch from Horsman's," occasionally visiting 

 the "Coffee House," and playing cards in the 

 common room, while entries for cleaning his gun 

 and the purchase ''from Woodstock turnpike" of "a 

 Spaniel of the Blenheim breed," show that he still 

 continued to shoot. 



Nor were his friends outside Oxford forgotten. 

 His brother Thomas, always interested in botany, 

 came to see "the Physic Garden"; Mr.^ and Mrs. 

 Whiston ; his cousin, Baptist Isaac ; his sister, Mrs. 

 Woods ; and uncle, Mr. Snooke (of Ringmer) ; and 

 several of the Mulso family, to entertain whom 

 he returned to Oxford in August for a short time. 

 Nor were the "poor of Selborne" forgotten by his 

 charity. 



During this time he served the office of Dean of 

 his college, the most important post after the 

 Provostship. 



On December 21st, 1752, Mulso writes: — 



* Doubtless the senior partner of the firm of Whiston and White. 



