72 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBORNE 1753 



even by the descriptiveness of it. . . . Our girls are clear 

 that the affair between you and one Jenny is quite serious. 

 Missy is very fond of the thought, being much taken with 

 the lady ; but you was so grave with me in the post-chaise 

 that I dare not add to their opinion anything but my 

 applause of the lady. However that may be, I daresay that 

 she is very instrumental in softening the Eigour of your 

 Oxford confinement, and often prevents your forgetting 

 family life. . . . Miss Heck has got a new cantata for you, 

 and if you come before her pipe is quite stopped you may 

 command it." 



Who the lady referred to was does not certainly 

 appear, but his friend had rallied Gilbert White 

 upon a certain "Jenny" in Oxford some years 

 previously. Very probably the lady in question was 

 " Jenny Croke," with whom Gilbert White journeyed 

 "from Selborne to Oxon. in a post-chaise," and sub- 

 sequently presented with "a round China-turene, 

 being prevented paying for y® post-chaise.""^ From 

 other entries in his accounts it seems that Mrs. 

 Croke, Jenny's mother, kept a haberdasher's shop at 

 Oxford, and sometimes collected the rents from 

 Grandmother White's tenants at Oxford. The fre- 

 quent occurrence of a present to "Mrs. Croke's man" 

 shows that Gilbert White often visited at her house. 



At the top of the zigzag path may still be seen 

 a rough-hewn, rudely pointed stone of moderate size, 

 which was placed in position by the brothers White 

 at a somewhat later date. It is a little curious that, 



• Vide Bell's edition, 'Gilbert White's Account-book,' vol. ii. p. 323. 



