80 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBOENE 1754 



respects your excellent father would be so. Amiable family! 

 where the parent is loved for the children's sake, and the 

 children for the father's." 



He goes on to accept the loan of *' your little 



horse," which, however, was promptly returned. 



Writing on May 7th, 1754, three reasons for this 



are given : — 



" First, he is broken- winded, and wheezes so loud that my 

 heartache will do me more harm than the air good; next, 

 I was forced to carry his head; then he is intolerably 

 shabby, and will not go on a handgallop without constant 

 incitement of spur and whip. Nor can I conceive, what 

 with age and infirmities, how it is possible for him to keep 

 company with a horse fourteen feet [sic] high. I like his 

 paces pretty well, and believe when he was young, that he 

 was an agreeable creature, but would you have the Prince of 

 Wales know me by such a horse, as he did by my lame one ? 



Notwithstanding the horse episode, the friendship 

 continued unbroken, the Curate of Durley being in- 

 vited to visit Sunbury. His friend, writing on May 

 28th, 1754, promised 



" to find a method to trot about with you while you are in 

 this part of the world, either by borrowing or hiring. You 

 shall compare accounts with the travelled Mr. Aldrich, and 

 by your descriptions of your native Selboume you shall 

 ' Shame Vallombrosa and her Tuscan glooms.' 



... I hope your uncle White is well. I suppose he comes 

 often over to Selbourne, for I suppose you seldomer visit 

 Bradley than Selbourne now." 



The visit was paid in June. On September 16th, 

 1754, Mulso writes : — 



