1755 CUKATE OF DENE AND NEWTON 85 



That his new abode was not entirely to Gilbert 

 White's liking appears from the following sentence 

 in a letter of September 18th, 1755, from Mulso : — 



"I hope this will find you well and reconciled to your 

 situation; which, tho' you have as much true Philosophy 

 as any man I know, yet is not to your taste, if it is really 

 solitary." 



He managed, however, to amuse himself some- 

 times, for he visited " Sarum, Stonehenge, and 

 Wilton [House]" with his relatives the Barkers, 

 and paid "a man for showing me troufle-hunting," 

 of which he afterwards wrote in his book. Some- 

 times, too, he went over to Selborne, and continued 

 to write his Garden Kalendar there; riding over, 

 of course, which accounts for the not infrequent 

 purchases of " black leather riding-breeches." In 

 these solitary excursions on horseback he had good 

 opportunities, which were certainly used, for ob- 

 serving natural objects of many kinds, both flora 

 and fauna. His friend, who had now been engaged 

 to be married for ten years, continued : — 



"Do not you fix your eye upon Cromhall or Tortworth, 

 [Oriel livings] or indeed upon anything particular ; for the 

 fixt eye will be an aking one, believe me. I have looked at 

 Peterboro' til it now seems lost in a mist." 



In the autumn of the year 1755 Gilbert White 

 undertook duty for Mr. Yalden at Newton Valence, 

 close to Selborne, as well as at Dene. For some 

 considerable time his father's health had been giving 



