86 GILBEKT WHITE OF SELBOENE 1756 



anxiety to his family ; and this, of course, made his 

 son all the more anxious to return, probably to the 

 vicarage at Selborne, which place, as it happened, 

 was from this time to be always his home. 

 Mulso writes on December 6th, 1755 : — 



" I am sorry that your duty is so increased as to be 

 grown troublesome, yet methinks I am glad that you are 

 got near enough to be more a comfort to Mr. White. . . . Tell 

 me of your Vases and Obelisks ; let me see them in imagi- 

 nation, if not in reality ; I have a pretty good idea of your 

 grounds, place me at my proper distance, and let me see 

 your Antonines and Trajans with their Egyptian Hiero- 

 glyphics. . . . Cannot you make that idle rogue Jack* 

 change duties for some time, when he is disposed to visit 

 his father." 



Early in 1756 his final visit, for the time, to 

 Dene, was apparently made ; and from this time the 

 Garden Kalendar gives evidence of leisure spent 

 in the Selborne gardens in planting many sorts of 

 shrubs and plants, some of them received from 

 brother Thomas in London, ''in the basons in the 

 field," '' opening a vista for an obelisk," etc. 



Writing on April 23rd, 1756, Mulso says : — 



"Now you begin to see the effects of your vases and 

 obelisk amongst the green Hedges. Your gates still remain 

 mysterious, but your very exact and strong description has 

 set your other improvements before my eyes." 



He continues — 



" Pray, Gil, let me know a Truth. You stand indited by 

 the name of Gilbert White Clerk, for that you having the 



• John White, Gilbert's brother, was at this time a curate in London. 



