1756 IMPROVES SELBORNE GARDENS 87 



whole and sole Property of a thing called a Sermon wrote by 



j^iss M 0, keeping it from the family of the said Miss 



out of a pretended Pride of having a manuscript value 

 10,000 &c &c &c: have yet let this manuscript escape out 

 of your Possession ; Mr. Proctor Turley of Sunbury having 

 proffered me to get sight of the same ; as we suppose, tho' 

 not yet proved, by means of his uncle Brown, Bookseller, 

 who is acquainted with Mr. Whiston, Bookseller, & B. White 

 ditto, brother of the said G. White y® Delinquent : who is 

 mainly suspected of having made undue communications of 

 these Lady-Favours, a thing unpardonable, and till this time 

 unsuspected in the said G. White. Please to clear up these 

 affairs, before condemnation is passed in the King's Square 

 Court."* 



The above passage is scarcely what a brother 

 would have written to a friend who cherished an un- 

 requited passion for his sister. That friend was at 

 this time constantly engaged in embellishing the 

 Selborne grounds. 



From the Garden Kalendar : — 



" May 14th. Set up my first oil-jar vase at the bottom of 

 the ewel close, with a pannel only in front ; mount pedestal 

 and vase nine feet high. 



•'19th. Set up my second oil-jar vase at the top of the 

 broad walk, with a face to the cross-walk; mount pedestal 

 and jar some inches above nine feet high." 



In opening out his father's grounds and making 

 ha-ha's and cutting vistas, Gilbert White was follow- 

 ing the fashion first set by William Kent, painter 

 and landscape gardener (1685-1748), who did more 

 than anyone to abolish walled, closed-in gardens, 



* The residence of Mr. Mulso, senior. 



