no GILBEET WHITE OF SELBOENE 1759 



On his return his friend Mulso writes on May 



7th, 1759:— 



" I am pleased that you have got back from Oxford with 

 a mind impregnated with Poetry, as in former days, and not 

 troubled with Party and Contention. You brought back 

 our old happy Feels over Milton, by those few words * Now 

 my task is smoothly done,' and I congratulate that placidity 

 and academic turn of your mind." 



During this spring the following letter was re- 

 ceived by Gilbert White from his brother John, 

 who had by this time been resident at Gibraltar 

 about three years, as a military chaplain. It should 

 be mentioned that John White's earlier career had 

 been a subject of considerable anxiety to his family, 

 both while at Oxford, and subsequently. Gilbert 

 White had once visited Oxford on his affairs, and 

 seems to have always acted the part of a kind 



brother. 



Gibraltar, Jan. 10, 1759. 



Dear Brother, — ^Your kind letter dated Oct. 26 was dated 

 again on the Cover by my B^[other] B[enjamin] Nov. 17, & 

 came to my hands, by the Cadiz Mail Dec. 13*^ I had been 

 struck about a month before by the melancholy news of 

 our dear and honoured Father's Death in the publick papers, 

 as I was casting my eye over them in a Coffee House. 

 I yet entertained some hopes that it might possibly be 

 a groundless report, till I saw it afresh confirmed the 

 next post in the Westm"^ Journal. My grief & concern 

 at this sad event was much increased by the long silence 

 of all my relations in England; for the last letter I had 

 been favoured with bears date Dec. 8, 1756, from B'^ B, 

 and the only ones I had ever received before were, one 



