CHAPTEE VIII. 



That, as regards Gilbert White at least, no very 

 deep impression had been made by the charming 

 shepherdesses, may be gathered from a remark which 

 John Mulso makes soon afterwards (January 6th, 

 1764)— 



" So that I find the Miss B s are still ladies * that 



you know hut little of.'" 



Perhaps, however, his friend felt lonely sometimes 

 at his house at Selborne, for the letter continues — 



"I am glad you have got Mrs. Snooke with you; for I 

 remember that what with snuffing the Candle, making up 

 the wood-fire, and paring your nails, you could seldom get 

 through the writing of one letter in an evening; now she 

 may do a good deal of this for you. But she must not 

 talk ; for then you will think of nobody but her ; and that 

 must not be. ... I have but little hope of your thinking 

 much of any particular absent Female, because when you 

 say ' while I, doing no good in my generation, am still single,' 

 you did not insert the lover-like word alas! after /. There 

 is a sort of sentimental sorrow in the whole sentence, but 

 there is not Feeling enough for a man in earnest without 

 the word alas'' 



142 



