1765 STUDIES BOTANY 147 



hastened her coming to be a comfort the sooner to my poor 

 dear wife, who is still in a very weak way. Do you not 

 think it was a bold undertaking in Mrs. Chapone to set out 

 alone from London and be hurried away in chance company 

 in the Leeds machine ? " 



Probably it was largely owing to his dislike of 

 travelling by the Leeds — or any — machine, that 

 Gilbert White never saw Thornhill, since he suffered 

 severely from ** coach-sickness." 



The letter continues — 



" I saw in my last paper that D*" Blake's death has vacated 

 the living of Tortworth ; pray, is not that in your option as 

 Fellow ? I am impatient to know whether you are rector of 

 Tortworth; if so, clap in a curate as soon as possible, and 

 come away after institution, induction, etc. ; they can better 

 bear your absence before they are well acquainted with you 

 than they can afterwards. Mrs. Mulso and I were very much 

 shocked at the accounts of the accident and end of the poor 

 little boy. It seems, however, to have settled you in your 

 debates upon matrimony, and confirmed you in your state of 

 celibacy ; for you observe with a formality of stile, which you 

 drop in the next sentence, that Wedlock hath also numbers 

 of cares, etc., as if you had excerpted the observation from 

 a treatise on the expediency of dying an old Batchelor." 



Whether he really felt lonely or not, Gilbert White 

 at this time took up seriously the study of botany, 

 purchasing Hudson's 'Flora Anglica' in this year — 

 a book in which he ultimately marked 439 plants 

 as being found in the parish of Selborne. 



From August 9th, 1765, the Garden Kalendar 

 changes its name to that of a Calendar of Flora 



