220 GILBEKT WHITE OF SELBOENE 1773 



these things were done in a green tree, what will be 

 done in the dry ? Indeed we had at that season cold, wet, 

 black weather: but from July the 7th to this time have 

 enjoyed the most lovely season that ever was seen; both 

 as to sun for our hay, and since soft showers for our 

 meadows, gardens and turneps. I have a prospect of a 

 very fine crop of grapes on the walls of my house. Pray 

 revive your journal without loss of time. The wind 

 was very far from being constantly N. with us for a month 

 before you wrote : it was very much so indeed from June 

 27th to July 3rd inclusive: but the week before was all 

 S.W. to a day : but then again from June 13th to the 19th 

 it was pretty much N.E. and N.W. at different ends of the 

 week. 



I shall write to Mr. Twiss soon, and repeat my invitation. 

 From the time that the widow returned from her bathing 

 in the sea she began to be less cruel; and last week she 

 consented to make Mr. Webb* happy: they kept their 

 wedding at Newton. Mr. Y[alden] was so delighted with 

 the event, that he made verses on it: the strangest verses 

 you ever saw. He made also a copy on his new alcove: 

 they are all alexandrines, and wonderfully unwieldly; and 

 very much like those before ' Pilgrim's Progress.' It is 

 pity that so worthy a man should be troubled with such 

 an infirmity ! 



The story of the Aurora is all contradicted. 



It is pity that you can't hear from Linnaeus: you had 

 better write again. 



Some boys went to hunt flappers (young wild ducks) last 

 month in the forest: among the ducks they caught some 

 minute wild fowls alive. I examined them, and found them 

 to be young teals ; but never had suspected that teals ever 

 bred in our parts 'til now ! I redeemed one and turned it 

 into J. Knight's ponds. 



* The doctor at Alton. 



