1773 DISPUTES AT OKIEL 227 



To the Rev. John White. c^ ,, ^ . -, . ihrhro 



Selborne, Octr 1st, 1773. 



Dear Brother, — If my last letter surprized and distressed 

 you, it occasioned very different impressions from what 

 were intended. For therein I proposed to imply how much 

 satisfaction I had received from your company and my 

 sister's last winter: and could not help perswading myself 

 that it might have been in your power to have repeated 

 your visit for one winter more without any great im- 

 propriety, and any farther inconvenience than some personal 

 trouble. 



You say I may easily throw up my church, and come 

 down to you; which I ought to do, and fully intend: but 

 then when I once relinquish my employ, I cannot reassume 

 it when I please, even though I find myself ever so much 

 becalmed for want of something to call me forth, and 

 employ my body and mind. 



I must on the 12th of October set out for Oxford, where I 

 must stay about ten days. There are at College, I find, like 

 to be uneasinesses and disputes about offices, and residence : 

 so that I am not able yet to guess whether I shall not be 

 called on by and by to be stationed there for a time. 



As soon as I return Jack and I must set out on a visit to 

 Mrs. Snooke, by whom we have been called on all the 

 summer to turn our horses' heads that way : but something 

 or other has still intervened. 



Thus you see my time is cut out 'til the middle of 

 November, and after that my fate is at present dubious; 

 however, I will be sure to write to you in a more satisfactory 

 manner from Oxford, at which place I shall hope to hear 

 from you before the 20th, on which day I intend to return. 



Pray write single on your letters; for the last, tho' only 

 half a sheet, was charged double postage. 



Jack joins in respects. Your affect. Brother, 



Gil. White. 



