1774 LETTEE TO SAMUEL BARKER 249 



turned as incurable : the surgeons suppose his case to be an 

 ulcer in his bladder. Boxal the blacksmith is dead, and 

 his widow is removed to live with one of his daughters. 

 His house and shop sold for a great price. These last 

 sentences are addressed to your mamma. Nanny Woods 

 continues remarkably stout ; but her poor father is in a 

 very poor state of health, overwhelmed with business, and 

 neither able to go on, nor willing to relinquish. Jack 

 and I are newly returned from London, where I caught 

 a great cold. Tell your papa and mamma that I hope they 

 will please to come and see me this summer ; and will bring 

 you, and as many of your sisters as is convenient. Among 

 other things you will be glad to see the strange sight 

 described above. I have been prevented as yet by indis- 

 position from seeing it myself. Captain Cook and Mr. 

 Forster, it is expected, will be at the Cape next November 

 and home about next March. The S. and W. of England 

 have suffered lately in a wonderful manner by floods; but 

 I found by a gentleman who arrived in town from N. Wales 

 in the midst of all those bad doings, that nothing extra- 

 ordinary had happened in that way on the N.W. side of the 

 Kingdom ; and so I find by my brother John's letters. The 

 landsprings, or lavants, are higher on the Hants and Wilts 

 downs than ever they were known in the memory of man; 

 and so they are at Faringdon. your affectionate Uncle, 

 Pray write soon. Gil. White. 



To the Bev. John White. Selborne, April 29th, 1774. 



Dear Brother, — ^After thanking you for your letter of the 

 12th, I should inform you first (as it is matter of Business) 

 that it will not be in my power to pay Mr. Willis,* because 



* Of Holiburn School, near Alton, to which John White, junr., had been 

 sent in 1770, or earlier. He was, however, at present under the tuition of 

 his uncle, to whom he became a useful amanuensis. A good deal of the MS. 

 from which the * Selborne ' was printed is in his handwriting. 



