272 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBORNE 1774 



To Mrs. Barker. London, Novr. 26, 1774. 



Dear Sister, — I have been indebted to you for some time 

 in the letter way : but as I have lately written to Sam, I 

 was in hopes that a letter to one of the family would express 

 my regard for the whole, and excuse my other obligations 

 for a time. My business in town is to meet my brother 

 John, and to bring up Jack, who is grown so tall and large 

 that it is full time he was settled in the world. A person 

 who calls himself a mercer has been much recommended as 

 a master ; he is said to be a good domestic, family man, and 

 in a thriving way: but when my brother came to talk of 

 price, he demands a much larger deposit than was expected ; 

 so the treaty is at a stand for the present. My brother John 

 desires me to tell you that he once thought of returning with 

 his son by Lyndon;. but as he has spent already in town a 

 good deal of the time that he had allotted for absence, and 

 nothing is concluded in his business, he now finds that he 

 must defer that satisfaction to a farther day. Originally I 

 intended to have met brother J. in town, and to have accom- 

 panyed him to Blackburn, and so to have spent the winter 

 between that place and Lyndon : but just as I thought I had 

 at last procured help for my church, my assistant was called 

 into Devon, to return he knows not when : — '' ibi omnis 

 effusus labor." Sam will tell you the meaning of the Latin. 

 Molly White thrives well at Selborne, and grows tall, fair 

 and handsome, and is a fine girl. Nanny Woods also is very 

 stout and hardy, and is a nutbrown maid. Poor Nanny 

 White, who came to Newton in so deplorable a condition, 

 has for these last fine weeks mended in a most marvelous 

 manner ; so that her friends about her have good hopes ; and 

 if she has no relapse will be again soon in a comfortable 

 state : though London, I fear, will be no ways fit for her for 

 some time. Berriman lies still in the same sad deplorable 

 way, helpless and hopeless ! 



