1776 GIBBON'S HISTOEY 325 



Tinges * in some little things of Taylor and others at the 

 exhibitions in Town; it is exceedingly pleasing, and could 

 you have it transcribed into your prints, would wonderfully 

 improve the force of the drawing. I long to be at your side, 

 but I cannot : yet by the time that the first insanity is over, 

 and you begin to speak slower and in a milder voice, I hope 

 to talk with you here or at Selbourne. 



"Do you consider that I am now ploughing? that hay- 

 harvest is coming on ? . . . Add to this visiting and visita- 

 tioning, swearing at Quarter Sessions, and all the wickedness 

 and dissipation of Plurality ? f 



" Well, my dear friend, I have much to be thankful for. 

 .... I am glad to say I left the Bishop well enough to 

 seem likely to serve several friends more. I could direct 

 him — but it is not allowed. Have you read Gibbon's book ? 

 What think you of his latter chapters ? If you dislike 

 them, cannot you answer them ? You have the candour 

 of a gentleman, and could confute a genteel writer in a 

 decent way. I wish you could ; and soon : you have leisure, 

 and you have access to what books you might want. 

 (Among ourselves — in illumquidem beneficium collocarem^ 

 a quo graviter lucide et viriliter convinceretur, i.e. G. This 

 was the word, if I express it right, of him who seldom 

 breaks it.)" 



Even this bribe, however, did not move the 

 historian of Selborne to enter the lists against the 

 historian of Kome. 



At the beginning of August his friend visited 

 Mulso at Meonstoke, whence he wrote — 



* The tinged drawings subsequently spoken of by Gilbert White in his 

 letter of August 9th, 1776, to John White. 



t He had recently been presented to the Rectory of Easton, near Win- 

 chester, by the Bishop of Winchester. 

 VOL. I. — Y 2 



