34 GILBEET WHITE OF SELBOENE 1779 



time in ascertaining the size, the markets, the tolls, the 

 souls, the priories, and religious Houses of Selborne ; for these 

 circumstances, though curious in reality, are to the go'6,t 

 of not five readers in five hundred. Be it therefore very- 

 clear, but very sJiort. The novelty and elegance, the tender- 

 ness, and the piety of the natural part will be the forte of the 

 Performance. . . . How was it with Mrs Chapone; it was 

 the genuine affetuoso, the con amore of her book that gave 

 it its run. . . . Pray come out while the passion rages ; the 

 world is getting off its eyes from Portsmouth and the Trial.* 

 . . . Now's your time." 



Shortly after this time the brothers at South 

 Lambeth received a visit from Gilbert White, who 

 found Benjamin lately a widower. 



To Miss White. Selborne, April 17, 1779. 



Dear Molly, — My thanks are due for your kind letter, 

 and for your father's care in procuring me two fine hams; 

 and for his present of a rain-measurer ; and for his trouble in 

 purchasing my long annuity. There was a time when rain- 

 measurers were very entertaining; and doubtless there will 

 again : but now we have seen no rain for four months ! 

 I rejoice much to hear that my nephew Thomas recovers so 

 fast. Enclosed I send some large white cucumber-seeds 

 for your father: but the sun is so hot, and the dung so 

 dry, that hotbeds thrive but poorly. When Mr. Cricket 

 is tired of his new room, he may let it to you. My furniture 

 from Mr. Graham does not come to Alton 'til this day. 

 As soon as I can get a person I shall paint my room. Mrs. 

 Eashleigh left Selborne this morning. Old George Tanner 



* Admiral the Hon. Augustus Keppel was tried by court-martial at Ports- 

 mouth, January 7th-February 11th, 1779, and honourably acquitted of a 

 charge of cowardice. Politics had a good deal to do with the trial, and 

 party feeling at the time seems to have been greatly excited. 



