64 GILBEKT WHITE OF SELBORNE irsi 



died in confinement, but when, or where, he was buried I 

 never knew. 



Thus was lost to the world this unfortunate person, in 

 the prime of life, without availing himself of fine abilities, 

 which, properly inspired, must have raised him to the top 

 of any profession, and have rendered him a blessing to 

 his friends, and an ornament to his country. Without 

 books, or steadiness or resolution to consult them if he 

 had been possessed of any, he was always planning schemes 

 for elaborate publications, which were carried no further 

 than the drawing up proposals for subscriptions, some of 

 which were published; and in particular, as far as I re- 

 member, one for a 'History of the Darker Ages.' 



He was passionately fond of music; good natured and 

 affable; warm in his friendships, and visionary in his 

 pursuits, and as long as I knew him, very temperate in 

 his eating and drinking. He was of moderate stature, with 

 grey eyes, so very weak at times, as hardly to bear a candle 

 in the room ; and often raising within him apprehension of 

 blindness. 



With an anecdote, respecting him, while he was at 

 Magdalen College, I shall close my letter. It happened 

 one afternoon at a tea visit, that several intelligent friends 

 were assembled at his rooms to enjoy each other's con- 

 versation, when in comes a member* of a certain College, 

 as remarkable at that time for his brutal disposition as 

 for his good scholarship ; who, though he met with a circle 

 of the most peaceable people in the world, was determined 

 to quarrel ; and, though no man said a word, lifted up his 

 foot and kicked the tea table and all its contents, to the 

 other side of the room. Our poet, though of a warm temper, 

 was so confounded at the unexpected downfall, and so 

 astonished at the unmerited insult, that he took no notice 

 of the aggressor, but getting up from his chair calmly, he 



* [Hampton.] The translator of Polybius. — V. 



