130 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBOENE 1734 



send down your maid. Pray pay Mr. Almond for my two 

 pairs of stockings : by not taking the money in Fleet street, 

 he has wronged himself : for he returned the whole money to 

 Mrs. J. White while we were in town. Desire your father 

 to send me down a good large ham : 



To bring me down a £30 lank-bill : 



Bring me a pound of coffee : 



Half a pound of soft sealing-wax : 



Two or three quires of small writing paper. 



Your father, of course, I conclude, will receive my Mid- 

 summer long ann : dividend. Mrs. Etty and family intend 

 to go to Priestlands soon. Charles Etty's fine Madagascar 

 tortoises dyed as soon as they got to Selborne; but not 

 before the female, a very grand personage, had laid an egg. 

 They seem to have been jumbled to death in the boot of the 

 coach. 



Brother Ben gathered a puff-ball, Lycoperdon hovista, in a 

 meadow at Alton, and brought it to Newton: it weighed 

 seven pounds and an half, and measured in girth, the longest 

 way, 3 feet 2 inches and an half ! ! 



Mr. and Mrs. Mulso, and two daughters have just spent a 

 fortnight with me. You may suppose the company of such 

 very old friends was very agreeable. Mr. and Mrs. M. are 

 very inactive ; especially the latter. That Lady and I made 

 a visit to Mrs. Etty in a carriage: and once we went on 

 foot. Mrs. J. White says you need not trouble yourself 

 farther about her hat: she herself will settle that matter. 

 Suppose you send the Coffee down by Neps. Ben and 

 Edmund; who, as I understand, are soon to be in Hants. 

 Pray let me hear as soon as you get to Fyfield. I thank 

 your father for paying my insurance. When you come I 

 shall be glad to trace your Essex-tour on the map with you. 

 Tell your father that the wheat-crop in the pound-field (he 

 remembers circumstances) is bad. We have sweet harvest- 

 weather; but the Selborne wheat (especially what was 



