1785 



A NEW VICAR OF NEWTON 443 



to Gravesend, hoping Charles Etty would have been able to 



have got him a passage to India as a soldier : but after 



being at considerable expence for clothing, a watch (the boy 



would not go without a watch) and other matters ; he could 



not get admittance aboard, and is returned to this place. 



Some snow lies still on the hill^ and there is this day a 



great rime on the hanger, but none in the vale with us. 



Thermometer 26°. The ground is as hard as a rock : 



Bar. 29-25. ^rr ^ - ^ 



Y^ loving uncle, 



Gil. White. 

 Mrs. J. White joins in respects. 



Crocus's begin to blow. 



"Say, what impells, amidst surrounding snow,"* etc. 



Writing on March 19th, 1785, Mulso regrets the 

 death of Mr. Yalden— 



" You have lost some very good men and true Christians 

 from your neighbourhood of late. For God's sake take care 

 of yourself and live as long as ever you can to keep up so 

 precious a character. ... I fear you are all plunged again 

 into sadness. I pray God that the vicinity of your nephew 

 may produce future scenes of joyousness and happiness." 



This nephew, also a nephew of Mr. Yalden's, was 

 Edmund, son of Benjamin White, who was to be 

 the new Vicar of Newton. 



In April the usual visit to brother Thomas at 

 S. Lambeth was made, and the Naturalist's Journal 

 records — 



"May. 1. Saw one Swifts two house-martins in Fleet St." 



* In the second (1802) and subsequent editions of 'The Natural History 

 of Selborne' these verses were placed at the end of Letter XLI. to Barrington. 



