1786 LETTERS TO MARY WHITE 151 



wet : if the fall has been as great with you, your two fathers 



will be in danger of seeing more liquor in their cellars 



than they would wish. Much water has soaked into my 



cellar lately. Dr. White often calls on us : he has met 



with dismal weather in his rounds. Pray ask Mrs. Yalden 



where her volume of Mr. Churton's sermons is. Did she 



bring it down from S. Lambeth to Newton ? The reason 



of these enquiries is because I have lost my book, given 



me by the author. There is a copy at Newton, which 



I suspect Edmund borrowed of me; but, being a lover, 



he does not know whether he did, or no. As a certain 



man was looking at his son lately, while he was eating 



bread and butter, he remarked, "that he was a sound puppy, 



and did not husk while feeding." Mr. Ventris has been 



much out of order lately, so that I have not seen him. 



I wrote a long letter to Nephew Thomas Holt- White lately, 



and hope to hear from him soon. Is Uncle Harry in town ? 



Boswell's journal* is a comical, pleasant book. I wish he 



and D*" Johnson had taken more tours together. 



Mrs. J. White joins in respects. y*^ loving uncle 



G. W. 



To Mrs. B. White. 



Selborne, Jan. 24, 1786. 



Dear Niece, — Though I wrote to you the other day by 

 James Etty ; yet I do not love to let Mrs. J. White's 

 parcel go off for the coach to-morrow without sending you 

 a line. To-morrow I am to marry Nanny Hale over the 

 way to young Farmer Tull of Wick-hill. The young woman 

 has been bred to habits of industry; and the young man, 

 I believe, is sober, and steady : so the match, I think, 

 promises well. Yesterday Mrs. Etty and Co. and nephew 

 John dined with me: whether I drank too freely among 



* 'The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, ll.d., 

 by James Boswell, Esq.,' was published in 1785, 



