154 GILBERT WHITP: OF SELBORNE 1786 



I hope you practice every day at your Glass; and that 

 you are by this time perfect mistress of "Nimini pimini."* 

 Inform your father also, that nephew Edm*^ has carted 

 his flints to the top of the Bostal; and that I hope soon, 

 now the snow is gone, to lay them in that path. Mrs. 

 J. White joins in respects. 



I am, dear niece, Your affect, uncle, 



Gil. White. 



Your aunt seems to be quite recovered from her fall, 

 which was a very dangerous one. Pray present my respects 

 to Miss Eebecca White for her fine present of flower-seeds. 



At the end of March, 1786, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor 

 paid a short visit to Selborne. Mrs. B. White's 

 curiosity about the lady was thus satisfied by her 

 uncle : — 



To Mrs. B. White, Selborne [April, 1786]. 



Your aunt and I think the bride a very agreeable woman, 

 and began to wish they would have stayed longer ; but they 

 set off this morning for Blashford. However they seem 

 inclined to come again, when the summer is established. 

 Mrs. Etty, I find by her letter, is a little jealous lest they 

 should grow too fond of Selborne : but I think her suspicions 

 are groundless ; and that the incumbent, now marryed, is less 

 likely than ever to reside, because his lady seems strongly 

 attached to Moyle's Court, the seat of the Lisles, from whence 

 Blashford is distant only one mile. The Lady is tall, and 

 well-shaped, about thirty years of age, and has an easy, 

 engaging address : her complexion is dark, and her hair very 

 black; and no wonder, since her Mother was a Levant 

 woman, perhaps an Egyptian ; because her father lived, she 

 says, eleven years at Grand Cairo. 



* At this time a miniature portrait of Mrs. B. White, junr., was painted. 



