34 LETTERS TO HIS BROTHER 



difficulty with respect to Edmund. Jack's epistle is of his 

 own composing: I have altered here and there a word, but 

 inserted no sentence. 



" Orna me," is a sentence very familiar to me ; it is, I 

 think, in Tully's letters. Mrs. Barker writes me word this 

 week, that now she and Mr. B. are come to a determination 

 not to stir from home this summer. They plead the ill health 

 of old Mrs. Barker, and a great deal of repairs to be done to 

 a farmhouse. 



We have had continual showers for three weeks past; much 

 hay, especially clover, is totally spoiled ; and much meadow- 

 grass, and among the rest my own, is still standing, but 

 growing too old. Harry still preserves your Barbary breed 

 of fowls distinct : but they labour under a disadvantage not 

 very convenient for this climate ; for their down comes off 

 before their feathers appear, and so they are stark naked for 

 a fortnight — a condition not very suitable to a cold wet 

 summer. They are taller and more erect than our breed. 



As to franks, pray think no more about them ; for, unless 

 any thing particular wants to be enclosed, I never wish to 

 receive one again : there is no money that I pay with more 

 satisfaction than postage of letters from friends. 



If you will object to the rest of my monog. where you see 

 occasion, I shall be glad. 



. My neighbour Mr. Robertson is disposed, and thinks he 

 shall be able, to take my curacy in the autumn, when I much 

 wish to see Lancashire. But then it must not be until the 

 beginning of November ; for I must be at Oxford in October, 

 and I am embarrassed with a broken tenant at Greatham, by 

 whom I shall lose a year's rent, if I do not look about me, at 

 Michaelmas. 



Swifts breed but once in a summer, and but two at a time ; 

 swallows and martins breed twice in a season, and from four 

 to six at a time ; so the latter increase at an average five 

 times as fast as the former. With respects to my sister, I 

 remain 



Your affectionate brother, 



OIL. WHITE. 



