CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS FAMILY. 105 



LETTER VI. 



TO THE SAME, FROM GIL. WHITE 



(on the same sheet). 



Dear Sam, 

 * * * 



Jack and I are newly returned from London, 

 where I caught a great cold. Tell your papa and mamma that 

 I hope they will please to come and see me this summer, and 

 will bring you and as many of y r sisters as is convenient. 

 Among other things you will be glad to see the strange sight 

 described above. I have been prevented as yet by indisposi- 

 tion from seeing it myself. 



Capt u Cook and Mr. Forster, it is expected, will be at 

 the Cape next Novem r and home about next March. The 

 S. and W. of England have suffered lately in a wonderful 

 manner by floods ; but I found by a gent, who arrived in 

 town from N. Wales in the midst of all those bad doings that 

 nothing extraordinary had happened in that way on the N.W. 

 side of the kingdom ; and so I find by my Bro. John's letters. 

 The land springs or lavants are higher on the Hants and Wilts 

 downs than ever they were known in the memory of man ; 

 and so they are at Faringdon. 



Your affectionate Uncle, 



GIL. WHITE. 



Pray write soon. 



LETTER VII.* 



TO SAMUEL BARKER. 



Selborne, Nov. 3, 1774. 



Dear Sam, 

 When I sat down to write to you in verse, my whole design 



* [A copy of this letter was given to me many years since by a near 

 relative of Mr. Barker's.— T. B.] 



