CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS FAMILY. 109 



LETTER IX. 



TO MRS. BARKER 



(with the following letter to Samuel Barker). 



Selborne, March 30, 1775. 

 Dear Sister, 

 I could have much wished to have spent part of last winter 

 with you ; but just as I thought I had got a gent, to supply 

 my church, he was called suddenly into Devon. Harry has 

 got a large family indeed ; Bro. Tho. and I were lately at the 

 Xtening of his last boy, whose name is Edward. Our brother 

 has lately much enlarged his house, which could no longer 

 contain his numerous family : a new kitchen, and a new par- 

 lour over that, and garrets over that, all very large and roomy, 

 make the house now very commodious ; and nothing is to be 

 regretted but the expence. As building is catching, I also 

 talk of some addition to my house next summer ; but I much 

 suspect my resolution in setting about it *. Bro. John was 

 disappointed in placing his son in London, and now thinks of 

 placing him with a linen-draper at Manchester — a scheme, I 

 think, much for the better in all respects ; for in London they 

 ask most enormous fees, and Bro. Ben has just given £250 

 with Edmund to Mr. Hounsom in Fleet Street. Alice Boxall, 

 who removed after her husband's death to her daughter's, is 

 lately dead, as is also John Neal. Poor Berriman lies in 

 the same deplorable way still! Nanny Woods continues 

 stout and well, and is a fine brown maid ; her hair is remark- 

 ably fine. Molly White is very well, and is stout and large 

 of her age, and a giant to Mrs. Etty. Your kind present 

 to your native place I have disposed of in part; such gratuities 

 in these hard times are very acceptable. Mrs. Isaac writes 

 me word that her aunt Weston died intestate, and that by 

 standing in her mother's shoes she shall come in for about 



* [He, however, completed his drawing-room (24 ft. by 18, and 12 

 high) in 1777. — T. B.] 



