REVIEWS. 
195 
•strikes one on inspecting it is the peculiar filling up of all three money 
columns in every instance ; thus White writes that he paid for — 
“ Two Sevil-oranges 00 00 03 ; ” 
and on another occasion that he — 
“Gave Jenny Croke a round China-turene, 
“ Being prevented paying for y e post-chaise . . . 01 03 11” 
Certain items will excite the envy of some people in the present day ; for 
example we have one day — 
“ Oysters 00 00 02;” 
and another — 
“Oysters 00 00 03 d” 
Lovers of oysters would he puzzled to get any appreciable quantity of 
their favourite mollusc for such sums nowadays. Life in Oxford was 
probably very jolly in White’s time, and he seems to have gone in pretty 
freely for the festivities of the place, the numerous tips to “ Mrs. Oroke’s 
Man,” “ Dr. Bristow’s Man,” &c., being, no doubt, so many records of good 
dinners or other entertainments. A frequent item in the account is “Lost 
at Cards,” but the amounts show that the gambling was not carried to a 
ruinous extent, eighteenpence being, we think, the extreme amount of 
White's losses on any one occasion. On one day we find, “ Lost at Goose, 
00 00 06c?.,” but this seems to have been at Selborne, probably in a family 
party. A curious item occurs on April 20, 1752, namely: — 
“ Present to the Vice- Chan, a Loaf of Double 
Defined Sugar 71bs. at 13c?. . . .00 07s. 07c?. 
With six bottles of Wine.” 
This appears to have been an official present on taking office. Another 
connected with the same incident is “ An 1001b. weight of biscuits to treat 
the Masters of Art in Oriel Hall ; ” this rather dry treat was, perhaps, to be 
moistened with some of the “ six doz. of mountain-wine, very old and good,” 
that figures in the account four days previously. Olives seem to have been 
important elements of conviviality. White bought them first of all in plates 
varying in price from a shilling to half-a-crown, but probably found these 
I retail purchases too expensive, for, subsequently, we find him getting his 
olives in bottles from London. The olives, apparently consumed with 
punch, appear repeatedly in the account, generally for the entertainment of 
visitors — thus his cousin, “ Bappy Isaac,” figures two or three times in con- 
nection with that beverage, as also do the Mulsos, father and son, for whose 
refreshment we find five-shillings’ worth of punch charged. This exuber- 
ance of hospitality in behalf of these last gentlemen may have had its origin 
in White’s affectionate remembrance of Miss Mulso, for whom he had a ten- 
dresse in early days. The lady, however, preferred a rival, and is well known 
in literature by the name of Mrs. Chapone. Occasional references to tavern 
dinners and other jollifications of the same nature occur, and, altogether, we 
may infer that the Junior Proctor in the University of Oxford, in 1752-53, 
spent a tolerably merry time when his duties called him to that city. Other 
items serve to throw more or less light upon various social matters, espe- 
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