THE 



NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW, 



Jjkfcafe, 



Rambles of a Naturalist on the Devonshire Coast. By Philip Henry 

 Gosse, F.L.S., &c. London : John Van Voorst. Price 21s. 



More than half a century has elapsed since Gilbert White was laid in the 

 quiet little churchyard at Selborne, where a slight heave of the turf still 

 marks the resting-place of the naturalist and the philosopher, and the 

 remark of the learned Warden of Merton College, respecting his " Natural 

 History of Selborne," " that the time will come when very few who buy 

 books will be without it" has been amply verified. Few have read it 

 without feeling a deep sympathy with the pursuits of its pure-minded and 

 gentle author ; and, as might have been expected, its frequent publication 

 has exercised a strong influence on the minds of those who wish to discover 

 the good and beautiful in all that meet and surround them. With the 

 lapse of years a great change has taken place in the estimation in which 

 the naturalist is held ; his pursuits are no longer looked on as eccentric or 

 visionary, but he finds himself surrounded by "a galaxy of congenial 

 spirits, engaged in the same or congenerous studies, and, so far from having 

 to bear up against the ridicule which, at no late period, might have been 

 the lot of his predecessors, he will find, at least, a tacit acquiescence in the 

 becomingness of his studies, and a forbearance from all censure that might 

 fray the most sensitive." This change of feeling has operated most favour- 

 ably in drawing forth a crowd of observers — men who keenly feel all the 

 beauties of nature and love to describe them, who invest the objects of their 

 study with an individuality calculated to interest even the most indifferent. 

 We would not wish even to appear to undervalue the labours of the sys- 

 tematic naturalist. We entertain a very high estimate of the powers of 



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