THE BET. GILBERT WHITE. XVll 



Insignificant as these little details may appear, they were 

 not thought to be so by a man whose mind was evidently 

 stored with considerable learning, who possessed a cultivated 

 and elegant taste for what is beautiful in nature, and who 

 has left behind him one of the most delightful works in the 

 English language, — a work which will be read as long as that 

 language lasts, and which is equally remarkable for its 

 extreme accuracy, its pleasing style, and the agreeable and 

 varied information it contains. 



In order to enable our readers to enter more fully into 

 the merits of the "Natural History of Selborne," some 

 account of that village, its neigK^ourhood, and of Mr. White's 

 residence, is now given. 



Selborne is situated in the extreme eastern comer of 

 Hampshire, bordering on Sussex. It is about fifty miles 

 from London, and between the towns of Alton and Peters- 

 field. It is evident (whatever may be the case at present) 

 that in Mr. White's time the village was not readily ap- 

 proached by carriages. The charming deep sandy lanes in 

 that part of Hampshire and Sussex, overgi'own as they are 

 with stunted oaks, hazels, hawthorns, and dog-roses, and the 

 banks covered with wild strawberries, primroses, and pretty 

 ferns, would in winter be filled with mud, to say nothing 

 of the cart-ruts. I fijad amongst Mr. White's papers the 

 following pleasing lines, addressed to one of his nieces, 

 Mrs. J. AVhite, by her father, and signed Gr. T., and which 

 wiU give some idea of the roads of Selborne : — 



" From henceforth, my dear M , I '11 no longer complain 



Of your ruts and your rocks, of your roads and your rain ; 

 Here 's a proverb that suits with your cottage most pat, 

 ' When a thing 's of most worth, 'tis most hard to get at 



And besides, where to find such another retreat 

 As the shades of old Selborne, so lonely and sweet, 

 Where the lover so freely may languish and sigh. 

 Where the student may read, and the Christian may die ? 



6 



