X A SnOET BIOGRAPHT OF 



iujurious, seeding, as would furnish an annual and ample 

 supply for tlie largest city. Though agriculture has of late 

 been atteiided to, still he would be one of the greatest bene- 

 factors to his countrymen in general, who would convince 

 tliem that the richest mine of national wealth lies within six 

 inches of the surface, and who would teach them the most 

 advantageous method of working it. 



" On the whole, we will pronounce that the inquirers into 

 natural knowledge will find Mr. "White to be no unequa 

 successor of Eay and Derham ; and that the History of the 

 Priory is a cui^ious tract of local antiquity. "We should not 

 hesitate to speak so favourably of this work even though it 

 had mucli less rural anecdote and literary allusi<in to recom- 

 mend it." 



Having given this short account of a part of Gilbert 

 White's family, we will proceed to an account of the 

 jSTaturalist himself. 



He received his education at Basingstoke, under the Eev. 

 Thomas Warton, vicar of that town, and the father of 

 those two distinguished literary characters, Dr. Joseph 

 Warton, Master of Winchester School, and Mr. Thomas 

 Warton, Professor of Poetry at Oxford. He was ad- 

 mitted at Oriel College in December, 1739, and took his 

 degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1743. In March, 1744, he 

 was elected Fellow of his College. He became Master of 

 Arts in October, 1746, and served the office of Proctor, which 

 he did to the great surprise of his family, as they thought it 

 would not suit his habits ; but he is said to have performed 

 his duties ably. It is probable, however, that he was 

 more observant of the swallows in the Christchurch meadows, 

 than of the under-graduates in High-street. He had frequent 

 opportunities of accepting College livings, but his fondness 

 for his native village — his love of the country and its pursuits, 

 and especially that of Natural History — made him decline all 



