PREFACE. xiii 



nean Society, be found among the correspondence now 

 published, and four unpublished letters from Linnaeus to 

 John White. Scarcely inferior in interest to the above- 

 mentioned letters are a considerable number addressed 

 to his brother-in-law, Thomas Barker, Esq., of Lyndon 

 Hall, in the county of Rutland, a distinguished scholar, 

 critic, and naturalist of his day, and to that gentleman's 

 son, Samuel Barker, to whom many of his uncle's very 

 pleasing letters on literary and scientific subjects are 

 addressed. Several letters to other branches of his 

 family will be found to possess considerable interest as 

 illustrative of the benevolence of his character and the 

 terms of affectionate intercourse which subsisted between 

 him and his relatives. Among the valuable contributions 

 entrusted to the Editor by Mr. Algernon White are the 

 original letters to Pennant, which form the bulk of the 

 first portion of the Natural History, and which formerly 

 belonged to the late Rev. Glyd White. 



The letters from Gilbert White to his friend the Rev. R. 

 Churton, of Brasen-nose College, were communicated to 

 the Editor by his son, the Rev. Thomas Churton, also 

 Fellow of Brasen-nose, and late rector of West Shefford, 

 in Berkshire. These letters, written in the same agree- 

 able style as characterizes his epistolary compositions in 

 general, supplemented as they now are by numerous 

 letters from Mr. Churton to him, which were found 

 amongst his miscellaneous correspondence, exhibit in a 

 pleasing manner, by the increasing familiarity and 

 warmth of expression, the growth of a friendship which 

 lasted till death. 



