xxx MEMOIR. 



side there until November 1C, 1750. His grandson, 

 William White, F.S.A., is the well-known ecclesiastical 

 architect*. 



Of Gilbert White's boyhood I have been unable to 

 obtain any information, beyond the simple fact, men- 

 tioned in the brief sketch by his nephew, prefixed to the 

 second quarto and most subsequent editions of the work. 

 " He received his school education at Basingstoke, under 

 the Rev. Thomas Warton, vicar of that place, and father 

 of those two distinguished literary characters, Dr. Joseph 

 Warton, master of Winchester School, and Mr. Thomas 

 Warton, Poetry Professor at Oxford. He was admitted 

 at Oriel College, Oxford, in December 1739, and took 

 his degree of Bachelor of Arts in June 1743. In March 

 1744, he was elected a Fellow of his college. He be- 

 came Master of Arts in 1746." His election to a Fel- 

 lowship is the first indication that I have met with of 

 his possessing those talents and acquirements which 

 afterwards manifested themselves in so pleasing and 

 effective, although unostentatious a manner throughout 

 his social life, as well as in his works. He received 

 deacon's orders on Sunday, April 27, 1747, in the cathe- 

 dral of Christ's Church, from the eminent Thomas 

 Seeker, then Bishop of Oxford, afterwards Archbishop of 

 Canterbury. 



At that time, his uncle, Charles White, held the rec- 

 tory of Bradley, about six miles N.W. of Alton, and the 

 perpetual curacy of Swarraton, near Old Alresford. Imme- 

 diately after his ordination he entered upon his duties 

 as curate of his uncle's living of Swarraton ; and I find 



* This gentleman has lately been engaged in conducting the 

 restoration of Selborne Church. 



