MEMOIR, xliii 



holding successively several Government offices, he was 

 elected Recorder of Bristol in 1753, and four years after- 

 wards appointed a Welsh judge. In 1785 he retired 

 finally from public life, and died in the year 1800, at 

 his chambers in the Temple. He was a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society; and it was through him that Gilbert 

 White's papers on the Hirundinida were presented. 

 Harrington was the author of some legal and political 

 works, and of a considerable number of papers on natural 

 history, which were published in the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions/ It was probably to Pennant that White 

 owed his first introduction to Daines Barrington, The 

 first intimation which we meet with of his having formed 

 this acquaintance is in his letter to Pennant of January 

 2.2nd, 1768, in which he says, " I have received from 

 your friend Mr. Barrington one of his naturalist's jour- 

 nals, which I shall endeavour to fill up in the course of 

 the year." This was a year and a half before the date 

 of the first published letter to him. The last letter, 

 which White closes with the expression, " I shall here 

 take a respectful leave of you and natural history to- 

 gether," preceded the publication of the book by about 

 a year and a half. Many of Barrington's papers, both 

 in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' and in those of the 

 Society of Antiquaries, of which he was a vice-president, 

 were embodied in his 'Miscellanies.' Of this collec- 

 tion White expresses his satisfaction in the commence- 

 ment of his 51st letter, and his gratification at the 

 honourable mention made of him in that work. Bar- 

 rington speaks of him as " a well read, ingenious, and 

 observant naturalist ; " and I believe he never quoted 

 him, or availed himself of his observations or discoveries, 

 without due acknowledgment. There can be no doubt 



