Iviii MEMOIR. 



Thomas Warton, then at Basiiigstoke, under whom, as 

 has been stated, Gilbert White also received his school 

 education, preparatory to his entering the University. 

 Joseph Warton had removed to Winchester, and there the 

 poet Collins was his intimate friend, and the intimacy 

 continued when they were both at Oxford. Through this 

 association with Warton, White became acquainted with 

 Collins. How far his intimacy with the two poets may 

 have influenced his taste for poetry we know not; but 

 I have sometimes fancied that the versification of the 

 little poems above mentioned possessed a good deal of 

 the ring of Collins's, especially of his eclogues. Some 

 years after Collins's lamentable death, Gilbert White 

 wrote anonymously to the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' *, 

 giving a short but affecting account of his eccentric life 

 and its sad close. I find a copy of this letter amongst 

 his papers. 



Gilbert White's personal appearance has been described 

 to me by his nephew, the late Rev. Francis White, who 

 remembered him well. He was only five feet three inches 

 in stature, of a spare form and remarkably upright car- 

 riage. He never would sit for his portrait. The sup- 

 position of some persons that the clergyman represented 

 in the large frontispiece to the first edition of his work 

 was intended for him is therefore erroneousf . The ex- 

 pression of his countenance was, as those who knew have 

 recorded, intelligent, kindly, and vivacious ; his constitu- 



* 1781. 



t It may be interesting to those who possess either of the 4to 

 editions of the work, to be informed who were the persons repre- 

 sented in the frontispiece. The first is the Rev. Robert Yalden, the 

 Vicar of Newton Yalence; second, Mr Etty, the brother of the 

 Vicar of Selborne ; third, Mrs. Yalden ; and the fourth, Thomas 

 Holt White, Gilbert's brother. 



