WHITE'S SELBORNE v 



groves. One wonders at first sight how, with one eye upon 

 his parochial flock, he could use the other to so great an 

 extent in connection with his varied charges of the natural 

 world ; or how, watching the migrants as closely as he did, 

 he could find time to stroke his parlor cat and attend his 

 weekly concert " of a first and second fiddle." It must be 

 borne in mind, however, that the series of epistles addressed 

 to Thomas Pennant and the Hon. Daines Barrington, in 

 which his observations are recorded, extend over a period of 

 more than twenty years ; while in his ninety-first letter, under 

 date of May 7th, 1779, he says that it was then more than 

 forty years that he had paid some attention to the ornithol- 

 ogy of the district without being able to exhaust the subject, 

 new occurrences still arising as long as any inquiries were 

 kept alive. That he did not originally contemplate a book, 

 but that his letters gradually grew into a volume, might be 

 presumed from the fact that no dates are attached to his first 

 nine epistles. On the other hand, eleven of his latest letters 

 are also without chronological record, the concluding one, 

 however, being dated June 2 5th, 1787, the first dated epistle 

 being that of August 4th, 1767. 



The traveler who is hurried by on the southwestern ex- 

 press, in journeying from Southampton to London, obtains 

 a glimpse of the beauties of Hampshire, within whose confines 

 Selborne lies secluded, its red-tiled cottages and smiling 

 flower gardens, its ancestral trees and halls, its graceful church 

 spires, and well-tilled fields and verdant meadows, which greet 

 him on every side. But in order to become acquainted with 

 the true character of a country, especially a country like 

 England, so rich in historical monuments and associations, 

 one must often leave the beaten highway and seek the less 

 trodden paths. And to understand the " Natural History of 

 Selborne," it is necessary to be familiar with the place which 

 was its genesis and inspiration, as well as to acquaint oneself, 

 so far as may be, with the character and life of its author. 



Gilbert White was born July i8th, 1720, at Selborne, 

 and died, aged seventy-two years and eleven months, on 

 June 26th, 1793. He received his early education at Ba- 

 singstoke, and afterwards went to Oxford to become Fellow 



