WHITE, GILBERT. 



WHITE, REV. JOSEPH. 



C70 



Bishop of Bangor,' Cvo, London, 1717; the second, 'A Defence of the 

 Propositions contained in the Lord Bishop of Bangor's Sermons,' 8vo, 

 London, 1718. 



To this long list are still to be added six single sermons published 

 at different times between 1671 and 1714; ' Thirty -three Sermons 

 upon the Attributes of God,' 2 vols., London, 1710; 'Sermons on 

 Several Occasions," 8vo, London, 1720 ; ' Twelve Sermons preached at 

 the Cathedral Church of Sarum,' 8vo, London, 1726; besides an 

 anonymous pamphlet, entitled 'A Short View of Dr. Boveridge's 

 Writings,' Svo, London, 1711 a severe attack on Bishop Beveridge 

 of which he is supposed to be the author. 



WHITE, GILBERT, the author of the ' Natural History of Sel- 

 borne,' was born at Selborne on the 18th of July 1720, and received 

 his early education at Basingstoke, under the Rev. Thomas Warton, 

 father of the poet of that name. On leaving Basingstoke he was 

 admitted a student of Oriel College, Oxford, and took his Bachelor of 

 Arts degree in 1743. He was elected a Fellow of his college in 1744, 

 and became Master of Arts in 1746, and was made a senior Proctor of 

 the university in 1752. He exhibited when young an attachment to 

 literature and the study of natural history ; and it was to indulge in 

 these tastes that he retired at an early period of his life to his native 

 village. Here he lived surrounded by his friends, engrossed by his 

 favourite pursuits during the whole of his life : he died on the 26th 

 of June 1793. Although he had frequently offers of preferment in 

 the Church, he declined them all : not that he was averse to the duties 

 of the clerical profession ; for during the latter part of his life he 

 acted in the capacity of curate at Selborne, and had previously per- 

 formed the same duties in the adjoining parish of Faringdon. The 

 work on which the reputation of White as a naturalist rests, and which 

 must ever claim for him a conspicuous position amongst the culti- 

 vators of science, as well as the classical writers of Great Britain, is 

 his ' Natural History of Selborne.' This work was first published in 

 quarto, in 1789, four years previous to the death of the author. In 

 this first edition also appeared a chapter of the antiquities of Selborne, 

 a part of the work which has been often, without sufficient reason, 

 omitted in subsequent editions of the ' Natural History.' After the 

 death of Gilbert White, Dr. Aikin published a work entitled 'A 

 Naturalist's Calendar, with Observations in various branches of 

 Natural History,' the whole work being selected from a natural history 

 journal which had been kept by White for twenty-five years. In 1802 

 the ' Calendar ' and ' Natural History ' were published together in two 

 volumes, octavo. In 1813 the 'Antiquities,' 'Natural History,' 'Ca- 

 lendar,' and some poems of the author's were published together in one 

 volume, quarto. From this time various editions of these works have 

 appeared, edited by the Rev. John Mitford, Sir William Jardine, Captain 

 Brown, the Rev. L. Jenyns, and other editors. One of the best of the 

 later editions was by the late Edward Turner Bennett, secretary to the 

 Zoological Society. It contains^ the 'Natural History,' 'Antiquities,' 

 and the ' Naturalist's Calendar,' and is enriched with copious notes by 

 the editor, and by Messrs. Bell, and others; but an edition embodying 

 in notes such general corrections, qualifications, and additions as 

 recent investigations may have rendered necessary, and also a specific 

 account of the present natural history of Selborne, would be a wel- 

 come addition to our literature. 



The portions of White's writings devoted to natural history are 

 written in an elegant and pleasing style, and give to the reader some- 

 thing of the enthusiasm of the writer. No one can fail wishing to 

 participate in the quiet pursuits of the author in his rural solitude, 

 after reading his letters, and they have much contributed to spread a 

 taste for natural history in this country. But his letters and essays 

 on subjects of natural history are not merely interesting for their 

 style and matter ; they contain a large amount of original observation 

 which has contributed much to a knowledge of the form, habits, and 

 instincts of the animals that inhabit Great Britain. 



White was peculiarly fortunate in belonging to a family whose 

 members all took great delight in natural history pursuits, and with 

 whom he was in constant correspondence. Four of his brothers are 

 referred to in his letters, and some of them are well known for their 

 literary labours. Most of his brothers and sisters were married, but 

 he died single. He however took great interest in the families of his 

 near relatives, and carefully noted down in his diary the births of his 

 nephews and nieces, who at his death amounted to the number of 

 sixty-three. 



WHITE, HENRY KIRKE, was a native of Nottingham, where he 

 was born on the 21st of March 1785. He was the son of John White, 

 a butcher of that place, and of his wife Mary, whose maiden name was 

 Neville,. and who belonged to a respectable Staffordshire family. He 

 early showed a passion for reading, and had begun to try his hand at 

 composition in prose when he was about seven years old. His first 

 attempts in verse^ appear to have been of considerably later date; the 

 earliest that is given or mentioned by his biographer is a short poem 

 stated to have been " written at the age of thirteen." He had now, in 

 addition to writing and arithmetic, acquired an acquaintance with the 

 French language; but up to this time it continued to be the intention 

 of his father to breed him up to his own business, and one whole day 

 in every week, and his leisure hours on other days, were employed in 

 carrying the butcher's basket. At last his mother, who appears to 

 have been a woman of some education, as well as of a superior cast of 



mind, and who had now, in conjunction with her eldest daughter, 

 opened a girls' boarding- and day-school, which proved very successful, 

 persuaded her husband to give up this plan ; and at the age of fourteen 

 Henry, being taken from school, was placed in a stocking-loom, that 

 he might learn the hosiery business. But this proved scarcely more 

 satisfactory than his original destination ; and after a year hie mother 

 found means to have him placed in the office of Messrs. Coldham and 

 Enfield, attorneys and town-clerks of Nottingham. To make up for 

 the want of a premium, he was engaged to serve two years before the 

 commencement of his apprenticeship, so that he was not articled till 

 the beginning of the year 1802. By this time he had acquired a tole- 

 rable knowledge of Latin with very little instruction, and had begun 

 Greek. To these languages he afterwards added Italian, Spanish, and 

 Portuguese; chemistry, astronomy, and electricity also engaged his 

 attention ; drawing was another of his pursuits ; and he played very 

 pleasantly by ear on the piano-forte. He showed likewise a turn for 

 practical mechanics. All this while too his time was principally occu- 

 pied by the law, "to which," says his biographer, "his papers show 

 he had applied himself with such industry as to make it wonderful 

 that he could have found time, busied as his days were, for anything 

 else." 



By his fifteenth year he had already begun to acquire distinction aa 

 a speaker in a literary society in Nottingham, and as a correspondent 

 of various periodical publications, the ' Monthly Preceptor, or Juvenile 

 Library,' the ' Monthly Magazine,' the ' Monthly Visitor,' and the 

 ' Monthly Mirror.' The encouragement of Mr. Hill, the proprietor of 

 the last-mentioned work, and of Mr. Capel Lofft, induced him, about 

 the close of the year 1802, to prepare a volume of poems for the press. 

 It does not appear to have been published however till the end of the 

 next year, or the beginning of 1804, when it came out, dedicated, by 

 permission, to the Duchess of Devonshire. But her grace, after giving 

 her name, forgot to give anything more, or even to notice the poema 

 or their author ; and the volume, which was harshly treated by the 

 reviewers, appears to have attracted little of the public attention. It 

 was the means however of making the youthful writer known to 

 Southey, to whom he is principally indebted for the preservation of 

 his memory and the general interest that is still felt about him. 



Before his first volume of poetry was published, a great change had 

 been wrought in his opinions, and his whole intellectual being, by his 

 conversion from an indifference to religion and a tendency towards 

 infidelity, to a deep aud passionate conviction of the truth of Christi- 

 anity. What appears to have been most operative iu drawing his mind 

 and heart in this new direction was the circumstance of a young friend, 

 who had been some time before suddenly struck in the same way, 

 being about to proceed to the University, a destination which White 

 had often looked forward to. with intense desire, though with scarcely 

 a hope. He now bent his whole soul to finding the means of following 

 his friend to Cambridge, and getting himself educated for the Church. 

 For some time the prospect was very discouraging ; but at last the 

 matter was managed, principally by means of Mr. Simeon, of King's 

 College, to whom he had been recommended, and who procured him 

 a sizarship at St. John's, with additional pecuniary assistance. He 

 quitted his employers, who very kindly gave their consent to this 

 arrangement, in October 1804. During his first term one of the Uni- 

 versity scholarships became vacant, for which he was advised to offer 

 himself as a candidate. He passed the whole term in preparing for 

 this object ; but his strength and spirits sunk under his exertions, 

 and when the day came he found himself compelled to decline being 

 examined. He hafl now only a fortnight to prepare for the general 

 college examination : in his exhausted and desponding condition he 

 would have declined that too ; but he was prevailed upon to come 

 forward, and was pronounced the first man of his year. 



He now paid a short visit to London, the excitement of which pro- 

 bably only accelerated the progress of his disease. The next year, at 

 Cambridge, he was again pronounced first at the college examination. 

 The college now offered him a private tutor in mathematics during the 

 long vacation ; but relaxation, not stimulus, was what he wanted. He 

 paid another visit to London, from which he returned to college only 

 to die. His death took place on Sunday, the 19th of October 1806, 

 when he had just passed the middle of his twenty-second year. 



His papers were put into the hands of his friend Southey, who in 

 1807 published a selection from his poems and prose compositions, ia 

 two volumes, accompanied with the memoir from which the above 

 facts have been taken. A supplementary volume, consisting of addi- 

 tional pieces, appeared in 1822 ; and both publications have since been 

 incorporated, and in that form ' The Remains of Henry Kirke White' 

 have been several times reprinted. The popularity which Henry Kirke 

 White's poetry has enjoyed is owing perhaps more to the touching cir- 

 cumstances of his history and the attractive picture of his disposition 

 and character which has been drawn by his enthusiastic biographer, 

 than to its merit. It has in its best passages considerable feeling and 

 melody, but its general tone is feeble, and the manner and spirit deci- 

 dedly imitative. His acquirements also, though considerable for the 

 circumstances under which they were made, were certainly not other- 

 wise very remarkable. 



WHITE, REV. JOSEPH, was the son of a poor journeyman weaver 

 of Gloucester, where he was born about 1746. His father brought 

 him up to hia own trade, but sent him for a time to a charity-school, 



