LETTER I.i 



To the Honourable Daines Barrington. 



, 1769. 



EAR SIR, When I was in town last month 

 I partly engaged that I would sometime do 

 myself the honour to write to you on the 

 subject of natural history; and I am the 

 more ready to fulfil my promise, because I 

 see you are a gentleman of great candour, 

 and one that will make allowances ; especially 

 where the writer professes to be an out-door naturalist, one 

 that takes his observations from the subject itself, and not 

 from the writings of others. 



1 The letters to Daines Barrington were printed in the first edition 

 separately from those to Pennant, being arranged as a second part and 

 disposed consecutively. Many subsequent editors have seen fit to re- 

 arrange both sets according to dates, interlarding these with those to 

 Pennant. I do not think this procedure tends either to clearness or 

 accuracy. The reader does not always notice the superscription of the 

 individual letter, nor can he easily bear in mind the particular "you" 

 addressed on each occasion. Moreover, the whole character of the letters 

 in the second series is different from that of the letters in the first. 

 Pennant was a naturalist who wrote to White mainly for practical informa- 



