GILBERT WHITE. 



To gather the dew of May ; 



And all that day, to the rebeck ] gay, 



They frolicked with lovesome swains. 



They are gone, they are dead, in the churchyard laid, 



But the oak it still remains ; 



And still flourish he, a brave oak tree, 



When a thousand years are o'er." 



The visitor should examine the magnificent yew-tree in the 

 churchyard ; its age is unknown. It is twenty-five feet round. 

 The Vicar, the Rev. Mr. Parsons, 2 kindly lent us the keys of the 

 church. The tablet commemorating White's death is on the 

 wall near the altar on the right-hand side of the spectator. 

 An inscription on the t&p reads as follows : " This monument of 

 Gilbert White, M.A., and B. White, Esq., was removed into the 

 chancel MDCCCX." I understand from the Vicar that White 

 was never rector of Selborne, but only curate ; he was also 

 curate of Faringdon eighteen years. 3 



The stonework inside the church is completely covered with 

 whitewash, probably the tasteful work of some former church- 

 warden. The Vicar, I understand, contemplates restoring the 

 inside of his church when sufficient funds are forthcoming. 

 Gilbert White's grave can thus be found : On coming out of the 

 church door turn to the left and keep to the left, and at a short 

 distance will be found the gravestone with the simple " G. W." 

 cut on it. The tombstones in this churchyard are very much 

 injured by moss and lichens, which have filled up the inscrip- 

 tions. Over White's grave there ought to be placed a modern 

 monument of some kind. I should venture to suggest polished 

 red Aberdeen granite, such as I have placed over my father and 

 mother at Islip, near Oxford. The letters should be cut very 

 deeply into the granite, on account of the moss filling them up. 

 A strong solution, say ten grains to the ounce, of corrosive sub- 

 limate (i.e., bichloride of mercury) in spirits of wine will, I 

 believe, kill the moss that grows on the tombstones and in the 

 engraved letters, and prevent its germinating again. 



At page 10 White mentions the " tenpenny nails in the walls," 

 about -Selborne. I looked about for these everywhere; at last 

 I found them in abundance, stuck into the walls of the church, 

 and particularly on the wall facing the visitor on his left as he 

 is about to enter the porch. I took my hat off to these venerable 



1 I find from Johnson's Dictionary that a rebeck is a three-stringed fiddle. 



2 I regret to hear that Mr. Pursons died, Sept. 1875, since the above was 

 in type. 



3 The living of Selborne belongs to Magdalen College, Oxford. 



VOL. II. C 



