MEMOIR OF GILBERT WHITE. 



GILBERT WHITE the Father of English Natural History was 

 born at Selborne. Hants, July 18th, 1720, in the seventh year of 

 the reign of King George I., and died June 26th, 1793, being 

 seventy-two years and eleven months old. 



In order fully to appreciate his labours, I will endeavour to 

 throw back the mind of the reader to the prominent events of 

 which Gilbert White might have been witness, or about which 

 he must have heard people talking. 



Queen Anne died in 1714, six years before White was born. 

 The year of White's birth, 1720, was the year of the South Sea 

 Bubble. When he was one year old, 1721, the great Duke of 

 Marlborough died. When he was three years old, 1723, Atter- 

 bury was Dean of Westminster. When he was seven years old, 

 1727, Sir Isaac Newton died. When he was ten, 1730, the 

 great John Hunter, the anatomist and physiologist, and founder 

 of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, was born. When he was 

 twenty -five years old, 1745, Prince Charles Edward gained Edin- 

 burgh after the victory of Prestonpans. When he was twenty- 

 six, on October 22nd, 1746, he took his degree at Oxford, as I find 

 from a book in my library entitled, "A Catalogue of all Graduates 

 in Divinity, Law, and Physick, and of all Masters of Arts and 

 Doctors of Musick, who have regularly proceeded or been created 

 in the University of Oxford, between October 10th, 1659, and 

 October Wth, 1770. Printed at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, 

 1772." When he was thirty-two, 1752, the new style of comput- 

 ing the almanac was introduced into England. When thirty- 

 seven, 1757, the conquest of India began under Colonel, 

 afterwards Lord, Clive. When thirty-nine, 1759, General Wolfe 

 was killed at Quebec. When he was forty, 1760, George III. 

 ascended the throne. When he was forty-four, 1764, Canada 

 was annexed. When he was fifty-eight, 1778, the Earl of 



