2 1 o Summer Studies of Birds and Books CHAP. 



his turn as Proctor, or who holds his Fellowship 

 for fifty years, is not likely to be popular with 

 his college. Yet in Dr. Bell's edition of the Natural 

 History of Selborne we have such irresistible evidence 

 of White's kindness of heart and charm of manner 

 as can hardly be reconciled with Mr. Shadwell's 

 severe verdict in his account of the history of 

 Oriel. 1 



The fact seems to be that the age was a self- 

 indulgent one, and that Oxford was not the place 

 to correct the tendency in a man whose mind was 

 beginning to be ruled by one overmastering motive. 

 Life and leisure in his native village were what 

 White longed for, and it is to his indulgence of 

 this longing that we owe his immortal book. This 

 weakness, if such it be, is the clue to his character, 

 and to the excellence of his work as well as to its 

 shortcomings. Happy, amiable, observant at Selborne, 

 he was perhaps too much discomposed at leaving it 

 to be altogether himself elsewhere. For such close 

 and keen observation as his, it is really necessary to 

 be master of one's own time, to be absolutely free 

 from hurry and interruption, and this not only that 

 a bird or insect may be carefully watched, but that 

 what is seen may sink quietly and surely into the 



1 See The Colleges of Oxford, edited by Rev. A. Clark, p. 121. 

 It is only fair to White to add that for the greater part of his 

 life at Selborne he held curacies, either there or at a neighbouring 

 village. 



