viii Gilbert White of Selborne 2 1 9 



edition he makes it clear that he considered himself 

 to have made an attempt to give the public an idea 

 of what parochial history should be, and to have 

 tried to lend a helping hand towards " the enlarge- 

 ment. of the boundaries of historical and topographical 

 knowledge." In the Antiquities of Selborne, issued 

 originally together with the Natural History, he 

 showed that he had a remarkably just sense of what 

 was worth recording, and how it should be recorded. 

 The documents that he accurately transcribed relat- 

 ing to the Priory of Selborne are of real historical 

 value, more especially the account of the visitation 

 by William of Wykeham in 1387. Even now the 

 example he set might serve as a model for village 

 antiquaries ; for the professed antiquary is often a 

 pedant, and limits his interests and inquiries to the 

 most prominent buildings and their history. White's 

 mind was fresh and bright in old age as in youth, his 

 tastes were human and catholic ; and the history of 

 the works of man in Selborne was for him only a 

 part of what the parish had to contribute to the 

 whole sum of human knowledge. 



A word must needs be said about the literary 

 quality of White's book. It is interesting here 

 again to find that the ease and isolation of his life 

 had a marked influence on the form into which he 

 threw his thoughts and observations. In the latter 

 part of his life, as we have seen, he rarely left the 



