viii Gilbert White of Selborne 223 



come across an old word in a new sense, with 

 perhaps a touch of humour lurking in it, as when we 

 are told that the tortoise has an " arbitrary " stomach, 

 and can refrain from eating during a great part of 

 the year. That White had a strong sense of humour 

 is beyond a doubt, for it comes out clearly enough in 

 the more chatty private letters which have been 

 published in recent years; 1 but in those to his 

 distinguished correspondents he indulges it rarely 

 and very quietly. Once, in one of the later letters 

 to Barrington, he could not resist the temptation, and 

 thus describes the aspect of the hens when a hawk, 

 captive and disarmed, was placed in their yard : 

 " Imagination cannot paint the scene that ensued ; 

 the expressions that fear, rage, and revenge inspired, 

 were new, or such as had been unnoticed before ; the 

 exasperated matrons upbraided, they execrated, they 

 insulted, they triumphed." 



But Gilbert White's book needs no introduction 

 or comment. Every one, young or old, can see for 

 himself that, in the language he uses of his own 

 chalk hills, there is something " peculiarly sweet and 

 amusing" in its shapely letters. Of himself we 

 know little ; he would never sit for his portrait, and 

 from such tradition as has come down to us, we can 



1 More especially in the letter to Miss Mulso from Timothy the 

 Selborne tortoise, ending "Your affectionate reptile," which will 

 be found in the second volume of Dr. Bell's edition. 



