INTRODUCTION JH* ' 



and Chardin Musgrave respectively, and that there was some 

 temporary estrangement, as well as personal rivalry between the 

 two leaders : a fact which explains and qualifies certain memo- 

 randa made by Dr. Musgrave in his private book now at Oriel, 

 from which it appears that he and his party had been anxious 

 to set aside, in White's case, the then invariable custom of 

 holding the small living of Moreton Pinkney without residence. 

 After reading what Mulso tells us of the relations between the 

 two men, it is easy to understand the bias under which these 

 entries were made ; a circumstance which was unfortunately 

 entirely unknown to the author of the account of Oriel in 

 Mr. Clark's " The Colleges of Oxford," wherein it is more than 

 hinted that Gilbert White unstatutably retained his Fellowship 

 after his father's death, and his supposed succession to a 

 " patrimonial estate at Selborne," by " holding his tongue " 

 about his means; the naturalist being also designated as, "from 

 a College point of view, a rich, sinecure, pluralist non resident." 

 Let the reader consult the contemporary testimony of John 

 Mulso, from whom we learn that the matter was gone into, and 

 that Gilbert White convinced the Society and the Provost that 

 his fortune was not such as had been represented. In Letter 81 

 we find Mulso lamenting that his friend was not " more aureus." 

 Moreover, in Letter 155 he expresses his opinion of his friend's 

 disinterestedness where money was concerned, when he terms 

 him '* the richest man that I know, for you are the only man 

 of my acquaintance that does not want money — Stay — I believe 

 I will except my uncle the Bishop — but I am not so sure of 

 him as of you." Contrary to what is positively stated in the 

 account mentioned, Gilbert White's papers in the possession 

 of his family show that he frequently visited his College, 

 sometimes residing there for weeks at a time, each year, from 

 his election as Fellow until he quitted residence as Proctor 

 and Dean of the College in 1753 ; when he immediately took up 

 curacies, in the south, and later, in the western border of 

 Hampshire. From this date he may fairly be termed an entirely 

 non-resident Fellow ; that is, he held a position exactly similar 

 to that of many Fellows of Oriel and other Colleges at Oxford 

 in quite recent times, "who, like the naturalist, occupied them- 

 selves in professional careers, far away from Oxford and Uni- 

 versity work. It is true that they did not, as he did, hold 

 in addition to their Fellowship a small College living ; and 

 this is the one point in which, if Gilbert White is to be judged 

 by, as it were, ex post facto sentiment, his conduct in relation to 

 his College is open to some criticism, though we may be sure 

 that the opinion of his time found no blame in him on this 

 head; and his little "curacy," as Mulso terms it, of Moreton 

 Pinkney, may perhaps be charitably regarded as a small endow- 



