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PREFACE 



I DO not propose to offer any apology for publishing 

 a Life of Gilbert White of Selborne ; indeed, I think 

 that an apology is due to the Shade of a naturalist 

 who holds so high a place in the opinion and regard 

 — I might almost say the affection — of his country- 

 men, that no authentic account of his career has yet 

 been given to the world. 



Nevertheless, though a knowledge of natural 

 history is not, of course, the only qualification 

 necessary in a biographer of the Fellow of Oriel, 

 the life of a naturalist should have been written 

 by a naturalist ; a title to which I have not the 

 slightest claim : and I am not sure that I should 

 ever have printed anything, had I not observed 

 with regret that erroneous statements concerning 

 the philosopher of Selborne were constantly occur- 

 ring, in proportion to the interest taken in him 

 which seems to be ever increasing. 



That many of the circumstances of his life should 

 be mis-stated ; that, for instance, he should have 

 been wrongly represented as remaining single on 

 account of an unrequited attachment ; that mistakes, 

 sometimes of a rather ludicrous nature, should have 

 been frequently made about his relatives, his habits, 



