viii PKEFACE 



and the Selborne of his time by writers who have 

 perforce drawn upon their imagination for their 

 statements— all this might be passed by with a 

 smile by those who know the truth. But it is hardly 

 a laughing matter for one of his family to read in 

 a recent guide-book to Oxford (by J. Wells, m.a., 

 Methuen and Co., p. 98), that Gilbert White *'held 

 his Fellowship for fifty years, and a living into the 

 bargain, though it was shrewdly suspected that his 

 fortune exceeded what the Statutes allowed : he 

 shocked even his contemporaries by his non-residence 

 and pluralism"; a passage which I can only charac- 

 terise as a gross libel that the writer's complete 

 ignorance of the circumstances can barely extenuate. 



It seems time, therefore, that the facts about 

 Gilbert White's life and surroundings, so far as 

 they can now be ascertained, should be placed on 

 record; and I believe that the admirers of his 

 graceful writings will be glad to have an authori- 

 tative account of the Selborne naturalist — a man 

 whose character need fear no scrutiny. 



If, in dealing with these facts, I have not in one 

 instance been able to avoid the element of contro- 

 versy, I must plead that 



" I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, 

 But here I am to speak what I do know." 



At the request of several correspondents I have 

 added a pedigree of the family as far as the genera- 

 tion succeeding Gilbert White's; i.e. his nephews and 

 nieces, who are often mentioned in his letters. 



