THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF 



GILBERT WHITE 



OF SELBORNE 



CHAPTER L 



Thomas, brother of Gilbert White of Selborne, who, 

 after his retirement from the cares of business in 

 1777, amused himself by writing letters on various 

 topics (chiefly under the signature " T. H. W.") to 

 the " Gentleman's Magazine " and other periodicals, 

 wrote, in 1786, to the one just named regarding 

 the early history of the Whites of Hampshire as 

 follows : — 



Mr. Ueban, — As I value myself on being a descendant of 

 the J\dm or Viti, I am obliged to take notice of the re- 

 flection that Governor Pownall casts on my ancestors by 

 calling them pirates (" Archseologia," vol. vii. p. 269). We 

 Guti or Viti were permitted by King Ina to settle in this 

 kingdom on an equal footing with the rest of his subjects, 

 because we are descended, as we can prove by record, " de 

 nobili sanguine Anglorum" from the noble hlood of the Angles^ 



VOL. I. — B 



