1736-9 GOES TO BASINGSTOKE SCHOOL 31 



was prepared for publication, became Letter X.) 

 Gilbert White states that he had been from his 

 childhood attached to the study of natural infor- 

 mation. Confirmation of this appears in a MS. 

 diary kept by Thomas Barker, of Lyndon Hall, 

 Kutland, who subsequently became his brother-in- 

 law : — 



" 1736.— March 31. A flock of wild Geese flew N.— G. W. 

 „ April 6. The cuckow heard. — G. W." 



The initials certainly refer to an observer, and are 

 doubtless those of Gilbert White, who, then a boy 

 of fifteen, was probably staying with his uncle and 

 aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac, at Whitwell Kectory, near 

 Lyndon — perhaps on an Easter holiday. Writing 

 in his seventy-first year to Kobert Marsham, he men- 

 tions that he himself had been '*an early planter"; 

 since, in 1731, as a boy of eleven years, he had 

 planted an oak and an ash tree in his father's 

 grounds at Selborne. 



Throughout his life it was Gilbert White's me- 

 thodical habit to make regular entries of his ex- 

 penses, receipts, and other items; and accordingly 

 the following entry occurs in his pocket-book, to- 

 gether with " an account of my cloaths," of the 

 same date : — 



"An Account of Books that I carryed to Basingstoke 

 January 17, 173f. 



" Greek Testament bound with the Common prayer. 

 Whole Duty of Man. 



