1752 PROCTOR AT OXFORD 69 



lecture because he had retained sufficient sense of 

 decency to fold up tidily his outer garments ! True 

 or not, the story is at least consistent with the 

 extreme sense of order and neatness, which in an 

 eminent degree characterised the Junior Proctor. It 

 is also said, but the writer has been quite unable to 

 trace the story to any authority, that the future 

 historian of the Koman Empire, Gibbon, who was 

 certainly in residence as an undergraduate at this 

 time (since he matriculated at Magdalen College on 

 April 3rd, 1752, and remained in residence at Ox- 

 ford for fourteen months), was upon one occasion 

 proctorised by the future historian of Selborne. 



Residence at Oxford during the year 1752, though 

 it necessarily caused some interruption to the 

 regularity of the entries in the Garden Kalendar, 

 was far from putting an end to them altogether. 

 The Garden Kalendar for that year, like that for 

 the preceding year, contains frequent entries of the 

 planting of trees and shrubs in the garden and 

 grounds of the Selborne home. 



The account-book kept by Gilbert White recording 

 the *' Expence preparatory to and during my year of 

 Proctorship in the University of Oxon., 1752," has 

 been published in its entirety by Professor Bell,"^ 

 with the true comment that it exhibits "in its sim- 

 plicity that combination of genial kindliness and 



* Vide Bell's edition of ' The Natural History and Antiquities of 

 Selborne,' vol. ii. pp. 316-346. 



