1759 



HIS CONDUCT DEFENDED 107 



real pecuniary position was from that which it was, 

 perhaps not unnaturally, originally supposed to be 

 by the Provost of Oriel ; and incidentally he may 

 have learned the danger of formulating a serious 

 charge against the reputation of an estimable man, 

 upon the slender evidence of one (confessedly unin- 

 formed) entry of a long bygone date. 



If any further proof were needed that Gilbert 

 White was really and truly not in possession of the 

 amount of wealth considered by the statutes to be 

 incompatible with the retention of a Fellowship,''^ it 

 can be surely found in his manner of life at Selborne ; 

 where his establishment consisted during all his life 

 of one maidservant and one man, who was gardener, 

 groom, and footman, with the occasional addition of 

 a labourer or of a '* weeding woman " in the garden, 

 and of a temporary maidservant, when visitors, who 

 brought no maid with them, were entertained — an 

 establishment which, though it satisfied the modest 

 needs of its master, can hardly be considered that of 

 a ''rich" man residing on his "patrimonial estate." 



Perhaps, however, the word "pluralist" would 

 have most astonished the Naturalist's friends and 

 contemporaries (and in criticising a person's conduct 

 it is only fair to have regard to the ethics of the 

 age he lived in). What, for instance, would have 



* The provisions of the Oriel College statutes are given further on ; when, 

 in 1780, the pecuniary position of Gilbert White having become somewhat 

 improved, it seemed necessary to again revert to the matter. 



