1769 DAINES BAREINGTON 169 



in the accounts given by Pontoppidan of the kraken, and 

 sea-snake: if you should express any disrespect towards 

 these two remarkable animals, I don't know but they may 

 remove you from y® society as an unworthy Brother." 



On June 30th of this year, 1769, the first letter to 

 the Hon. Daines Barrington, to whom no less than 

 sixty-six letters were published as addressed, was 

 written by Gilbert White. 



This gentleman, who has been described as "a 

 queer compound of the lawyer, antiquary, and 

 naturalist," was son of the first Viscount Barrington. 

 Born in 1727, he went to Oxford, was called to 

 the Bar, and became a Welsh Judge, and subse- 

 quently, in 1764, Recorder of Bristol. He died 

 in 1800. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, 

 and it was through him that Gilbert White's account 

 of the Hirundines was read before that society in 

 February, 1774, and March, 1775. 



The personal acquaintance with Barrington did not 

 begin till May, 1769, when they met in London, 

 though more than a year before, as already stated, 

 Gilbert White received from him the printed 

 Naturalist's Journal; for an unpublished portion 

 of Letter XIH. to Pennant, dated January 22nd, 

 1768, mentions — 



society that prelate was president." It would seem that Pennant lost little 

 time in communicating this fact, of which he had every reason to be proud, 

 to his correspondent, and the humorous turn the latter gives to the announce- 

 ment is eminently characteristic of him. The marvellous account of sea- 

 monsters given by Pontoppidan, who was Bishop of Bergen, in his Natural 

 History of Norway (vol. ii. pp. 297-354), was published at Copenhagen 

 in 1753, and, through the English translation of 1755, has long been 

 notorious. — A. N. 



