CONTENTS vii 



CHAPTER IX. 



PAGB 



A remarkable prophecy — Death of Henry White — Application regarding 

 Fyfield Rectory — An early review — "The world has been indulgent 

 to my book" — A new correspondent, George Montagu — "Greatly 

 entertained by your * Natural History ' " — The willow-wren — Second 

 letter from Montagu — How to preserve birds — Mrs. Chapone not a 

 botanist — The fern-owl maligned — "My book is still asked for in 

 Fleet Street"— Sowing furze seed — The Index insufficient — " Worry- 

 brees" — "Oxford recedes every year from Selborne" — Compliments 

 and honours — Daws in Derbyshire — Enlarging the Index — " Whiteists 

 and Badcockists" . . . ... 191 



CHAPTER X. 



Dr. Chandler settles at Selborne— His journey home described — First 

 letter from Robert Marsham — Migration of birds — Increase of swallows 

 — An early planter — Dr. Hales— Growth of trees at Selborne — The 

 fern-owl — Its food — A hybrid bird — The last letter from Mulso — 

 Beech and oak trees — Birds and lighthouses — Anecdotes of Dr. Hales 

 — Rebuilding the "Horace's head" — Illness of Gilbert White — 

 Crossbills at S. Lambeth — The Hermitage thatched— A flight of 

 house-martins — A paper upon the fern-owl proposed — Benjamin 

 White contemplates retiring — The Dsemon of Procrastination — The 

 Grindstone oak — Migration of nightingales — Last visit to Oxford — 

 Postpones account of the fern-owl — Has long ceased to be a sports- 

 man—Extract from John White's book — Martins at Gibraltar — 

 Young's 'Journey in France' — Recognition of the wall creeper . 215 



CHAPTER XI. 



Dr. John White marries — Certhia muralis — " I was born and bred a 

 gentleman " — Dr. John White and his bride — Barrington and the 

 Royal Society — A threatened inclosure at Selborne — A disputed 

 bridle road — "Remembrances of the days of my youth" — Visit to 

 Bentley Church — Last search for torpid swallows — Early bank- 

 martins— Strangers praise the 'Selborne' — The last letter to Marsham 

 — Not author of letter against torpidity of swallows — Last entries in 

 his Journal — Illness and death . . ... 252 



CHAPTER XII. 



Funeral directions — Will — Headstone and monument — J. R. Lowell's 

 verses— Gilbert White and Darwin — A book of outdoor life — The 

 testimony of two investigators — No portrait of Gilbert White — Love 

 of his family for Selborne— Memorials at Selborne — The last of 

 the family at Selborne — Early editions of the book — Some early 

 notices — The cult of Gilbert White and Selborne — A present-day 

 appreciation . . . . ... 272 



