1793 ILLNESS AND DEATH 271 



"anodyne draughts" in Mr. Webb's account, which 

 happens to be in the writer s possession. Some time 

 previously the bed had been moved into the old 

 family parlour on the first floor, at the back of the 

 house ; and the last scene the Naturalist's dying eyes 

 must have looked upon was his garden and fields, 

 with the trees, many of which he had himself 

 planted, and beyond them the beautiful beech- 

 crowned Hanger. 



On June 25tli a visit both in the morning and 

 evening was paid. 



On the 26th an express messenger was sent to 

 Salisbury for Dr. John White. He posted to 

 Selborne at once, but can hardly have found his 

 uncle alive ; since on the latter day the White family 

 lost its amiable head ; Selborne a highly respected 

 neighbour ; and the world a singularly observant and 

 original naturalist. 



What is the happy life? It is a true, if trite, 

 saying that few men attain their ideal of a career 

 in life ; or, having attained it, realise that it is 

 the ideal career. But the man who lay dead at 

 Selborne, fascinated from boyhood by the study of 

 Nature, had longed for life and leisure in his wild, 

 woodland, native country — not from any merely 

 indolent wish to shirk the responsibilities of life, to 

 cope with which he was by character and attainments 

 amply equipped — of him it may be truly said that 

 he had realised his ideal, and as much as any man 

 had lived a happy life. 



