BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 



THE first edition of Gilbert White's The Natural History 

 and Antiquities of Selborne was published by his brother's 

 firm (B. White & Son) in 1789. It formed a handsome 

 quarto, was illustrated with a few engravings of no great 

 merit, and sold at a guinea. No other edition was 

 published in England in White's lifetime, but in 1795, 

 two years after his death, and ere yet his fame had reached 

 the point at which it could overawe an editor's judgment 

 in selection, Dr. John Aikin extracted from his papers 

 the materials for a much smaller volume to which he gave 

 the title, A Naturalist's Calendar with Observations in 

 various Branches of Natural History by the late Rev. Gilbert 

 White. The present edition consists of a faithful reprint 

 of these two volumes, and is, as far as the writer can 

 ascertain, the first in which they have been thus brought 

 together without any addition or diminution. Editorial 

 meddling in the case of Gilbert White has taken a strange 

 variety of forms he has even suffered the indignity of 

 being 'arranged for young persons.' In 1802 an edition 

 appeared of his Works in Natural History, the " Antiquities 

 of Selborne," the artistic complement of his letters on its 

 outdoor life, being omitted, as of too limited an interest to 

 appeal to a discriminating public. The few pages thus 

 saved were replaced by " a Calendar and Observations by 



