Introduction xxix 



than makes up for the want of details as to his external history. That 

 history, as his nephew wrote, "passed tranquil and serene, with 

 scarcely any other vicissitudes than those of the seasons" Some time 

 about the year 1767, as it chanced, he entered into a brisk correspond- 

 ence with 'Thomas Pennant, a wealthy Welsh naturalist, the author of 

 the " British Zoology, 1 ' with regard to the habits of certain birds and 

 animals. These letters, one may conjecture, were begun without any 

 thought of ultimate publication ; the earliest in date among them seem 

 to be written offhand, without order or method, as mere rough 

 memoranda of facts and observations. Letter X., as at present 

 arranged, is probably the first that really passed through the post 

 between the two naturalists ; one may gather from it that Pennant had 

 asked a few questions of White, and that White replied to them 

 seriatim, in the order in which they were written. From this casual 

 beginning, a regular correspondence ensued, carried on for a long time 

 without thought of publication. But gradually another of his corre- 

 spondents, the Hon. Daines Earrington, seems to have suggested that so 

 much valuable matter ought not to be locked up in private letters ; and 

 thenceforth White would appear to have begun aiming at a more 

 regular style and at something approaching orderly treatment. A 

 letter to Pennant in 1771 indicates the probability that the Welsh 

 naturalist too had urged him to publish. Unless I mistake, it is 

 possible to detect in the letters as they proceed, at least from this point, 

 a gradual development towards literary treatment. 'The series 

 addressed to the Hon. Daines Earrington, another naturalist of the 

 day, began a little later than that already alluded to : its course was in 

 large part contemporaneous with the course of the letters written to 

 Pennant. A similar change of tone may be observed in this corre- 

 spondence also between the earlier and the later members of the series. 



About the year 1784, when France and America were in ferment, 

 White must have finally adopted the design of publishing both sets of 

 letters, though as early as 1776 he had debated the matter. At that 

 time, I conjecture, he produced most of the first nine (artificial) letters 

 as at present arranged ; but one of them may perhaps be made up of 

 fragments from a real communication addressed to Pennant. 'These 

 introductory chapters are not, as a matter of fact, real letters at all : 



