126 



NA TURE 



[December 12, 189- 



SELBORNE ILLUSTRATED. 

 Natural History of Selborne, and Observations on Nature. 

 By Gilbert White. With the Text and New Letters of 

 the Buckland Edition. Introduction by John Burroughs. 

 Illustrations by Clifton Johnson. Pp. xxiii., vi., 208, 

 231. (London and New York : Macmillan and Co., 

 1895.) 



YET another edition of White's "Selborne" has been 

 issued by Messrs. Macmillan ; and there are really 

 some points about it which fully justify its appearance. 

 It is in some degree an (Edition de luxe, being printed in 

 beautifully clear type on thick glazed paper, and arranged 

 in two neatly-proportioned volumes, which are fully 

 illustrated. 



The text is that of the Buckland edition. There are 

 no editor's notes to speak of, and such of the " Observa- 

 tions," which it was thought desirable to include, have 

 been inserted at the end of those letters to the subject of 

 -which they have reference. We have had many annotated 

 editions, both good and bad, and probably no new one 

 would tell us anything more concerning the subjects White 

 ■wrote of in, or serve to elucidate further, the famous letters. 

 Recent research has brought to light additional materials 

 for a biographical sketch of White ; but apart from this, 

 -we are inclined to dread the overdoing of the annotating 

 — for overdone it assuredly was in some editions.- 



In his Introduction, Mr. Burroughs considers the 

 reason of the longevity of this " cockle-shell of a book." 

 He concludes that it is like plain food, neither exciting 

 nor cloying ; that, written by a born countryman, it has 

 a home flavour about it. We are attracted by its sound 

 style, and that precious sense of reality breathed in his 

 sentences ; by White's infinite curiosity, and his caution 

 in making sure of his facts. But Mr. Burroughs is 

 not quite just in one passage ; it was honey dew, and 

 not heavy dew, which White thought proceeded from the 

 ■effluvia of flowers, although he was equally wrong in his 

 supposition of the origin of that substance. Nor do we 

 think that White succeeded finally in persuading himself 

 that swallows in their ability to hybernate in a torpid 

 state, stood on the same footing with bats and " turtles." 

 As late as 1 784 he had gone no further than considering the 

 Tiybernation of house-martins probable. White received 

 many facts- relating to migration from his brother at 

 Gibraltar, and in one letter we find him arguing in favour 

 ■of migration in general with Daines Barrington, who was 

 "" no great friend to migration." 



It seems to us that in this Introduction, one great 

 ■charm of the " Natural History of Selborne " has been lost 

 sight of 



White lived in England's golden age of leisurely pros- 

 rperity, and it is just this air of leisureliness and freedom 

 from any signs of hurry and worry, which gives his book 

 its great charm, as its accuracy gives it its great value. 

 In those days the man of small property who hved in a 

 retired part of the country had practically no demands 

 •on his time, beyond such as he chose to make for him- 

 self in the direction of his garden, his live-stock, and his 

 house. Society, as we understand it now, must have 

 been unknown at that time to those who did not go to 

 town. It was not necessary for White to pay calls, or to 

 go to functions. A little " neighbouring " in the .village 

 NO. 1363, VOL. 53] 



and its immediate vicinity at convenient times, and sonie 

 visits exchanged once or twice a year with well-tried 

 friends, fulfilled all demands of that kind, although, as 

 we see from the letters to the Barkers, White was fond 

 of filling his house with friends and relations. There 

 were in those days no stirring " movements " on foot, for 

 the edification of men and women in the abstract, to 

 claim his philanthropic attention, though we may be sure 

 the needy of Selborne were not forgotten. To be well- 

 read meant that a man might read the classics and a few 

 favourite authors at leisure, instead of struggling with 

 the stream of new books, with its ever-gathering strength 

 and volume. White had not to acquire a smattering of 

 a dozen sciences and a superficial idea of art, or to 

 assimilate eight pages of a daily newspaper in order to 

 fit himself to meet his enemy intelligently in the gate. 

 At Selborne he had perfect leisure, and could bring an 

 intellect, unstrained by his leisurely studies, to bear in 

 unhurried observation on the comparatively limited out- 

 door objects of his quiet parish. Doubtless he had 

 trained his observing eye and mind, as so many have 

 trained them, in his sportsman days ; and the habit of 

 keeping a careful diary fostered accuracy in a mind 

 naturally exact. It was, we imagine, his love of Selborne 

 which prompted the production of his book ; for if he 

 observed much elsewhere, he did not note down his 

 observations. Had he done so, we should surely have 

 found in his letters more frequent references to the period 

 of his residence at Oxford, then comparatively a leisurely 

 place itself. 



Undoubtedly the chief attraction in the present edition 

 is the illustrations. For the first time we have a set 

 which give us an idea of what Selborne village and 

 neighbourhood are like. It is true that it is Selborne 

 a century after White's death, which is represented, but 

 we imagine that there must be much that is but little 

 altered. We should have valued a few contemporary 

 views very dearly. As we write, we have been turning 

 over the leaves of another copy of the " Natural History," 

 "a new edition with engravings," issued in 1822, and 

 edited by John White, of Fleet Street. But the only 

 illustration of scenery it contains is a view of the "gro- 

 tesque building constructed by a young gentleman who 

 used on occasion to appear in the character of an hermit." 

 Some years ago it was our pleasant fortune to meet a 

 relative and namesake of the author, who told us that 

 the original of this sketch was still in existence. If 

 there are any more eighteenth-century Selborne land- 

 scape pictures available, how admirably they would have 

 embellished this edition I The illustrations in the two 

 volumes, the subject of this notice — chiefly reproductions 

 from photographs — will be heartily welcomed by those 

 who love the book. Those who have made their 

 pilgrimage will value them as a souvenir of their visit, 

 while those who cannot go to Selborne will now have 

 its quiet scenery brought to them. Though many changes 

 have come to Selborne in the last hundred years, yet 

 there must be some things left very much as White 

 saw them. His house and his garden do not appeal 

 much to us in the pictures, nor does the interior of the 

 church, which seems to have suffered restoration, but we 

 are very glad of his old sun-dial. Rick-building is a thing 

 likely to be carried out conservatively in the local fashion, 



