PREFACE. 



marks the humble grave of the naturalist and phi- 

 losopher." No portrait remains to preserve the 

 record of his personal appearance. 



Although Gilbert White lived and died a ba- 

 chelor, he left a numerous family of near relations ; 

 the number of his nephews and nieces, carefully 

 noted down as they came into the world, amount- 

 ing, as we are told, to about sixty-three, at the 

 time when his diary closed. Most of his imme- 

 diate relatives appear to have been imbued witli 

 a taste for the same pursuits as those to which 

 he was himself devoted, and which we accordingly 

 find them actively engaged in promoting, either 

 independently or in connexion with him. A brief 

 notice of some of them may therefore not be unac- 

 ceptable here. 



Frequent reference is made in the succeeding 

 pages to the observations of his brother John, like 

 himself in the church, and at one period Vicar 

 of Blackburn in Lancashire ; but who afterwards 

 became resident at Gibraltar, where he made large 

 collections for a Natural History of the place, 

 from the unpublished manuscript of which an ex- 

 tract is given by his brother at p. 364. This gen- 

 tleman is mentioned by Pennant in his "Literary 

 Life," while speaking of his projected " Outlines 

 of the Globe," the fifth volume of which he states 

 to be " particularly rich in drawings, made by 

 Moses Griffith, of the birds and fishes of Gibraltar, 

 communicated to me by the Rev. the late Mr. John 

 White, long resident in that fortress." 



Another brother, Thomas, (to whose observa- 

 tions made at his house at South Lambeth our 



