xii INTRODUCTION 



will not place Gilbert White in the common herd of non- 

 resident fellows, non-resident parsons, holders of sinecures, 

 and pensioners who had never served. Late in life he gave 

 the world assurance that he was not only one of the keenest 

 and surest of naturalists, but also a charming writer of English. 

 It was by no dull and formal piece of scholarship that he re- 

 paid the debt imposed upon him by the long tenure of a 

 college fellowship and a college living, but by a masterpiece, 

 now to be counted among those possessions of the English 

 race which are above price. 



White never married. It has been conjectured that he 

 was attached, perhaps engaged, to Hester Mulso, the sister 

 of an old college friend. Hester Mulso, once widely known 

 as Mrs. Chapone, was a blue-stocking, and a notable friend of 

 virtue in young ladies. Her literary parties are described by 

 Fanny Burney, who thought that they would be prodigiously 

 mended by a little rattling. Her verses to Gilbert White's 

 tortoise, Timothy, suggested the amusing letter from " your 

 sorrowful reptile," which is to be found in Whitens correspon- 

 dence. In thje long series of letters from John Mulso to White, 

 Professor Newton finds no confirmation of the story of an 

 attachment between White and Hester Mulso. 



It is not likely that we shall ever know what made a 

 naturalist of Gilbert White. Was it some school-fellow at 

 Basingstoke ? Was it the example of Dr. Stephen Hales, 

 who among other livings held that of Farringdon, the next 

 parish to Selborne, and was as well known to Gilbert White 

 also as to his father and grandfather? In Letter X. to 

 Pennant, White says : " It has been my misfortune never to 

 have had any neighbours whose studies have led them towards 

 the pursuit of natural knowledge; so that, for want of a 

 companion to quicken my industry and sharpen my attention, 

 I have made but slender progress in a kind of information to 

 which I have been attached from my childhood ". Yet his 

 brothers, two of them more particularly, were fond of natural 

 history, so that, but for this express statement, we should 

 have been ready to suppose that the taste ran in the family. 

 With English squires and parsons natural history links on to 

 field-sports and planting. White and some of his elders seem 



