192 A GARDEN KALENDAR 



menced in 1751 a year to be shamefully remembered in 

 England for the drowning of two old women as witches in 

 a horse-pond at Tring, in Hertfordshire. 



We have known him long, and loved him much, as a 

 devoted student and impressive teacher of geology, botany, 

 ornithology, entomology, and other branches of natural 

 science ; we have admired him as a genial gentleman, 

 philosopher, philanthropist, and something more than 

 these. As a Fellow of his College (Oriel, Oxford) he 

 was compelled by the statutes to take Holy Orders, but 

 this did not imply immediate ministerial work, and he 

 betook himself to his dear old home at Selborne, and to 

 his old happy life of observation, for he seems to have 

 always retained that delight in the beautiful which is innate 

 in all of us amid the marvellous works of God. Valuable 

 College livings were offered to him, but he could not leave 

 the fair ground in which his lot was cast ; yet he did not 

 forget the commission nor the power which had been 

 entrusted to him. He held the office of Curate, first in 

 the adjoining parish of Faringdon, and then at Selborne ; 

 there is frequent testimony in his writings to his compas- 

 sion for suffering, and to his interest in the welfare of the 

 poor. He has been always familiar to our imagination in 

 his academical and ecclesiastical costume, "in customary 

 suit of solemn black," for the clergy of that date did not 

 array themselves in straw hats and jackets ; we have met 

 him in the woods and in the fields, in the village, in his 

 study with a book or a pen in his hand. At last we 

 find him in his garden ! We make obeisance, and, as 

 brethren in the most ancient and honourable of all the 

 crafts, receive the welcome, which we never fail to give 

 to one another. 



Gilbert White was a true gardener. The " Kalendar " 

 would by itself be ample evidence, because no one makes 

 regularly a record of events in which they are not deeply 

 interested even the schoolboy constructs a clumsy almanac 



