Introduction ix 



stood," he proceeds, "had not the amazing tempest in 1703 

 overturned it at once, to the infinite regret of the inhabitants 

 and vicar, who bestowed several pounds in settling it in its 

 place again ; but all his care could not avail ; the tree 

 sprouted for a time, then withered and died." At the time 

 of its fall it was supposed to have been four hundred years 

 old. Its place is now occupied by a sycamore. Gilbert 

 White was born in the year of the South Sea Bubble, which 

 probably but little affected the Selborne villagers, if they 

 even heard of it. His life covered a very eventful epoch, 

 for during those years England secured two great Empires, 

 India, whose conquest was commenced by Clive in 1757, 

 and Canada, which was annexed in 1764. And she lost a 

 greater, for, ten years before White died, America became 

 an independent country. He might well have seen the fall 

 of the new and the restoration of the ancient dynasty, if 

 Charles Edward had been successful after the battle of 

 Prestonpans, which took place when he was twenty-five 

 years of age. He saw the introduction of the new style into 

 our Calendar, for he was then thirty two years of age. 

 Marlborough died when White was one year old, and six 

 years later a greater conqueror in the peaceful contests of 

 science, Sir Isaac Newton, was carried to the grave. John 

 Hunter, the founder of the magnificent Museum in the 

 Royal College of Surgeons in London, was born ten years 

 later than White, and died in the same year as the village 

 naturalist. Of all these stirring events and great men, 

 White, so far as we can gather from his letters, took but 

 little notice. Probably he heard but little of them, for the 

 isolated state of remote villages in a day when there were 

 few newspapers, no telegraphs and infrequent posts, must 

 have been one which it is now difficult for us to realise. In 

 any case he seems to have been the kind of man who would 

 have been much more interested in the fate of his tortoise 

 Timc(;hy aiid '> the coming of his swallows, than in the 

 struggles of European nations. No picture remains to show 

 us what manner of man he was, though it is known that he was 

 short of stature. When Mr. Buckland visited the village he 

 made great efforts to ascertain some facts about White, but 



