INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. ix 



White was never married, but he had several brothers and 

 sisters ; and the family generally seems to have been possessed 

 of very considerable ability. I am not aware that any opinion 

 has been handed down of his powers as a preacher ; but if we 

 may judge from the letters, his sermons would probably possess 

 that simplicity of language and staightforwardness of truth 

 which would impress and render them acceptable to the minds 

 of his hearers. The letters, though simply written, show both 

 the poet and the scholar ; and the mass of facts which they 

 contain in relation to our native animals, formed the main foun- 

 dation to some of the principal zoological works of that time. 

 Pennant often seeks information from him, and quotes his 

 authority in the description of the swallow. He writes, " To the 

 curious monographies on the swallow of that worthy corre- 

 spondent (Mr. White), I must acknowledge myself indebted for 

 numbers of the remarks above-mentioned ;" and he is elsewhere 

 frequently referred to. 



Of his four brothers all of them seem to have had tastes some- 

 what akin to Gilbert's, they devoted a considerable portion of their 

 leisure to pursuits connected with literature or some of the 

 branches of natural history. It is greatly to be regretted that 

 the manuscripts of John White have not been recovered. He 

 also was an English clergyman ; but for some portion of his life 

 resided at Gibraltar, where he made collections and notes 

 evidently with the view of working out and publishing a volume 

 upon the natural history of that promontory; a "Fauna 

 Calpensis," as he termed it. It must have been, in fact, written ; 

 for in Letter LIII. to Mr. Barrington, Mr. White writes, "I shall 

 now transcribe a passage from a ' Natural History of Gibraltar,' 

 written by the Rev. John White, late vicar of Blackburn, in 

 Lancashire, but not yet published." But although every inquiry 

 has been made both by ourselves and others, no trace of that 

 MS. can be discovered. His residence at Gibraltar is referred 

 to in his brother's letters upon migration ; and he corresponded 

 during his residence abroad with Mr. Pennant, who, when 

 writing of the contents of his projected work, the " Outlines of 

 the Globe," states that Volume V. would be particularly rich in 

 drawings of the " birds and fishes of Gibraltar communicated to 

 me by the reverend the late Mr. John White, long resident in 

 that fortress." * 



John White corresponded also with naturalists abroad, and 



* Lit. Life, page 42. 



