INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. vii 



the moral obligation upon himself as a man and minister, to 

 benefit his fellow creatures by impressing upon them the 

 beneficence of the Creator, as exemplified in his works, and the 

 contentment and cheerfulness of spirit which their study under 

 proper restrictions imparts to the mind. And of this man we 

 have handed down scarcely any biographical recollections, 

 except what can be gathered from a short sketch by his brother, 

 or that may be interspersed among his letters ; and these are 

 very few, as he was not given to write of himself or his private 

 affairs. Gilbert White, at one time the recluse, and almost 

 obscure vicar of Selborne, had no biographer to record all the 

 little outs and ins of his quiet career, lie was not thought of 

 until his letters pointed him out as a man of observation, and it 

 is only since they have been edited and re-edited, that every 

 source has been ransacked, with the hope of finding some 

 memoranda of the worthy vicar and naturalist. 



The sketch which his brother John appended to the octavo 

 edition of his works in 1802, is, as we have stated, the only 

 memorial of his life, and as it is authentic and very short, it is 

 best to print- it as it was originally published. The same 

 modest and retired habits never tempted him, so far as is known, 

 to sit for any likeness, and no portrait or profile remains to recal 

 the features of one whose writings have been so much and so 

 widely read.* 



" Gilbert White was the eldest son of John White of Selborne, 

 Esq., and of Anne, the daughter of Thomas Holt, rector of 

 Streatham in Surrey. He was born at Selborne in July 18th, 

 1720 ; and received his school education at Basingstoke, under 

 the !Rev. Thomas Warton, vicar of that place, and father of those 

 two distinguished literary characters, Dr. Joseph Warton, 

 master of Winchester school ; and Mr. Thomas Warton, poetry- 

 professor at Oxford. He was admitted at Oriel College, Oxford, 

 in December 1739, and^took_his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 

 June, 1743. In March, 1744, he was elected fellow of his college. 

 He became Master of Arts in October, 1746, and was admitted 

 as one of the senior procters of the University in April, 1752. 

 Being of an unambitious temper, and strongly attached to the 



* " Oriel College, of which Gilbert White was for more than fifty years a fellow, 

 some years since offered to have a portrait painted of him for their hall. An 

 inquiry was then made of all the members of his family.; but no portrait of any 

 description could be found. I have heard my father say that Gilbert White was 

 much pressed by his brother Thomas (my grandfather), to have his portrait 

 painted, and that he talked of it; but it was never done." A. HOLT WHITE. 

 Notes and Queries, September, No. 204, page 304. 



