Vol. xxxiii.] 12 



While at Oxford he seems to have had a taste for sport, 

 and entries occur relating to the purchase of 'gun flints/ 

 ' shot charger/ and ' pair of spurs/ while his friend and 

 correspondent the Rev. John Mulso (1721-91), writing to 

 him in after years, calls to his remembrance how he, Gilbert, 

 was wont ' to practise with your gun in summer to steady 

 your hand for winter.' In 1744 he was elected a Fellow of 

 his college. In 1745 he passed six months at Thorn ey in 

 the Isle of Ely, being one of the executors and trustees of 

 Mr. Thomas Holt before-mentioned. He took his M.A. 

 degree in 1746. In 1747 Gilbert White received his 

 Deacon's Orders from Thomas Seeker, Bishop of Oxford, 

 and at once became curate to his uncle by marriage, the 

 Rev. Charles White at Swarraton, Hants. In October 

 1747 Gilbert White suffered from an attack of small-pox 

 at Oriel, which seems to have been severe. Iti March 

 1749 Gilbert White was ordained priest in the Chapel in 

 Spring Gardens, London, by James Eeauclerk, Bishop of 

 Hereford, acting for the Bishop of Winchester. In 1750 

 he paid visits to a college friend, the Rev. Nathaniel Wells, 

 in Devonshire, and also to his relative, Francis White, D.D., 

 in Wiltshire, and it may be here mentioned in passing that 

 for the time in which he lived, Gilbert White was as regards 

 his own country, at any rate, a very considerable traveller. 

 Essex, Norfolk, the Peak in Derbyshire, Lincoln, Kent, and 

 Gloucestershire were all visited by him while a young man, 

 as well as the regular visits to Ringmer, Oxford, and London 

 which he continued to make for many years afterwards, 

 most of his journeys being made on horseback, as he seems 

 to have suffered from 'stage-coach sickness' (Life and 

 Letters, vol. i. p. 46), and Mulso terms him f hussar 

 parson' and i centaur not fabulous.' 



In 1751 Gilbert commenced to keep a diary or journal 

 headed ' The Garden Kalendar for the year 1751.' At first 

 this consisted merely of leaves of quarto notepaper fastened 

 together, but it was afterwards in 1768 replaced by an 

 oblong note-book with printed headings entitled l The 

 Naturalist Journal, the gift of the Honourable Mr. Bar- 



