15 [Vol. xxxiii. 



Charles White, 'The Wakes/ to whom it had come by- 

 marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Gilbert White, the 

 Vicar of Selborne ; in Gilbert the Vicar's Will it is described 

 as ' my house and orchard in Selborne Street, late Wakes/ 

 The Rev. Charles White had been Eector of Bradley, and 

 for this living Gilbert White made unsuccessful application 

 to Lord Chancellor Henley, in whose private patronage it 

 lay (no doubt intending to continue to reside at Selborne 

 if he had obtained it) . This disappointment seems to have 

 confirmed Gilbert White in his determination to remain at 

 Selborne, since we find him in course of time declining the 

 several college livings, of Childerton in Wiltshire, Cromhall 

 in Gloucestershire, Swainswick in Somersetshire, Tortworth 

 in Gloucestershire, and that of Childerton a second time, 

 and henceforth devoting himself to his curacy, his notes on 

 Natural History, and the improvement and the embellishment 

 of 'The W'akes.' 



In 1765 Gilbert White commenced to study botany, 

 purchasing Hudson's ' Flora Anglica/ and in addition to 

 his usual notes in the ' Garden Kalendar/ composing a 

 1 Calendar of Flora ' for the year 1766. We may here leave 

 the details of his private life and turn to that part of it 

 which possesses the greater interest for the public, viz., that 

 which he led as a naturalist. 



In 1767 White had commenced to enter his notes in the 

 f Naturalist Journal ' before mentioned, and in this same 

 year he made the acquaintance of Thomas Pennant, the 

 well-known naturalist and author of the ' British Zoology.' 

 It is from the date of this acquaintanceship that White's 

 real work in Natural History commenced. It was most 

 probably through his brother Benjamin, who was the pub- 

 lisher of many of Pennant's books, that Gilbert White 

 entered into correspondence with that naturalist. The 

 introduction which took place in the spring of 1767 was 

 apparently not personal, as Gilbert White writing to Pennant 

 in March 1771 says: — 'I shall make a point of meeting you 

 in town. It is time now to have a little conversation face 

 to face after we have corresponded so freely for several 



