Vol. xxxiii.] 16 



years'*. However this may have been, Gilbert White 

 commenced his correspondence with Pennant that same 

 year, his first letter being dated 4th August, 1767. (This 

 appeared as the tenth letter of the printed series, the others 

 being prefixed by Gilbert White when writing his book, 

 the dates of the original letters being also transposed in 

 many cases.) 



The correspondence with Pennant continued till November 

 1780 and comprised in all forty-four letters, and it is these 

 letters, together with those written by Gilbert White to his 

 other principal correspondent, Daines Barrington, which 

 form the c Natural History of Selborne' as it appeared in 

 the original edition. The Barrington correspondence com- 

 menced in June 1769 and continued down to June 1787, 

 sixty-six letters being contributed by Gilbert White. It 

 should be remembered that Gilbert White's published letters, 

 at any rate to Pennant, were rewritten for the purpose of 

 publication and differ very considerably from those of the 

 original correspondence f. 



Thomas Pennant (1726-1798) was a country gentleman of 

 good family and fortune, and resided at Downing, near 

 Holywell, in Flintshire. He was the leading English 

 zoologist of his day and a prolific writer on Natural History, 

 besides being a traveller and antiquary and the author of a 

 long series of 'Tours' in various parts of Great Britain. 

 Pennant had published his first edition of the ' British 

 Zoology ' in folio in 1766, and at the time when he made 

 Gilbert White's acquaintance he was engaged on the second 

 edition of that work, which was published., in octavo, in 

 1768, in the compilation of which he freely availed himself 

 of the information he received from Gilbert White, who, 

 moreover, completely revised the fourth edition for Pennant 

 which was published in 1776. It is now the fashion to decry 

 Pennant's writings and to accuse him of insufficiently 

 acknowledging White's discoveries (cf. Bell's Edition ( Natural 



* This passage is omitted in the printed letter of that date. 

 t This the writer has been able to verify from examination of the 

 White-Pennant letters in the possession of the Earl of Denbigh. 



