via Gilbert White of Selborne 209 



of which no portrait seems to be in existence. 

 Doubtless he was an animal-loving and bird-nesting 

 boy, and acquired an observant habit without 

 knowing it ; but I doubt if he began any systematic 

 study of natural history till he settled down at 

 Selborne. He often refers to his earlier sporting 

 days, and it is likely enough that it was only when 

 sport began to fail him that he set about that 

 minute attention to animal life that has chiefly 

 made him famous as a naturalist. But under Mr. 

 Warton his sporting instincts must have been kept 

 under due control. He became a scholar, as scholar- 

 ship was then : he read the Latin poets, and learned 

 to love and quote them ; and when he went to 

 Oriel in his nineteenth year he was sufficiently 

 equipped with learning to be eventually elected 

 Fellow. 



His Fellowship began early in 1744, and he held 

 it until his death almost fifty years later. As a 

 Fellow he was of course ordained, and later on he 

 took a small college living in Northamptonshire; 

 but he took it on the understanding that he should 

 never reside there, and to this resolution, which in 

 these days seems shocking, he steadily adhered all 

 his life. I do not wish to dwell on this, or on his 

 other relations to his college, which were not wholly 

 of a pleasant character ; but Oxford men are aware 

 that a non-resident who insists on his right to take 



p 



