INTEODUCTION xi 



Gilbert was sent to school at Basingstoke, where his master 

 was the Rev. Thomas Warton, father of Joseph and Thomas 

 Warton, who stiU hold places in English literary history. In 

 December, 1739, he was admitted a commoner of Oriel College, 

 Oxford, where he became fellow in 1744. He took holy orders 

 in 1747. 



Mr. Warde Fowler remarks that " as a Fellow he [Gilbert 

 White] was of course ordained, and later on he took a small 

 college living in Northamptonshire [Moreton Pinckney] ; but 

 he took it on the understanding that he should never reside 

 there, and to this resolution, which in these days seems shock- 

 ing, 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 whoUy of a pleasant character ; but Oxford men are aware 

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

 as Proctor, or who holds his Fellowship for fifty years, is not 

 likely to be popular with his college." ^ We have to admit 

 that for fifty years White steadily refused all preferment that 

 would vacate his fellowship, and though he held curacies 

 (Swarraton, Selborne, Durley, Selborne again, Farringdon, 

 Selborne a third 'time) he passed the bulk of his life in a 

 somewhat indolent comfort at the old family house in Selborne. 



We must not judge Gilbert White by the standard of work 

 which is now set in Church and University. In the eighteenth 

 century it was enough for the parson to lead a decent life, to 

 conform to the rules of good society, and to meet the statu- 

 tory claims upon his time. White lost nothing in the esteem 

 of his parishioners by living like a squire of small fortune. 

 Neither he nor they thought it a duty to multiply Church 

 services, or to abstain from the usual diversions of the country 

 gentleman. He was attentive to his set duties, a good neigh- 

 bour, a kind master, and a friend to the poor. It was re- 

 marked as a sentiment of his " that a clergyman should not 

 be idle and unemployed ". If he was content, for the love of 

 Selborne and lettered ease, to give up all hopes of preferment, 

 that was, in the view of his contemporaries, his own affair. 

 Even strict judges, born in a later and less indulgent age, 



' Summer Studies of Birds and Books, p. aio. 



