xxii INTEODUCTION 



liberality to all about him, his care about small things, and 

 his exactness in relation. We are told of his many Christmas 

 presents to his parishioners, of his paying for the schooling 

 of poor children, of the indulgence which he showed to old 

 servants. His nephew thought that he particularly excelled 

 in addressing his poor neighbours, and making them feel that 

 he was their friend. 



No explanation of the merit of the Natural History of 

 Selborne can be at all adequate which does not dwell upon 

 the reality and truth of White's descriptions. His personal 

 knowledge of nature was great, not in relation to the know- 

 ledge accumulated in books, but in comparison with the direct 

 experience of most other naturalists of any age. Here is one 

 great difference between him and the imitators who have 

 hoped to succeed by mere picturesque writing. White is 

 interesting because nature is interesting ; his descriptions are 

 founded upon natural fact, exactly observed and sagaciously 

 interpreted. Very few of his observations and not many of 

 his inferences need correction more than a hundred years after 

 his death. 



Then there is the human interest of the History ! What 

 White calls his " anecdotes," his pieces of unpublished infor- 

 mation, had rested in his mind for years, and grown warm 

 there. Some of them had already been related to more than 

 one correspondent, and the best way of telling the story had 

 been found out by repeated trial. The book bears witness to 

 White's love of all that bears upon the daily life of men. 

 The agricultural value of the different soils of Selborne, the 

 means of subsistence of the poor of the parish, deer-stealing, 

 the long shining fly that lays its eggs in bacon drying in the 

 chimneys, the making of rushlights, the causes of leprosy and 

 its cure by improved food and cleanliness, the injury done to 

 garden shrubs by repeated freezing and thawing and the way 

 to prevent it — these and other homely practical topics occupy 

 White as pleasantly as song-birds or curious insects. 



White now and then foresaw the importance of inquiries 

 which had not as yet been instituted. See, for instance, what 

 he says about the knowledge of noxious insects (Letter 

 XXXIV. to Pennant), about the improvement of pastures 



