THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. XVII.] DECEMBER, 1893. [No. 204. 



GILBERT WHITE AND HIS SUSSEX CONNECTIONS. 

 By the Rev. Pkebendaby H. D. Gordon, M.A. 



[In 'The Zoologist' for August last (pp. 295— 301) the Vicar of 

 Harting, in which parish Gilbert White's parents for some time resided 

 (vide antea, p. 202), gave a most interesting account of the family and its 

 connections with Sussex. Continuing his researches, he has been good 

 enough to communicate to us the following additional remarks, which illus- 

 trate the extent of White's out-door observations in Sussex while resident 

 at Selborne, in the adjoining county of Hants. 



It is hardly necessary to remind our readers that the diaries quoted by 

 Mr. Gordon were long ago brought to the notice of the public by the late 

 Edward Jesse, who in the second series of his * Gleanings in Natural 

 History' (pp. 144 — 210), published copious extracts from them. This, 

 however, is no reason why they should not again be utilised for the present 

 purpose, especially as the extracts selected are followed by the comments 

 of so good an observer as Mr. Gordon, resident in the county to which 

 they relate.] 



The complete diaries of Gilbert White for nearly twenty-five 

 years (1768—1793, perfect to June 15th, 1793, and filled in to 

 June 22nd, four days before his death) constitute a literary 

 treasure. They were purchased by the British Museum in 1881, 

 from the Rev. G. Taylor, who had the volumes from a Mr. G-. 

 Soaper. Like all White's productions, they are exquisite in 

 workmanship, faultless in neatness and precision to a day, and 

 even an hour, and most delectable study. Again and again you 

 begin a new year with him feeling that you are in far closer 



ZOOLOGIST. — DEC. 1893. 2 M 



