


KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 

345 

All who are concerned in the matter are 
referred to the “ gentle shepherd”’ above. 
The pamphlet, be it remarked, is gratui- 
tous,—and “ what is more free thana gift?” 
A GuIDE To PHoToGrRAPHy. By W. H. 
THORNTHWAITE. 12mo. Horne, Thornth- 
waite, and Wood. 

This is a very excellent practical guide to 
the study of Photography, now so popular. 
It is very copiously and neatly illustrated 
throughout ; and it is so clearly arranged, 
that any person can understand it. 
Directions are of course given for obtain- 
ing views, portraits, &c. These are both 
simple and concise. There is also a very 
interesting explanation of the action of light 
on prepared surfaces of paper, glass, and 
metal; and all the recent improvements are 
added, in the Calotype, Daguerreotype, Col- 
lodion, Albumen, and Waxed Paper pro- 
cesses. 
Not the least interesting portion of this 
pretty book is that devoted to the subject of 
stereoscopic pictures. Its cost, we should 
add, is a bagatelle; and its introduction 
among schools and families will be general. 

Tue Natura History or! SELBORNE. 
By Gitpert Waite. Nathaniel Cooke. 
What ! another edition of Gilbert White's 
“Selborne ?” Yes; and a most superb edi- 
tion, too (within and without)—eclipsing 
even those beautiful editions (legion !) already 
extant ; and issued at a price that will enable 
every boy and girl in England to procure it. 
Halt-a-crown only! Half-a-guinea would be 
little for it. The exquisite illustrations are 
alone worth more than that sum. Nobody 
now dares own that he has not read “‘ White's 
Selborne !” 
We cannot, to day, as our columns are 
already overburdened, attempt to do justice 
to this book. But we will not lay it aside, 
even pro tem., without giving part of the 
preface, written by the Kditor (Sir William 
Jardine):— 
There is perhaps no work of the same class 
that has gone through more editions than White’s 
“Selborne.” It originally appeared in 1789, 
four years before the author’s death, in the then 
fashionable quarto size ; an octavo edition, in two 
volumes, was published under the charge of Dr. 
Aitkin in 1802, to which various observations 
were added from White’s journals; and a second 
quarto edition was again published in 1813, with 
notes by the Rev. John Mitford, several of which 
are copied into the present volume; after these, 
the edition projected and published by Constable 
in his “Miscellany” was the first to render the 
work better known and more popularly desired. 
When the disarrangement of Mr. Constable’s 
affairs took place, and the “ Miscellany” had 
passed into other hands, this edition assumed 




several forms, and was illustrated by woodcuts, | in June, 1743. 
some of them engraved for it, while some were 
inserted that had previously been used in other 
works on natural history. The demand for the 
work, however, still continued so great, as to in- 
duce Mr. Van Voorst, and others, to speculate 
upon fresh reprints, some ofthem very beautifully 
illustrated ; and the Rey. L. Jenyns, Mr. Bennet, 
and Mr. Jesse have all contributed their share to 
the explanation of White’s letters, and have been 
assisted by some of the first men of the day, in 
regard to such subjects as did not so imme- 
diately form a portion of their own studies; and 
we owe to Messrs. Bell and Owen, Yarrel and 
Herbert, many useful and instructive notes. 
The call now for another edition of ‘The Natural 
History of Selborne,” after so much has been 
illustrated and written about it, shows the con- 
tinued estimation in which the work is held, and 
the confidence of the publishers in its value. 
What is the cause of this run after the corres- 
pondence of a country clergyman? Just that it 
is the simple recording of valuable facts as they 
were really seen or learned, without embellish- 
ment, except as received from truth, and without 
allowing the imagination to ramble and assume 
conclusions the exactness of which it had not 
proved. He at the same time kept steadily in 
view the moral obligations upon himself as a man 
and a minister, to benefit his fellow-creatures by 
impressing upon them the beneficence of the 
Creator, as exemplified in His works ; and the cno- 
tentment and cheerfulness of spirit which their 
study, under proper restrictions, imparts to the 
mind. And of this man we have handed down 
scarcely any biographical recollections, except 
what can be gathered from a short sketch by his 
brother, or that may be interspersed ainong his 
letters; and these are very few, as he was not 
given to write of himself or his private affairs. 
Gilbert White, at one time the recluse and almost 
obscure vicar of Selborne, had no biographer to 
record all the little outs and ins of his quiet 
career; he was not thought of until his letters 
pointed him out as a man of observation ; and it 
is only since they have been edited and re-edited, 
that every source has been ransacked, with the 
hope of finding some memoranda of the worthy 
vicar and naturalist. 
The sketch which his brother John appended 
to the octavo edition of his works in 1802, is the 
only memorial of his life; and as it is authentic, 
and very short, itis best to print it as it was ori- 
ginally published. The same modest and retired 
habits never tempted him, so far as is known, to 
sit for any likeness; and no portrait or profile 
remains to recall the features of one whose writ- 
ings have been so much and so widely read. 
“Gilbert White was the eldest son of John 
White of Selborne, Esq., and of Anne, the 
daughter of Thomas Holt, rector of Streatham, 
in-Surrey. He was born at Selborne, on July 
18th, 1720; and received his school education at 
Basingstoke, under the Rev. Thomas Warton, 
vicar of that place, and father of those two dis- 
tinguished literary characters, Dr. Joseph War- 
ton, master of Winchester School; and Mr. Tho- 
mas Warton, poetry-professor at Oxford. He was 
admitted at Oriel College, Oxford, in December, 
1739; and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts 
In March, 1744, he was elected 


