GILBERT WHITE. 
315 
she said, " Ah, that's what I mean." She said that old Dame 
Terry knew all about White, but Dame Terry had been dead 
forty-eight ^ ears. Dame Terry must have been over eighty, 
therefore she must have been contemporary with White many 
years. Mr Binnie, gardener to Mr. Bell, said that there was an 
old man of the name of James Cobb who was nearly ninety, and 
w^as eight years old wdien White died. When Cobb saw White 
coming he used to run and put stones into the ruts and fill them 
up. White used to give him a penny and say " Good boy, good 
boy." Mr. Binnie recollects Butler the thatcher, who was married 
by White, and who died aged ninety-two. Mr. Binnie said that 
Hale who died in 1855, aged seventy-eight, described AVhite to 
him as a " little, thin, prim, upright man." Hale must have been 
sixteen years old when White died. He frequently had tea 
with White. 
Gilbert White was a quiet, unassuming, but very observant 
country parson. The access to Selborne in those days must have 
been very difficult [vide page 11). This worthy man therefore 
occupied his time in observing and recording the habits of his 
parishioners, quadruped as well as feathered. 
Mr. Bell kindly took me to a room up stairs, where he show^ed 
me a large number of White's manuscripts. Having thoroughly 
inspected White's house and village, I was able to discover w^hy 
his notes are so disconnected. When he returned home he 
took a sheet of paper and wrote his observations of the day. I ob- 
served the manuscript w^as very much faded ; it is written on 
the same sort of paper and wich the same kind of ink as 
letters written by the Eev. John Buckland of Warborough. 
In those days it is evident that blotting-paper w^as little, if at 
all used, for many of the lines WTre iridescent, as though the dust 
used instead of blotting-paper was made of brass filings or some 
such material. 
I was happy to hear from Mr. Bell that he is about to issue 
an edition of White's " Selborne." The numerous manuscripts in 
his possession will indeed make Professor Bell's book most 
interesting. Mr. Bell intends his edition to be a classical book, 
more fit for the student's library than for general readers. The 
Professor most generously informed me he w^as glad to hear I 
was bringing out this edition, and he promised me any assist- 
ance in his powder. Professor Bell has lived at Selborne thirty- 
three years, and cherishes White's memory with the greatest 
reverence ; and into no better hands could White's house, manu- 
scripts, &c., especially the correspondence with Linnseus, have 
passed than Professor Bell's. 
White's sun-dial still exists at the end of the garden, the 
