GILBERT WHITE. 
317 
To gather the dew of May ; 
And all that day, to the rebeck ^ gay, 
They frolicked with lovesome swains. 
They are gone, they are dead, in the churchyard laid, 
But the oak it still remains ; 
And still flourish he, a brave oak tree, 
When a thousand years are o'er." 
The visitor sliould examine tlie magnificent yew-tree in the 
churchyard ; its age is unknown. It is twenty-five feet round. 
The Yicar, the Rev. Mr. Parsons,^ kindly lent us the keys of the 
church. The tablet commemorating White's death is on the 
wall near the altar on the right-hand side of the spectator. 
An inscription on the top reads as follows : " This monument of 
Gilbert White, M.A., and B. White, Esq., was removed into the 
chancel MDCCCX." I understand from the Vicar that White 
was never rector of Selborne, but only curate ; he was also 
curate of Faringdon eighteen years.^ 
The stonework inside the church is completely covered with 
whitewash, probably the tasteful work of some former church- 
warden. The Vicar, I understand, contemplates restoring tlie 
inside of his church when sufficient funds are forthcoming. 
Gilbert White's grave can thus be found : — On coming out of the 
church door turn to the left and keep to the left, and at a short 
distance will be found the gravestone with the simple " G. W." 
cut on it. The tombstones in this churchyard are very much 
injured by moss and lichens, which have filled up the inscrip- 
tions. Over White's grave there ought to be placed a modern 
monument of some kind. I should venture to suggest polished 
red Aberdeen granite, such as I have placed over my father and 
mother at Islip, near Oxford. The letters should be cut very 
deeply into the granite, on account of the moss filling them up. 
A strong solution, say ten grains to the ounce, of corrosive sub- 
limate {i.e., bichloride of mercury) in spirits of wine will, I 
believe, kill the moss that grows on the tombstones and in the 
engraved letters, and prevent its germinating again. 
At page 10 White mentions the " tenpenny nails in the walls," 
about Selborne. I looked about for these everywhere ; at last 
I found them in abundance, stuck into the walls of the church, 
and particularly on the wall facing the visitor on his left as he 
is about to enter the porch. ' I took my hat off to these venerable 
^ I find from Johnson's Dictionary that a rebeck is a three-stringed fiddle. 
2 I regret to hear that Mr. Parsons died, Sept. 1875, since the above waa 
in type. 
^ The living of Selborne belongs to Magdalen College, Oxford. 
