INTUODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 
White was never married, but he had several brothers and 
sisters ; and the family generally seems to have been possessed 
of very considerable ability. I am not aware that any opinion 
has been handed down of his powers as a preacher ; but if we 
may judge from the letters, his sermons would probably possess 
that simplicity of language and staightforwardness of truth 
which would impress and render them acceptable to the minds 
of his hearers. The letters, though simply written, show both 
the poet and the scholar ; and the mass of facts which they 
contain in relation to our native animals, formed the main foun- 
dation to some of the principal zoological works of that time. 
Pennant often seeks information from him, and quotes his 
authority in the description of the swallow. He writes, " To the 
curious monographies on the swallow of that worthy corre- 
spondent (Mr. White), I must acknowledge myself indebted for 
numbers of the remarks above-mentioned and h-e is elsewhere 
frequently referred to. 
Of his four brothers all of them seem to have had tastes some- 
what akin to Gilbert's, they devoted a considerable portion of their 
leisure to pursuits connected with literature or some of the 
branches of natural history. It is greatly to be regretted that 
the manuscripts of John White have not been recovered. He 
also was an English clergyman ; but for some portion of his life 
resided at Gibraltar, where he made collections and notes 
evidently with the view of working out and publishing a volume 
upon th^e natural history of that promontory ; a ^' Fauna 
Calpensis,'* as he termed it. It must havve been, in fact, written ; 
for in Letter LIII. to Mr. Barrington, Mr. White writes, I shall 
now transcribe a passage from a ' Natural History of Gibraltar,' 
written by the Eev. John White, late vicar of Blackburn, in 
Lancashire, but not yet published." But although every inquiry 
has befen made both by ourselves and others, no trace of that 
MS. can be discovered. His residence at Gibraltar is referred 
to in his brother's letters upon migration ; and he corresponded 
during his residence abroad with Mr. Pennant, who, when 
writing of the contents of his projected work, the Outlines of 
the Globe," states that Volume V. would be particularly rich in 
drawings of the " birds and fishes of Gibraltar communicated to 
me by tha reverend the late Mr. J ohn White^ long resident in 
that fortress."* 
John White corresponded also with naturalists abroad, and 
* Lit- Life, page 42. 
