SELBORNE. 
The popularity of Gilbert White is so general, so durable, 
and so well founded, that a pilgrimage to his tomb in his 
native village of Selborne has become almost a necessary act of 
devotion on the part of every lover of nature. The monument 
which marks the resting-place of the bones of this most amiable, 
fascinating, and instructive describer of the country, is very 
humble ; it is a small plain stone, placed erect at the head of the 
grave, of the following form, and with the following simple in- 
scription : — 
The mould and the sod which cover the mortal remains of this 
illustrious man, have evidently been undisturbed from the 
time that he was laid in the dust, as recorded on the little stone ; 
and the grass upon his grave is as soft as velvet and as green as 
an emerald, more finely emblematical of the gentleness yet fresh- 
ness of his mind, and his ardent love of nature, than the most 
sumptuous tomb which the art of the sculptor could have 
executed. Within the church there is indeed a simple mural 
a 
