IRature IRotes: 
Zhc Selborne Society’s iHbaciasine. 
No. 45. SEPTEMBER, 1893. Vol. IV. 
RELICS OF THE WHITE FAMILY. 
VERY agreeable afternoon was spent at Lancing College, 
by a party of Selbornians, on July 15th. At the kind 
invitation of the Rev. Edmund Field, sometime chap- 
lain of St. Mary and St. Nicholas College, about a 
dozen members of the White family arrived at Shoreham Station 
about noon, made their way through the corn-fields, and across 
the dark green tidal waters of the Adur, and ascended the breezy 
downs on which the College is built. They were entertained at 
luncheon in the antechamber of the great hall of the school, and 
by three o’clock several more friends had arrived from the neigh- 
bourhood, and the party assembled in Mr. Field’s room to hear 
his lecture on the family relics which are now in his possession. 
Some reference was first made to the family pedigree, and it 
was pointed out that through a lineal ancestress, who was 
daughter of Robert Lord Hungerford, Gilbert White was 
descended from the Courtenays, Le Despensers, and other great 
mediaeval families. Then, passing down the line to Sir Samson 
White, Gilbert’s great-grandfather, the lecturer mentioned that 
he was mayor of Oxford and cup-bearer at the coronation of 
Charles II. The cup which he received — according to custom 
— on that occasion, was bequeathed by him to the Corporation 
of Oxford, in whose possession it still remains. Sir Samson’s 
court sword and small silver cup were then exhibited to the 
audience. Next, Mr. Field exhibited a portrait in oils of Gilbert 
White the elder, vicar of Selborne, and grandfather and god- 
father of the naturalist. John White, father of the naturalist, 
married Anne Holt, great-granddaughter of Benjamin Hyde, 
merchant, who received from Charles I. — probably in return for 
services rendered in facilitating some attempted escape— the 
