SELBORNIAWl 
29 
I am the more disappointed in this case, because Major 
ullens has evidently seen my ‘ Life and Letters of Gilbert 
White,” though there is indeed other evidence that he has not 
read it quite carefully. I have been an Oxford man, and a 
member of White’s College for thirty-eight years, and may 
claim, after many years of careful investigation, to be some 
authority regarding his life, and 1 wish once more to reassert 
that there is not any reason to suppose that, though there 
certainly were parties and differences at Oriel, as in other 
Colleges, in his time. White was at any time unpopular with, 
or, as Major Mullens puts it, ‘ in trouble with ’ the College ; and 
I challenge the production of any single fact which would 
evidence the contrary. Those who may wish to see the ques- 
tion examined at some little length may consult Nature Notes 
for October, 1901, where they will find that I have adduced 
several facts and occurrences which do afford a clear presump- 
tion that, both at the time of his Proctorship and in later years, 
the naturalist was a gvata persona in his College. 
“It is a pity that these fables should have grown up about 
the life of so good a man as Gilbert White, but Dr. Shadwell 
started them, and in his edition of the Selborne, Mr. Warde 
Fowler repeated and amplified the former’s uninformed remarks, 
and I fear that the truth will never overtake — what is far from 
being the truth.” 
Philistines at Hindhead. — An interesting point has arisen 
in connection with the preservation of the common lands at 
Hindhead, Haslemere, which are vested in the National Trust 
for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty. Under the 
authority of the Highway Act, the Hambledon Rural Council 
have for years dug stone from the commons for roads in the 
district. They have now received a request from the National 
Trust to discontinue the practice. The council have declined 
to accede to the request, the chairman saying that it would 
deprive the ratepayers of a valuable asset, representing some- 
thing like ,^400 a year. The wishes of the locality had not been 
consulted before the Bill was introduced, and the clerk would 
take what steps were possible to secure a repeal of the Act so 
far as it related to stone digging. — Standard. 
Protecting Native Fauna in (Queensland. — One of the 
recent Acts of the (Queensland Legislature is “ Native Animals 
Protection,” which protects from November i to April 30 the 
“ native bear” and opossum. The animals absolutely protected 
are the kangaroo, wombat, duck-mole or platypus, hedgehog 
or echidna, and flying squirrel or opossum mouse. The penalty 
for killing any of these creatures within the period named — 
the Queensland summer season — is any sum not exceeding £^. 
A like penalty will be inflicted for offering for sale the skins 
of the native bear or opossum in the close season, unless it can 
