THE 
NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW. 
Jifoiefaj. 
Rambles of a Naturalist on the Devonshire Coast. By Philip Henry 
Gosse, F.L.S., &c. London : John Van Voorst. Price 21s. 
More than half a century has elapsed since Gilbert White was laid in the 
quiet little churchyard at Selborne, where a slight heave of the turf still 
marks the resting-place of the naturalist and the philosopher, and the 
remark of the learned Warden of Merton College, respecting his “Natural 
History of Selbome,” “ that the time will come when very few who buy 
boohs will be without it” has been amply verified. Few have read it 
without feeling a deep sympathy with the pursuits of its pure-minded and 
gentle author; and, as might have been expected, its frequent publication 
has exercised a strong influence on the minds of those who wish to discover 
the good and beautiful in all that meet and surround them. With the 
lapse of years a great change has taken place in the estimation in which 
the naturalist is held ; his pursuits are no longer looked on as eccentric or 
visionary, but he finds himself surrounded by “a galaxy of congenial 
spirits, engaged in the same or congenerous studies, and, so far from having 
to bear up against the ridicule which, at no late period, might have been 
the lot of his predecessors, he will find, at least, a tacit acquiescence in the 
becomingness of his studies, and a forbearance from all censure that might 
fray the most sensitive.” This change of feeling has operated most favour¬ 
ably in drawing forth a crowd of observers —men who keenly feel all the 
beauties of nature and love to describe them, who invest the objects of their 
study with an individuality calculated to interest even the most indifferent. 
We would not wish even to appear to undervalue the labours of the sys¬ 
tematic naturalist. We entertain a very high estimate of the powers of 
VOL. I. B 
