Alfred Newton

“ White's pleasure at Marsham's approval is unmistakable. 'O that I had known you forty years ago!' is one of White's exclamations to Marsham, the significance of which may be seen when read in connection with that passage in his earliest letter to Pennant (10 Aug. 1767) , wherein he wrote: 'It has been my misfortune never to have had any neighbours whose studies have led them towards the pursuit of natural knowledge.'
During White's last years there his sister-in-law, widow of his brother John, continued to keep house for him at Selborne. ”

“ That White's 'Selborne' is the only work on natural history which has attained the rank of an English classic is admitted by general acclamation, as well as by competent critics, and numerous have been the attempts to discover the secret of its ever-growing reputation. ”

“ If we grant what is partially true, that it was the first book of its kind to appear in this country, and therefore had no rivals to encounter before its reputation was established, we find that alone insufficient to account for the way in which it is still welcomed by thousands of readers, to many of whom and this especially applies to its American admirers—scarcely a plant or an animal mentioned in it is familiar, or even known but by name. ”

“ Gilbert's father was never a rich man; he had a large family to educate; he had retired on his marriage from the bar, where his practice was inconsiderable, and even the house at Selborne (The Wakes) in which he lived was not his own, but belonged to a relative. Stronger evidence to this effect is afforded by the fact that in 1750 he borrowed money (10l. or so) of his son Gilbert, which was not repaid until May 1753 (Bell's ed. ii. 332) , and a careful examination of the family papers made by the present Mr. Holt-White shows that Gilbert's patrimony must have been of the slenderest. ”

“ The beauties of the work, apart from the way in which they directly appeal to naturalists, as they did to Darwin, grow upon the reader who is not a naturalist, as Lowell testifies, and the more they are studied the more they seem to defeat analysis.
No portrait of White was ever taken, and, though some have pleased themselves with a tradition that one of the figures in the frontispiece of the quarto editions of his book was intended to represent him, Bell's authority (vol. i. p. lviii n.) ”

“ In 1802 appeared 'The Works in Natural History of the late Rev. Gilbert White ... comprising the Natural History of Selborne; the Naturalist's Calendar; and Miscellaneous Observations, extracted from his papers. To which are added a Calendar and Observations by W. Markwick, Esq.' This was published in two volumes octavo by John (the son of the elder Benjamin) White in Fleet Street, who added the brief sketch of his uncle's life, which has been constantly reprinted, and it is often spoken of as Aikin's or Markwick's edition ”

“ Three other aunts must also be noticed: Mary (d. 1768) , married to Baptist Isaac, rector of Whitwell and Ash well in Rutland, where Gilbert passed three months in 1742, before leaving Oxford; Dorothea (d. 1731) , the wife of William Henry Cane, who succeeded her father in 1727 as vicar of Selborne; and Elizabeth (d. 1753) , married to Charles White, rector of Bradley and Swarraton, as before mentioned. ”

“ Mulso's letters repeatedly urge greater speed, but White was not to be hurried in the execution of his self-imposed task. He evidently determined that what he had to do he would do with his might, and the result justified his delay. It was not until January 1788 that he wrote to Sam Barker (ib. ii. 168) that he had at length put his 'last hand' to the book; but still there was the index to make —'an occupation full as entertaining as that of darning of stockings'—and the actual publication did not take place until the end of that year, the volume bearing on its title-page the date 1789. ”

“ For a short time he held the curacy of West Deane in Wiltshire, where, according to Mulso, he felt lonely and unhappy by reason of its distance from Selborne. Mulso's letters constantly allude to White's narrow means, while praising his economy and hoping for his preferment. ”

“ The long and interesting series of unpublished letters written by John Mulso to Gilbert White (extending from 1744 to 1790) , and now in the possession of the Earl of Stamford, a great-grandson of Henry White (who has kindly allowed the present writer access to them) , give no encouragement to the notion announced originally by Jesse in his edition of the 'Natural History of Selborne,' and adopted by Bell and others, that there was ever any very particular attachment, much less an engagement to marry, between Hester Mulso, who subsequently became Mrs. Chapone [q. v.] , and Gilbert White. ”

“ It must by degrees have dawned on him that the kind of observation needed for the successful pursuit of sport, just as of horticulture, might be rendered more valuable by the study of plants and animals on a principle more or less methodical. ”

“ Sir Ashton Lever [q. v.] , who formed the enormous museum known by his name; and John Lightfoot (1735-1788) [q. v.] of Uxbridge, Pennant's fellow-traveller. It is evident, too, that White's sympathies were not limited to the animals of his own country, as is shown by the interest he took in his brother's zoological investigations at Gibraltar, and in the Chinese dogs brought home by Charles Etty, a son of the vicar of Selborne (Letter lviii. to Barrington) , to say nothing of his desire to see the swallows of Jamaica (Letter vii. to the same) . ”

“ In 1813 two editions appeared—one in two volumes octavo, practically a reprint of the last, with the addition of the poems, now for the first time published, and the other in a single quarto volume, a reprint of the original, together with all the other matter subsequently added, and twelve copperplates instead of the nine of the editio princeps, one of the new engravings being that of a picture presented to Selborne church by Benjamin White, and some rational notes by John Mitford (1781–1859) [q. v.] of Benhall, after whom this edition is often named. ”

“ In the following April (1747) he received deacon's orders from Thomas Secker [q. v.] bishop of Oxford, let his rooms at Oriel, and returned to Selborne, becoming, though unlicensed, curate at Swarraton for his uncle Charles White. Later in the year he was again with his friend Mander in Gloucestershire, and shortly after he had a severe attack of small-pox at Oxford. In due time he was ordained priest by the bishop of Hereford, on letters dimissory from Bishop Hoadly; and continued to make Selborne his home while doing duty at Swarraton. ”

“ Mulso had met Musgrave, the new provost, and asked him as to his own intentions and those of the college towards White, receiving for an answer that 'it was in your own [G. W.'s] breast to keep or leave your fellowship, for nobody meant to turn you out if you did not choose it yourself.' Some two years later the two men seem to have been quite reconciled. White was at Oxford, and Mulso was able to write (13 Jan. 1761) : 'The provost and you begin to have your own feels for one another, such as you had before competitions divided you ... ”