at all, I shall come forth by myself." In a subsequent letter to the same, written in August of the same year, he alludes to his two papers read at the Royal Society in 1774 and 1775, and refers to his intention to publish by the express request that his nephew should pay attention to all the species of the Swallow family, "for I shall be glad of any well attested anecdotes, intending some time hence to publish a new edition of my Hirundines' in some way or other." In the same letter he speaks of Grimm's drawing of the Hermitage, which afterwards formed the vignette in the titlepage of his book. In a letter to his brother Thomas, in the month of June 1777, he discusses the subject of the manners, customs, and morals of the occupants of the Temple and Priory, enclosing a long letter from Dr. Chandler on that subject. It is possible that this information was communicated to his brother with the immediate object of assisting him in his projected work, the History of Hampshire,' which, however, was never carried out; but the ultimate destination of the materials thus collected was doubtless the antiquarian section of his own future book, in which it appeared in detail eleven years later! To his nephew he again writes in the following year, after a long and most curious quotation from a further communication of Dr. Chandler's, "Should I ever be able to finish my work respecting this my native place, the old deeds and charters &c. will furnish a large appendix!" To this intelligent relative's criticism he submitted his MS., and he appears to have been much pleased with his nephew's appreciation of his work. In November 1780 he writes: "You do not, I hope, flatter me about my Nat: Hist:; if you do not, I am much pleased to find that an intelligent person like yourself

approves of it. of it. Were it not for want of a good amanuensis, I think I should make more progress; but much writing and transcribing always hurts me."

At length, however, the transcribing is completed, and chiefly by himself; the printers appear to have done their part admirably, and on the 8th of January 1788 he writes thus to his nephew Barker:-" I have been very busy of late, and have at length put my last hand to my Nat: Hist: and Antiquities of this parish. However, I am still employed in making an Index. . . . . . My work will be well got up, with a good type and on good paper, and will be embellished with several engravings. It has been in the press some time, and is to come out in the spring." In this anticipation, however, he was disappointed. Notwithstanding his own advertisement, as printed, is dated by himself Jan. 1st, 1788, its actual publication did not take place until more than a year after. The following amusing lines were written by him on the eve of its appearance; they have never before been published. The dreaded result has been most signally negatived.

"To myself commencing author.

"Go, view that House, amid the garden's bound,
Where tattered volumes strew the learned ground,
Where Novels,-Sermons in confusion lie,

Law, ethics, physics, school-divinity;
Yet did each author, with a parent's joy,
Survey the growing beauties of his boy,
Upon his new-born babe did fondly look,
And deem Eternity should claim his book.
Taste ever shifts; in half a score of
years

A changeful public may alarm thy fears;

Who now reads Cowley ?-The sad doom await,
Since such as these are now may be thy fate.

"GIL: WHITE."

"South Lambeth, 25 June, 1789."

The appearance of the book, so long delayed, excited much interest, and brought the author into immediate correspondence with some scientific men whom he had not previously known. Amongst them I may parti cularly mention Mr. Marsham, F.R.S., of StrattonStrawless Hall, in Norfolk, the author of a series of observations, communicated to the Royal Society in 1789, under the title of "Indications of Spring," and published in the Philosophical Transactions of that year. Amongst the mass of correspondence confided to me by Mr. Algernon Holt White, I find ten letters from Mr. Marsham to Gilbert White, which are full of interesting facts and observations, a considerable portion of which relate to the growth of trees, a subject to which he had for years paid particular attention. His first letter commences thus:-"Sir, I have received so much pleasure and information from your ingenious Nat: Hist: of Selborne, that I cannot deny myself the honest satisfaction of offering you my thanks." These, with the same number of letters from Gilbert White to Mr. Marsham, will be found in the second volume. The former prove that so far from White having "taken leave of Natural History," as he assured Daines Barrington was his intention, he evidently continued to study Nature with as keen observation and as true devotion as ever.

He

With the publication of his book the chief personal interest of Gilbert White with the public ceases. continued almost to the last his pleasant correspondence with his friends and relations, his kind and genial hospitality, his charitable benevolence to the poor, and his pious ministrations in the parish. Little more than a fortnight before his death the last record of his ministerial duties occurs in the parish register of his

having officiated at a funeral. His confinement by his last illness was therefore very short, though attended with much suffering. The consolations which he had for so many years administered to others were now his own, and full of faith he calmly breathed his last on the 26th of June, 1793*. He was buried on the 1st of

The following pleasing lines were written by my late revered friend Miss Letitia Waring, and given to me but a short time before her own death.

["The writer has been informed by a descendant of one who was in attendance at the dying bed of Gilbert White that, during the acute suffering of his last illness, which he bore with exemplary patience, he was continually engaged in fervent prayer, or repeating with solemn pathos many passages of Holy Writ, which have been for ages the delight and solace of devout believers, dwelling frequently and emphatically on the latter part of the 19th chapter of the Book of Job.

"The Naturalist's last words

"I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH.'

"O God! I thank Thee that my lot was cast
Beneath the shadow of that lovely hill,

Where, gliding on, life's peaceful stream has passed
As through the valley winds the tranquil rill.

"In these green shades the glad birds warbling round,
Sun-loving flowers by field or forest mere,
The dullest inmate of my garden bound,

All grateful speak Thy guardian presence here.

"How quick the charmed glance, that joyed to trace
Thy wondrous work in insect, bird, or flower;
How slow the heart to seek thy heavenly grace,
Thy gift supreme of soul-transforming power.

"Now the dull ear scarce heeds the voice of song
And fair creation fades before mine eyes,
Prophetic lyres their solemn strains prolong,
And on my soul redemption's glories rise.

July by the Vicar of the parish, the Rev. Christopher Taylor. To the north of the chancel wall are six humble graves, all, I believe, occupied by the remains of the White family. The fifth from the wall is that of Gilbert White, with the simple inscription, "G. W., June 26, 1793." A marble tablet to his memory was placed against the wall on the outside, with the following inscription:

*

"In the fifth Grave from this Wall are interred the Remains of The Revd. GILBERT WHITE, M.A.,

Fifty years Fellow of Oriel College, in Oxford,
and Historian of this, his native Parish.

He was the eldest Son of John White, Esquire, Barrister-at-Law, and Anne, his Wife, only Child of

Thomas Holt, Rector of Streatham, in Surrey, which said John White was the only Son of Gilbert White †, formerly Vicar of this Parish.

"Wisdom beyond wide Nature's various lore
In mercy, Lord, Thy quickening spirit gives,
And still this sacred page delights me more,
While here I learn that my Redeemer lives.'

"Ye holy prophets lend your strains again;

Your meek confessions and your joys are mine.
I taste while lingering in this mortal pain
The healing waters from a fount divine.

"One glorious hope has crowned my length of days:
I know, though soon beneath the valley's sod
Shall rot the wasting form whose strength decays,
Yet shall mine eyes behold my Saviour God.

"L. W."]

This tablet has since been removed for its better preservation into the chancel, and is fixed to the south wall. The words "the fifth grave from this wall" refer, of course, to its original position.

† The vicar had one other son, Sampson, who, it appears, died very young, and four daughters-Mary, who married Mr. Isaac;