White, GILBERT

White, GILBERT, author of the Natural History of Selborne, was born at Selborne (q.v.) in Hampshire, on July 18, 1720. Educated at Basingstoke under the Wartons' father, in 1739 he entered Oriel College, Oxford, and in 1744 obtained a fellowship, in 1747 took orders, in 1752 became senior proctor of the university, and in 1758 accepted the sinecure college living of Morton Pinkney, Northamptonshire. Six years before he had retired to his native village, to indulge his taste for literature and natural history; and there he died on June 26, 1793. His charming Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, which has made White an English classic, was projected in 1771, and published in 1789. Probably no book on natural history has been more frequently reprinted. Among its countless editions may be mentioned those of Jesse (1851), Frank Buckland (1875), Bell (1877), R. Jefferies (1887), Burroughs (1895), and Jardine (1897). His MS. journal (6 vols. 1768-89), with letters, poems, and weather report, was found in 1880. See the Bibliography by E. A. Martin (1897).