Gilbert White (1720-93) lived and died in the small English village of Selborne in the county of Hampshire and his sole long-form work, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne was published in 1789. Notwithstanding two later pressings in 1802 and 1813, it was such a modest effort that it should have passed without further notice or attention.
But somehow Selborne has become one of our best-loved and widely published books in the canon of natural history writing, having been published in nearly 1,000 editions and translated into many languages – it is apparently, after The Bible, the Complete Works of William Shakespeare and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress – the fourth most published book in the English language.
In Paul Foster’s Introduction to my cherished Oxford University Press 1993 paperback edition of Selborne Foster says of White’s self-described ‘parochial history’ of ‘Wakes’, his family home at Selborne:
…it is difficult to envisage a literary work with less claim to fame…a volume that took twenty years to prepare and was published, reviewed, and republished by relatives of the author suggests a venture of such indulgence that merely to open the pages must risk a trespass on familial privacies.
White was apparently a bit of an 18th century train-spotter – for six years before he inherited Wakes he had kept detailed records of the the annual cycle of planting, tending and harvesting the gardens there. This all changed in 1755, when, as Foster explains:
…there now came to him the realization that his propensity for keeping records for personal and familial interest could serve a larger purpose-the improvement of the quality of life for all people.
…
White’s hope, however, derived from a longer tradition-the programme enunciated by Francis Bacon of forming a comprehensive collection of data about the natural world which, once assembled, analysed, and interpreted, would establish the laws of the natural world, both physical and biological.
White was born the eldest of 11 children and had dreams of a career as an Oxford don. Those dreams were never realised and he returned to Wakes and became a country clergyman. But beyond that role White flourished and produced what is regarded as the first and greatest natural history diary and became what we would now recognise as an ecologist of great skill and unparalleled insight.
While on it’s face (an old priest writing a series of letter to his friends about bugs, birds etc etc) Selborne has all the indicators of being a real snore as a read, I really like White’s style – my edition has received a light edit from Paul Foster who notes that he made some modifications that:
…, substantial as they may seem when listed, are solely matters of presentation and printing convention; they detract nothing from White’s literary style or scientific acumen.
And White’s observations are beautiful – even when the subject isn’t – he writes lovingly about all manner of things that fly, squirm, swim, slither, walk, run and crawl. My favourite – at least on the current re-reading – is this description in letter number 28 to Thomas Pennant Esq. of his encounter with the largest member of the Deer family:
Selborne, March 1770
On Michaelmas-day 1768 I managed to get a sight of the female moose belonging to the duke of Richmond, at Goodwood; but was greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, to find that it died, after having appeared in a languishing way for some time, on the morning before. However, understanding that it was not stripped, I proceeded to examine this rare quaduped. I found it in an old green-house, slung under the belly and chin by ropes, and in a standing posture; but, though it had been dead for so short a time, it was in so putrid a state that the stench was unsupportable.
…
I should have been glad to have examined the teeth, tongue, lips, hoofs, &c. minutely; but the putrefaction precluded all further curiosity.
…
The noble owner of the dead moose proposed to make a skeleton of her bones
And this about a far smaller and spikier quadruped:
Hedge-hogs abound in my gardens and fields. The manner in which they eat their roots of the plaintain in my grass-walks is very curious: with their upper mandible, which is much longer than their lower, they bore under he plant, and so eat the root off upwards, leaving the tuft of leaves untouched.
…
In June last year I procured a litter of four or five young hedge-hogs, which appeared to be about five or six days old: they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and could not see when they came to my hands. No doubt their spines are soft and flexible at the time of their birth, or else the poor dam would have but a bad time of it in the critical moment of parturition: but it is plain that they soon harden; for these little pigs had such stiff prickles on their backs and sides as would easily have fetched blood, had they not been handled with caution.
There are hundreds more similar anecdotes throughout Selborne and I’d encourage anyone interested in natural history and the writing of it to get a copy. And there is, unsurprisingly, a wealth of material available through the web on White, his house Wakes and Selbourne.
Wikipedia has a useful introduction, there is a nice blog-post at Storyteller’s World and the website for White’s house, Wakes and its associated museum looks like it has a bunch of wax dummies in it…
Best of all for mine is the BBC 4 website for the series 12-part series The Century That Made Us:
The 18th century was a time of radical ideas and political change that opened the door to the modern world. In a wide-ranging season on BBC Four, we explore the excitement of a time when innovators blazed a trail in every area; from philosophy, science and art to cookery, fashion and architecture.
In episode six of this series Michael Wood tells the story of White, “the country vicar” whose book The Natural History of Selborne was an 18th-century bestseller, and had a huge influence on British attitudes towards nature.
Also high on my list of favourites is this blog, simply titled The Natural History of Selborne – the Naturalist’s Journal, which has a good set of links and related material on White. What is great about this site is that for each day of the year this site lists entries from White’s Journals over the years. A sample for April 28 looks like this:
- 1793: April 28, 1793 – Wall-flowers full of bloom, & very fine. Nightingales in my fields.
- 1792: April 28, 1792 – Planted in the mead-garden eleven rows of potatoes; four of which were potatoes from Liverpool, sent to Dr Chandler by Mr Clarke. Planted in the mead four rows of beans.
- 1790: April 28, 1790 – Full moon. Total eclipse.
- 1789: April 28, 1789 – Timothy the tortoise beings to eat dandelion.
- 1787: April 28, 1787 – Set Gunnory, the Bantam hen, on nine of her own eggs.
- 1784: April 28, 1784 – Grass-hopper lark whispers.
- 1779: April 28, 1779 – Five long-legged plovers, Charadrius himantopus, were shot at Frinsham-pond. There were three brace in all. These are the most rare of all British birds. Their legs are marvellously long for the bulk of their bodies. To be in proportion of weight for inches the legs of Flamingo should be more than 10 feet in length.
- 1775: April 28, 1775 – Sun, sultry, fierce heat! Midsummer evening. The sun scorched øtil within an hour of setting. Swfit appears at Manchester & Fyfield. Apus, one single swift. They usually arrive in pairs. Parhelia, or odd halo round the sun. Described since in Gent. mag.
White’s writings are replete with many references to birds and other animals being shot and sometimes it seems from his journal entries and from the letters in Selborne that just about everyone abroad in the Hampshire countryside was armed and looking to shoot something.
One final item of interest on White is the 10 CD audio book reading of Selborne produced by John Mayfield. The webpage for the audio book describes it as:
‘The Natural History of Selborne’ is now available as an unabridged audio book download and has duration of almost 11 hours of magical listening. The narrator, James Taylor, has more than 40 years experience as a professional actor. He also insisted on studying Richard Mabey’s biography of Gilbert White before producing a truly compelling performance. With the kind assistance of Julian Reynolds, Head of Biology, Trinity College, Dublin, this recording also includes Latin translations of everything noted by White in his incredible and meticulous observations.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got to say on White and his loving descriptions and records of life in a small town in southern England – please leave a comment if you have your own thoughts about White, his works or his living and substantial legacy.
