Gilbert White

Gilbert White (1720–1793) published his Natural History and Antiquities as one volume in 1789. Both works consist of a series of letters written by White to the barrister Daines Barrington (1727–1800) and the zoologist Thomas Pennant (1726–1798). The letters in Natural History, White's best-known work, contain detailed information about his observations of local flora, fauna and wildlife. White was a pioneer of the study of birds and animals in their natural habitats, rather than as specimens removed from their environments. His methods of observation enabled him to identify and record many previously unknown species. (He was the first, for example, to distinguish the chiffchaff from the warbler by differences in song.) The letters in Antiquities are concerned with the topographical, social and ancient history of Selborne. They include details of important Roman coin finds and are an indispensable source for the history of local churches and buildings.

This book, "The Natural History And Antiquities Of Selborne, In The County Of Southampton. 1876", by G. White, is a replication of a book originally published before 1876. It has been restored by human beings, page by page, so that you may enjoy it in a form as close to the original as possible. This book was created using print-on-demand technology. Thank you for supporting classic literature.

Almost 300 editions and reissues of The Natural History of Selborne testify to its the lasting and universal appeal, but none before has been so beautifully and fittingly illustrated. Gilbert White’s painstaking study of the fauna and flora of his native parish, Selborne in Hampshire, first appeared in 1789 and has delighted and inspired generations of readers ever since. His regular correspondence, beginning in 1767, with two distinguished naturalists forms the basis of The Natural History of Selborne, which was published in the form of his letters to them. The fascination of the book lies in the magic of its prose and the vividness of its description, which have earned it the distinction of being the only work on natural history to have received equal acclaim as a masterpiece of English literature. To complement the text, 124 colour plates have been faithfully reproduced from the hand-coloured engravings of Gilbert White’s contemporaries, giving an invaluable extra dimension to this most captivating of books.

More than any other writer Gilbert White (1720-93) has shaped the relationship between man and nature. A hundred years before Darwin, White realised the crucial role of worms in the formation of soil and understood the significance of territory and song in birds. His precise, scrupulously honest and unaffectedly witty observations led him to interpret animals' behaviour in a unique manner. This collection of his letters to the explorer and naturalist Daines Barrington and the eminent zoologist Thomas Pennant - White's intellectual lifelines from his country-village home - are a beautifully written, detailed evocation of the lives of the flora and fauna of eighteenth-century England.

The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, or just The Natural History of Selborne is a classic nature text by English naturalist and ornithologist Gilbert White. It was first published in 1789 by his brother Benjamin. It has been continuously in print since then, with nearly 300 editions up to 2007. The book was published late in White's life, compiled from a mixture of his letters to other naturalists -- Thomas Pennant and Daines Barrington; a 'Naturalist's Calendar' (in the second edition) comparing phenology observations made by White and William Markwick of the first appearances in the year of different animals and plants; and observations of natural history organized more or less systematically by species and group. "See, Selborne spreads her boldest beauties round The varied valley, and the mountain ground, Wildly majestic What is all the pride, Of flats, with loads of ornaments supplied ?-- Unpleasing, tasteless, impotent expense, Compared with Nature's rude magnificenee.""Arise, my stranger, to these wild scenes haste; The unfinish'd farm awaits your forming taste: Plan the pavilion, airy, light, and true; Through the high arch call in the length'ning view; Expand the forest sloping up the hill; Swell to a lake the scant, penurious rill; Extend the vista; raise the castle mound In antique taste, with turrets ivy-crown'd: O'er the gay lawn the flow'ry shrub dispread, Or with the blending garden mix the mead; Bid China's pale, fantastic fence delight; Or with the mimic statue trap the sight."

"The language of birds is very ancient and like other ancient modes of speech, very elliptical; little is said, but much is meant and understood."-Gilbert White, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789)The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1875 edition) written by Gilbert White with notes by Frank Buckland and original illustrations by P. H. Delamotte remains widely read into the 21st century as the fourth most published work in the English language. Using both letter and lyrical form, White chronicles the emergence and behaviors of animal and plant life in the English countryside. His research of the earthworm's importance to the production of topsoil preceded Darwin's by over 100 years. A must for the reader curious about nature, particularly bird enthusiasts.