porch to his resting-place in the peaceful churchyard.

Gilbert White's house and Gilbert White's church are naturally the chief foci of interest. Most pilgrims will turn to the house first, as being more intimately connected with the personal life of the man whose memory has brought

GILBERT WHITE'S HOUSE FROM THE REAR

them hither. It stands close to the village highway, and its rare picture of blended red-brick and green foliage might have moved the heart of Dr. Johnson to fall in love with rural life. But its chief beauties are hidden from the eyes of the passer-by, and beheld only by those who are favoured with permission to pass through the

as has been said, has a vocabulary of its own, due, in White's opinion, to the persistence of the Saxon dialect in the district.) The church is beautifully kept, and the visitor may still confide in its famous curate's description of it. The squat pillars, the "deep and capacious front," the Knights Templars' tombs, are all as they were. But high up in the corner of the chancel wall is a tablet which Gilbert White never saw. This tablet has misled many pilgrims, for its first sentence reads thus: "In the fifth grave from this wall are buried the remains of the Revd Gilbert White, M.A." Naturally, then, search is made for the grave inside the church. It is so easy to overlook the inscription at the top of the tablet which records that it was "removed into the chancel MDCCCX." Hardly would the patient historian of the birds and flowers and insects of Selborne have slept peacefully save in that open air which is their home. In the graveyard, then, close to the northeast corner of the church, must the simple headstone be sought which marks where lies the dust of Gilbert White. That lichen-stained stone is a grievance to some people; they write to the vicar, and urge him to place a "modern memorial" over the grave. How many there are who

Kaye will produce the old parish register in which White made so many entries. If it is opened in the middle of the year 1793, it will reveal the page which has been reproduced by

the camera. This page will serve as well as any to illustrate the clear, honest penmanship of the naturalist, and it possesses the additional interest of bearing the record of his own death and burial. Moreover, it corrects a blunder

common

with most writers about White. By the majority he is described as "Vicar" of Sel

SELBORNE PARISH REGISTER

borne, but his own off-repeated signature shows that he was never more than curate.

Selborne Church is seen to the most advantage from a steep pasture to the east of the building, called "The Lythe." (The parish,

1894." From inside that iron door comes the ceaseless thud of the ram by which the water is forced up into the reservoir from which the village is supplied. No one can find fault with

such a practical memorial, but it seems a pity the Selborne people did not give its outward and visible form a more picturesque embodiment.

On the way back to the church let a pause be made at the vicarage, where the Rev. Arthur

it to be a quarter of a mile in length, equal to three times the distance straight up the hill. Further east still along the village street may be seen a very utilitarian memorial to White.

On an iron door built into a wall by the roadside there may be read this inscription: "This water supply was given to Selborne by voluntary subscription in memory of Gilbert White,