Gilbert White was a "parson-naturalist", a pioneering English naturalist, ecologist, and ornithologist.
15 Facts About Gilbert White
2.
Gilbert White is best known for his Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne.
3.
Gilbert White's family lived briefly at Compton, Surrey, before moving into 'The Wakes' in 1728, that was to be his home for the rest of his long life.
4.
Gilbert White was educated in Basingstoke by Thomas Warton, father of Joseph Warton and Thomas Warton, who would have been Gilbert's school fellows.
5.
Gilbert White obtained his deacon's orders in 1746, being fully ordained in 1749, and subsequently held several curacies in Hampshire and Wiltshire, including Selborne's neighbouring parishes of Newton Valence and Farringdon, as well as Selborne itself on four separate occasions.
6.
Gilbert White died in 1793 and was buried in the graveyard of St Mary's Church, Selborne.
7.
Gilbert White is regarded by many as England's first ecologist, and one of those who shaped the modern attitude of respect for nature.
8.
Rather than studying dead specimens, Gilbert White observed live birds and animals in their own habitats over many years; creating a 'new kind of zoology, scientific, precise and based on the steady accumulation of detail'.
9.
From nearly 40 years of observations, Gilbert White recognised that birds and animals have inner lives.
10.
Gilbert White based his work on accurate recording of events, classifying, measuring, analysing data, making deductions from observations, and experimenting.
11.
Gilbert White was 'one of the first writers to show that it was possible to write of the natural world with a fresh and intensely personal vision without in any way sacrificing precision'.
12.
Gilbert White did not have grand theories, plan experiments and replicate them as a modern scientist would: he was more freewheeling and, arguably, as a consequence more appealing as a writer.
13.
Gilbert White was the first to perceive the value in the study of migration and of banding or ringing birds, though it was Audubon who first performed the experiment.
14.
Gilbert White is best known for his The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne.
15.
Gilbert White is commemorated in the inscription on one of eight bells installed in 2009 at Holybourne, Hampshire and in the Perivale Wood Local Nature Reserve, which is dedicated to his memory.