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The letters become more formalized and literary in style so, that by 1784, there was a different flow to the correspondence as if White had already decided upon publication. Was there any intention to publish these letters? Probably not but as time went on the amount of information contained within them grew in detail and complexity and it was suggested by another of White’s correspondents, the Honourable Daines Barrington that the matter should be made accessible for wider digestion. At first this was just a casual correspondence, an asking and answering of questions about the habits of certain birds and animals.

In about 1767, he began a correspondence with another naturalist, Thomas Pennant, author of the ‘British Zoology’. Gilbert the younger, spent much of his life in and around Selborne and it was then the seeds of his love of the area started to grow. When Gilbert’s grandfather died in 1728, his parents moved permanently to the ‘Wakes’ in Selborne. His father was John White a barrister and his mother was Anne Holt. Gilbert White was born in Selborne vicarage on July 18th 1720. The world famous naturalist the Reverend Gilbert White, Fellow of Oriel College Oxford, made Selborne his home and in doing so, made certain that this small village became a place of pilgrimage for natural history lovers all over the world. The man and the village work together harmoniously.