Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/44

 is in the possession of his collateral descendant, Mr. Rashleigh Holt-White, the present head of the family. In the December following he was admitted a commoner of Oriel College, Oxford, though he did not enter into residence there until November 1740. In 1742 he passed three agreeable months with his uncle Isaac at Whitwell (, ii. 165), but it may be presumed that he lived with his father at Selborne during the greater part of the time when he was not in residence at Oxford. On 17 June 1743 he obtained his 'testamur,' and a few days after graduated B.A. Returning to Oxford, he attended Dr. Bradley 's mathematical lectures, and in the March following he was elected a fellow of his college, where he resided during the summer and early autumn. After a visit to Selborne he went back to Oxford, and again attended Bradley's lectures. In September and October of 1745 he was at Ringmer, the house of his uncle Snooke, whose wife, Gilbert's aunt, was owner of the tortoise, always associated with his name. Early in February 1745-6 his mother's relative, the second Thomas Holt before mentioned, died, leaving a considerable estate, subject to annuities, to Gilbert's next brother Thomas. Gilbert attended the sick-bed, and found himself executor and trustee of the property under the deceased's will. This led him to pass some months at Thorney in the Isle of Ely not his first visit to that part of the country, for he mentions having seen Burleigh before and to go into Essex, where Holt had property, of which Gilbert wrote an excellent and businesslike account to his father. The winding-up of the affairs of this estate took some time. In connection with it, he passed a week at Spalding in June 1746 (letter to Pennant, 28 Feb. 1767); but the next month he was staying with a college friend, Thomas Mander (elected fellow of Oriel at the following Easter), who seems to have been somewhat of a natural philosopher, at Toddenham in Gloucestershire, returning to Oxford in October to take his M.A. degree. In the following April (1747) he received deacon's orders from [q. v.] bishop of Oxford, let his rooms at Oriel, and returned to Selborne, becoming, though unlicensed, curate at Swarraton for his uncle Charles White. Later in the year he was again with his friend Mander in Gloucestershire, and shortly after he had a severe attack of small-pox at Oxford. In due time he was ordained priest by the bishop of Hereford, on letters dimissory from Bishop Hoadly; and continued to make Selborne his home while doing duty at Swarraton. In the summer of 1750 he went into Devonshire on a visit to his college friend and contemporary Nathaniel Wells, rector of East Allington, near Totnes, staying there at least as late as the middle of September (Garden Kalendar, 21 July 1765), and becoming well acquainted with the district known as the South Hams (letter to Pennant, 2 Jan. 1769).

In the following year (1751) White sent the verses, originally written 'out of the fens of Cambridgeshire' (Mulso, in lift. 12 Sept. 1758), entitled 'Invitation to Selborne,' to Miss Hetty (or Hecky as she was called in her family) Mulso. They were forwarded through the lady's brother John, who had been White's contemporary at Oriel. Mulso, in acknowledging their receipt, somewhat severely criticised them. This version differed considerably from that which was long after published, and it is to be remarked that all the phrases objected to by Mulso and his sister in the early copy disappeared from the later version. The long and interesting series of unpublished letters written by John Mulso to Gilbert White (extending from 1744 to 1790), and now in the possession of the Earl of Stamford, a great-grandson of Henry White (who has kindly allowed the present writer access to them), give no encouragement to the notion announced originally by Jesse in his edition of the 'Natural History of Selborne,' and adopted by Bell and others, that there was ever any very particular attachment, much less an engagement to marry, between Hester Mulso, who subsequently became [q. v.], and Gilbert White. He was on the most friendly terms with the whole of the Mulso family, and these letters of Mulso, all of which seem to have been most carefully preserved, throw much light on the earlier portion of White's career, hitherto little known. White's letters to Mulso were destroyed many years ago.

In July 1751 White visited his sister, lately married to Barker, at Lyndon, and was afterwards at Stamford. Mulso at this time writes of his having a pretty collection of Gilbert's travels, which indeed must have covered the greater part of the south of England and a good deal of the midlands. We know that he had been in Essex, and he must at some time have visited Norfolk, since he mentioned to Pennant (2 Jan. 1769) the mean appearance of its churches. The most northern limit of his journeys that can be traced is the Peak of Derbyshire (letter to Churton, 25 Oct. 1789). Towards the end of 1751 he became curate to Dr. Bristow, who had succeeded as vicar of Selborne, and was for a time non-resident, since White lived