GILBERT WHITE'S HOUSE AT SELBORNE.
[To TUN EDITOR OP THE " SPECTLTOILI SIR,—The reception which has been accorded the proposal to purchase the house at Selborne in which Gilbert White, the naturalist, lived during the eighteenth century has been most gratifying, and the notice which has been taken of the matter throughout the country serves to show the esteem in which old Gilbert's work is still held by present-day naturalists and literary folk alike. The sum required is rather a large one, and in order to bring the matter to a successful issue no doubt a large number of individual sub- scriptions will be required. The price is £8,200, but this includes other property besides the actual house. The Selborne Society has, of course, no available funds for the purpose, and probably the funds will have to be raised by Pint action on the part of the Selborne Society and the National Trust, the latter body being properly constituted for the holding of such a property in trust. It has been suggested that the place should be used as a museum, a laboratory, a home for decayed naturalists, and other purposes. Whatever decision may be finally come to, the place must, in my opinion, be made to a certain extent remunerative, and this end might Perhaps be accomplished by conducting it on the boarding- house principle, and the placing of a careful manager in charge of it. A museum could not be made a paying concern, and for laboratory purposes it would be needlessly far afield. However, our immediate task is to acquire the house, and to
this end I hope an early appeal will be issued to the English- speaking public.—I am, Sir, 8:c.,
EDWARD A. MARTIN (P.G.S.),
Author of "A Bibliography of Gilbert White." Myrtle Cottage, Selborne.
[The plan of turning the house into a kind of hostel for naturalists and lovers of White's book is an excellent one We greatly hope the plan may succeed.—En. Spectator.]
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