GILBERT, one of the most pleasing and popular writers on natural history, was born in 1720, in the little village of Selborne, in Hampshire, which his writings have rendered familiar to all lovers of nature. He was the eldest son of John White, Esq., and his ancestors had been long connected with Selborne. He was educated at Basingstoke, under the elder Warton, father of the historian of English poetry. In 1739 he entered Oriel College, Oxford, where he graduated at the usual time, and became a fellow; and his estimation at the university is attested by his election in 1752, to be one of the senior proctors. He possessed considerable acquirements, and might easily have obtained a college living; but he seemed insensible to the longings of ambition, and retired to his native village, where he devoted his life to the study of natural history from the best of all sources, the observation of nature. The principal results of his observations are contained in two series of letters to Mr Pennant and Daines Barrington, which have been repeatedly printed, and under the name of the Natural History of Selborne, have acquired a permanent place in English literature. Probably no work on natural history has found more admirers than this unpretending little treatise. It operates upon the reader with somewhat of the charm that characterizes Walton's Angler; and if many of the disciples of the "gentle craft," owe their first love of its mysteries to the genial inspiration of "honest" Izaak, many of the students of natural history received their first impulse from the pleasant pages of Gilbert White. The style of his work is simple and graceful, possessing all the elegance of a highly cultivated mind and a refined taste, and free from the pedantry of the scholar. His observations of nature are distinguished for their minuteness and accuracy; and with little parade, formed the most important contribution of his time to the science which he so assiduously cultivated. Besides his *Natural History*, White wrote some letters on the antiquities of Selborne, and a few poetical pieces of some merit. He died in 1793.

**White, Henry Kirke**, an amiable young poet, was the son of a butcher in Nottingham, where he was born on the 21st of March 1785. He began to indite poems at the age of thirteen, and he showed a passion for books from his earliest years. His father was compelled to employ him as message boy on all available occasions; and he might be seen frequently poring over a volume as he bore along the butcher's basket. The lad's mother, who, both by ability and by education, was considerably above her class, got the father to change his intention of bringing up the youth to his own trade. Accordingly, at the age of fourteen, Kirke White was placed at a stocking-loom to learn the trade of a hosier. He remained at this business only a year, when he was placed in an attorney's office in his native town. During his leisure hours he acquired a fair knowledge of Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, chemistry, astronomy, electricity, drawing, and music. He, besides, practised as a speaker in a literary society in Nottingham, and exercised his pen on prose and poetry for various periodicals. White became much impressed about this time with serious views of religion, which accordingly tingles all his future writings. In 1804 he was induced by the proprietor of the *Monthly Mirror*, to publish a volume of poems, which was crushed by the critics before it had well seen the light. The little book was fortunate enough to gain him the friendship of Southey, to whose generous care the memory of the youthful poet is now largely indebted for its fame. White had cherished for some time the apparently impossible idea of ultimately gaining a university education, and of becoming a clergyman. This prospect he was enabled to carry out in 1804, by the liberality of the Rev. Mr Simcon who procured for him a sizarship in St John's College, Cambridge. White studied night and day for two years at the university, and was rewarded by seeing his name placed first in the list of the general college examinations of each year. But while the poor youth was gaining college laurels, he was burning out the feeble lamp of his own life. He died of consumption on the 19th of October 1806, in his twenty-second year.

The touching circumstances of Kirke White's death, more than any inherent excellence in his verse, have made his name be remembered, and his poems be quoted much longer than is ordinarily allotted to the author of mediocre numbers. His poetry, while always pervaded by Christian feeling, and generally by rhythmical melody, is nevertheless flat in tone, and but feeble or imitative in manner. The *Remains of Henry Kirke White*, which have often been published, were committed to the care of his friend Southey, who, in 1807, performed the part not only of a literary executor, but of an enthusiastic eulogist.

**White, Joseph Blanco**, was born at Seville in 1775. His grandfather, William White, was an Irishman, who settled at Seville, engaged in business, became a large exporting merchant, and was ultimately raised to the ranks of the nobility. Under his son, the house failed; but, after a temporary suspension, business was again resumed. The son married a lady of rank, descended from an old Andalusian family, and Blanco White was the issue of this marriage.

The youth, as soon as he was able to render any service, was taken into the counting-house; but he showed a strong disinclination to mercantile pursuits, and, at his own earnest request, he was sent to college and educated for the priesthood, to which he was regularly ordained in 1799. His new profession suited him no better than the mercantile life from which he had escaped; he disliked his clerical duties, and doubted the truth of the doctrines which he was required to teach. In 1814, he left his native country and repaired to London, where, shortly after his arrival, he established a monthly Spanish paper, which he conducted with much ability till the events of 1814 rendered it no longer necessary to continue it, when he received from the English government a pension of L250 per annum for life. About the same time, he renounced the Romish Church and joined the Church of England; but he never inquired long or deeply into any form of religious faith: his creed varied from year to year, and at last settled in something very like scepticism. He resided chiefly in London, but the last few years of his life were spent in Liverpool. He occupied himself mainly in literary pursuits, and was the author of several works, none of which have retained any permanent place in our literature. Among these may be mentioned:—*Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism*, 1825; *Poor Man's Preservative against Popery*, 1825; *Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion*, 2 vols., 1833. He also contributed to the *Quarterly* and *Westminster Review*, and wrote a series of "Letters from Spain," in the *New Monthly Magazine*, which were subsequently issued separately in 1822. His most interesting work, however, was an autobiography, which was published posthumously in 1845, in 3 vols. He died at Liverpool in 1841.