Chloé Valerie Harmsworth celebrates the 300th birthday of Gilbert White, the pioneering 18th-century parson-naturalist, who made the study of wildlife what it is today.

In July I went on a socially-distanced walk with my keen birding friend on the outskirts of Redbourn, Hertfordshire. After ambling by the river Ver, where he named the various hidden warblers he could hear calling from the reeds, we reached a small community of old-fashioned houses. Shrieking above us were gangs of swifts, and house martins (with their white rumps) swooped into their nests under the houses’ eaves. It was an idyllic back-in-time moment, leading us to discuss how to affix swift boxes onto our own homes. But it also brought something else to my mind. Although I had long admired the graceful and athletic hirundines, there is a particular man who has given me an even deeper appreciation of their mysterious and magical ways. His name is Gilbert White, a curate from the 18th century whose book, The Natural History of Selborne (mentioned in many nature writers’ books) I had finally read a few months earlier. I asked my knowledgeable friend whether he had ever read White’s writings, and he admitted that he hadn’t even heard of him. That should have surprised me, yet I already knew that my friend wouldn’t be the only one. Following this conversation, my desire to write about the great Gilbert White – so that more people could learn about him – became more insistent. And then I realised that July 2020 marked the 300th anniversary of his birth, and so this was the ideal time.

On the 18th July 1720, Gilbert White was born in Hampshire. His magnus opus, The Natural History of Selborne, was published in 1789, and was a ground-breaking work. Consisting of letters to fellow nature enthusiasts Thomas Pennant and Dean Barrington, he described his observations and theories about the wildlife in his parish of Selborne, over the course of 40 years. At this point in history, most people would develop their theories and analyse animals using dead specimens; White, however, was pioneering in looking and detailing the habits of the living creatures in their natural habitats. It seems obvious now, but this data was much more useful in building up an informative picture of an ecosystem, and through it he showed a connection between all living things; and by studying over 400 species of animals and plants, he developed the idea of the food chain and laid the groundwork for the modern study of ecology. Hence he is often referred to as the father of ecology.

The Natural History of Selborne has never been out of print, has been reprinted over 300 times, and is the 4th most published book in the English language. So it’s surprising that Gilbert White isn’t better known today, especially considering how important and influential his work was in laying the groundwork for both modern naturalists and scientists, who often unknowingly follow his methods.

As well as being informative, his work is engaging for the everyday reader. It has also given inspiration to naturalists such as Charles Darwin and David Attenborough. Darwin described White’s writings as having made a deep impression on him in his youth, and stated that in his own work he ‘stood on the shoulders of White’. He even made a pilgrimage to Selborne before setting off on his famous Beagle voyage in 1831. There are many that would argue that, without White’s pioneering fieldwork establishing the importance of close observation, Darwin would not have been able to come up with his famous theories.

For example, White was the first to realise the importance of earthworms. At the time, they were considered pests and were routinely killed – but his observations of them caused a huge change in both gardening and agriculture: ‘if lost, would make a lamentable chasm, birds and quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be great promoters of vegetation.’ He realised how important they were in creating our topsoil – which Darwin later studied (without giving as much credit to White as he should have). He was also the first to describe the harvest mouse and the noctule bat. But if White showed any favouritism in his studies, it was undoubtedly towards birds. As well as listing the summer and winter birds of passage in his area and when they sang, it was White who discerned that what was then called the ‘willow wren’ actually consisted of three separate species – what we now call the willow warbler, the wood warbler and the chiffchaff. Much of what he recorded provided the foundation of today’s ornithological knowledge. And in terms of the hirundines, he was the first to study them in detail – including their behaviour, their nesting habits, their arrival and departure dates – and thus greatly added to the scientific knowledge regarding these more elusive birds.

White also changed the way in which people viewed the natural world. As nature writer Richard Mabey suggests, White’s message that ‘humans are part of the natural scheme of things’, is perhaps his greatest legacy. White was, as Attenborough puts it, ‘A man in total harmony with his world’. As Simon Barnes explains, White ‘was able to take a small localised matter and see its eternal significance’.

White’s original manuscript, on display at his house in Selborne, Hampshire

While I’ve regularly recorded the flora and fauna of my nearby green space in Hertfordshire for the past couple of years, I’ve sometimes wondered whether there is anyone who would have any interest in reading my nature journal, with its accompanying illustrations. I’m a nobody, really, writing about a place that probably wouldn’t be considered special, so who cares? But reading The Natural History of Selborne gave me fresh hope, as wasn’t I incredibly fascinated by this man’s writings of a place I didn’t know, hundreds of years later? And, as White said, those that ‘undertake only one district are much more likely to advance natural knowledge than those that grasp at more than they can possibly be acquainted with: every Kingdom, every province, should have its own monographer’.

So maybe one day my nature journal will fascinate others, bring them joy or teach them something new; and maybe it will be useful as a snapshot of a certain place at a certain time, to compare against the landscape and its flora and fauna in the future. Even right now, my data could potentially help scientists and conservationists to track the changes due to climate change in this part of the world. I have therefore vowed to myself that I shall continue and I’ll also aim to start sending my sightings to the relevant places, such as Butterfly Conservation.

We should all follow White’s example of observing the little things that build up to the bigger picture, as this plays an important part in judging the state of our environment and its flora and fauna, and therefore the fate of our planet. On a lighter note, the pleasure of knowing a place and its inhabitants really well, by regarding its wonders and inner workings, is life-enhancing and life-altering. By developing this intimate relationship and understanding, we not only care for ourselves both physically and mentally, but we will commit ourselves to look after our wildlife too. So go on, explore your local patch, make notes for your nature journal, and submit data to the various citizen science projects that are out there, to play your part in helping to conserve our native species.

‘He raises he eyes to the horizon and looks and listens.’ – Virginia Woolf on White.

So when I hear swifts screaming as they swoop in circles across the sky, I smile and think of the excellent Gilbert White.

White’s modest gravestone, in St Mary’s churchyard, Selborne

Visit Gilbert White’s house in Selborne, Hampshire: https://www.gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk/

Read more of Chloé Valerie’s writings on her website and visit her Instagram account here.

Gilbert White: the father of ecology

Chloé Valerie Harmsworth celebrates the 300th birthday of Gilbert White, the pioneering 18th-century parson-naturalist, who made the study of wildlife what it is today.