Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/53

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White
47
White

render it very serviceable; and it has since been reprinted or reissued several times (1879, 1882, 1890, &c.) But Jardine in 1851 brought out another edition containing notes by Edward Jesse [q. v.], who, in 1834, had printed in the second series of his 'Gleanings in Natural History' (pp. 144-210) a considerable number of hitherto unpublished extracts from White's 'Naturalist's Journal,' which for a time was in his possession, giving also a facsimile of one page of it, comprising the week 18-24 June [1775].

In 1833 also appeared an edition (in one volume octavo, but bearing no date) including the antiquities, 'with notes by several eminent naturalists,' who were William Herbert (afterwards dean of Manchester), Robert Sweet, and James Rennie. This is the best edition published up to that time, and is commonly known as Rennie's; but four years after (1837) there appeared one, based upon it, which is better still, and is known as Bennett's, since Edward Turner Bennett, though dying before it left the press, supervised it, adding notes of his own, and others by Bell, Daniell, Owen, and Yarrell, as well as a selection from those in Rennie's edition. This, with some fair woodcuts, remained for a long while the standard, but in time became out of date, whereupon in 1875 a revision of it (illustrated by a number of copies of Bewick's woodcuts of birds, and the facsimile from White's journal formerly given by Jesse) was brought out with fresh notes by Mr. Harting, and it has several times since been reissued, with the addition of White's letters to Marsham. It includes the antiquities, and takes a high rank among editions. In 1833 also Captain Thomas Brown brought out at Edinburgh, with notes of his own, a new edition of the natural history only, forming vol. i. of a series called 'The British Library,' and this, being stereotyped, has been over and over again reissued with a new title-page and a changed date. Furthermore, still in the same year (1833), there appeared an edition of the natural history, 'arranged for young persons,' which is now known to have been done by Georgiana, lady Dover [see Ellis, George James Welbore Agar-], and is dedicated to her son, H. A[gar]-E[llis] (afterwards Lord Clifden). It is the first 'bowdlerised' edition, chiefly remarkable for the omission of a few passages; but the intention was good, and the book has subsequently found its way into children's hands, it having been latterly adopted by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and many times reprinted, with new illustrations by Joseph Wolf [q. v.], and a few notes by Bell; while it is the foundation also of a large number of reprints in America, ranging from 1841 to the present time.

A handy edition, including the antiquities, with good notes by Blyth, but very poor woodcuts, which has since been reissued several times, was brought out in 1836; and in 1843, a very pretty one, with a few judicious notes by Leonard Jenyns. In 1854 there was started a series of editions of the natural history, published by Messrs. Routledge, of which the first contained notes by John George Wood [q. v.], of a kind very inferior to those by all the preceding editors, Brown excepted. Year after year this series has continued, the price of one of the issues being sixpence, and that further reduced, in 1875, to threepence for an issue of selections, with an introduction by Mr. Haweis.

In 1875 there appeared an edition, with numerous illustrations, by P. H. Delamotte, with unsatisfactory notes by Frank Buckland, and a chapter on the antiquities by Roundell Palmer, first lord Selborne [q. v.] The memoir is slight, and the five new letters are unimportant. This volume has had a large sale, and two cheaper issues since published are very popular, as well as one founded upon it, but printed in America in 1895 under the supervision of Mr. John Burroughs.

In 1876 the newly discovered and delightful correspondence between White and Marsham was first printed by the Norfolk and! Norwich Naturalists' Society, annotated by Mr. Southwell and others, and next year appeared in two volumes the classical edition of Thomas Bell (1792-1880) [q.v.], the possessor and occupant formerly for forty years of White's house at Selborne, an edition which, from the great amount of new information it gives, throws all others into the shade. To Bell's edition reference has been chiefly made throughout this article. Of two editions announced in 1899, one has a preface by Grant Allen, with illustrations by Mr. E. H. New and Coleridge's manuscript notes from the copy of Mark wick's edition in the British Museum; the other, edited by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe from the original manuscript, includes for the first time the whole of 'The Garden Kalendar' kept by White from 1751, which is edited by Dean Hole, and numerous illustrations by Mr. J. G. Keulemans, and others.

A German translation by F. A. A. Meyer was published at Berlin in 1792 (16mo) under the title of White's Beytrage zur Naturgeschichte von England.' It consists of extracts so put together as to lose their