Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/191

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12 S. X. FEB. 25, 1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 153

whom I am the present head, that the naturalist never sat for his picture to a portrait artist. Rashleigh Holt-White.

In answer to Mr. Courthope Forman's inquiry with regard to a portrait of Gilbert White, I may say that his family has always been of opinion that no picture of him was ever painted. The figure in the frontispiece to the first edition of 'The Natural History of Selborne,' at one time supposed to represent its author, has been shown to be someone else.

A picture labelled 'The Rev. Gilbert White,' picked up for a few shillings in the Caledonian Market and stated to show every sign of having been painted in Gilbert White's time, was engraved by Mr. John Glen, of 3, Bennett Street, S.W.I. A reproduction of this portrait appeared in The Selborne Magazine for 1913, on p. 64.

Another painting of a much younger man, also labelled 'Gilbert White,' at Knebworth, is in the collection of the Earl of Lytton, by whose courtesy it was reproduced in The Selborne Magazine for 1913, on p. 143.

A few years ago a copy of Homer's Iliad, by Pope, and presented by him to Gilbert White, when the latter took his degree, was discovered in Hampshire, and in it is a sketch labelled "'G. W.' penned by 'F. C.,'" together with a chess-score, in which the names of Gilbert White and F. Chapman occur. This and another sketch with no title were reproduced in The Setborne Magazine for 1914, on p. 128.

This last portrait is crude, but one cannot help being struck by the resemblance between it and the painting in the possession of Lord Lytton. Wilfred Mark Webb.

In reply to the inquiry of Mr. Courthope Forman, I beg to say that I possess the only known portrait of Gilbert White, which I shall be pleased to show him if he will call on me.

I have had the picture engraved. John Glen.

3, Bennett Street, St. James's, S.W.I.

In reply to MB. W. COUBTHOPE FOBMAN'S query, there is a portrait of Gilbert White of Selborne (1720-1793), naturalist, in The Bookbuyer (1901), xxii. 476. There is also a portrait of Gilbert White of Selborne, vicar, grandfather of the above, in ' The Life and Letters of Gilbert White of Selborne,' written and edited by his great-grandnephew, Rashleigh Holt- White, with pedigree, portraits and illus- trations. (In two volumes. London, John Murray, 1901. 8vo.) ALFBED SYDNEY LEWIS. Library, Constitutional Club, W.C. COLONEL CHABLES WHITEFOOBD (12 S. x.. 108). If this query could be answered hx the form in which it is put, the baronetcy of Whitefoord of Blaquhan would not be extinct. But your correspondent should, consult a note by S. S. (Mr. Shaw Stewart) in The Genealogist of July, 1880, in which, the writer takes a very broad view of Scottish marriages. Of the celebrated Caleb Whitefoord (1734- 1810), there are several memoirs accessible and portraits, one by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of which the engravings are scarce. He did not marry until very late in life. His son, the late Rev. Caleb Whitefoord, rector of Burford, was born in 1806. In 1887, more than 150 years after the birth of his father, he was kind enough to allow me to peruse his collection of family papers, including a letter from Sir Walter Scott, which is worth quoting. When the 1829 edition of ' Waverley ' was published, the origin of the story of the mutual good offices of Col. Talbot, Waverley, and Bradwardine was told in the Introduction, but with some slight inaccuracies, such as Allan for Charles and one " o " in Whitefoord. . Young Caleb, then at Queen's College, Oxford, had the temerity, as he expressed it, to write to the author, pointing this out, and pleading the love of his family for the old name. Sir Walter replied : " Dear Sir, Dearly as I am myself particular in the spelling of my name to a ' t ' I had no right to treat your ' o ' as a cypher," and promising that in the next edition the emendation should be made. This was done, as will be seen in the paragraph now printed in the Appendix. The Rev. Charles Blaquhan Whitefoord, R.C. Chaplain to the Forces, grandson of the rector of Burford, died of wounds in France, May 29, 1918. Of this gallant descendant and namesake of the Waverley- colonel an officer wrote : One incident will show the spirit in which he worked among us. He was in a ruined village about a thousand yards from the fighting. Shells were falling, glass and bricks were flying about. Father Whitefoord found a man who had lost his steel helmet. In an instant he handed his own to- the soldier, and then carried on excellent work in. succouring the wounded. A. T. M.