Making England
Drawn to Nature: Gilbert White and the Artists
Simon Martin (Yale University Press £25)
LIKE the Bible, the Revd Gilbert White’s The Natural History and Antiquities is never out of print. The comparison is neither invidious, nor sacrilegious. White’s account of the birds and bees of his Hampshire parish, first published in 1789, is a foundation text, a creation story. His way of ‘watching narrowly’, precision-eyed observation of the humblest Nature, inspired Darwin. White is widely acknowledged, too, as the godfather of Nature writing, for if he viewed the earthworm and the swift accurately, he did so with a most human appreciation.
