Gilbert White
July 18th, 1720
There’s a musical phrase in Western culture known as the Oriental Riff, or sometimes as the Chinaman Lick. It’s a trope designed to represent the idea of Southeastern Asia in music and you’ve almost certainly heard of it. It appears in Tom and Jerry cartoons to signal the arrival of an Asian character. It’s found in Carl Douglas’ Kung Fu Fighting and also in 1980’s seminal post-punk culturally sensitive megahit Turning Japanese by The Vapors.
The guitarist of The Vapors was Ed Bazalgette, whose post-punk culturally sensitive career went on to be as a director of such TV shows as Doctor Who, The Witcher and The Last Kingdom. Ed’s third cousin, Sir Peter Bazalgette, is also in television as an executive and producer who, as the steerer-in-chief of Bazalgette TV, pumped all kinds of shit in the homes of the somnolent British public for years. It was Sir Peter who brought the nation such TV classics as Big Brother in which people are mentally abused for public entertainment, safe in the knowledge that it was perfectly fine to watch them have mental health episodes because they ‘had asked for it’.
Ed and Sir Peter’s great-great grandfather was Sir Joseph Bazalgette who was largely responsible for the ability of most Londoners to pump shit out of their own homes and into the River Thames instead. In the steaming, literally it turns out, Summer of 1858, the Great Stink fell about London with a vengeance and once the malodorous fugue of human stench had permeated the Houses of Parliament, it was thought that perhaps something should be done about it.
Untreated sewage had, for centuries, been pumped straight into the gaping maw of the Thames with disastrous consequences of the human population around it and, of course, on the wildlife it supported. From Roman times to the later part of the 20th Century, the Thames was a filthy mire not fit for wildlife.
Sir Joseph engineered a vast underground network of sewers built around the many streams and tributaries that snaked across Victorian London and now only exist far underground as ghost rivers, reflected in the street names above them. By paving over the natural environment of London, Sir Joseph hoped to save it. Using these ancient waterways as his new sewer system, Sir Joseph solved the problem of London’s stench by simply pumping it ten miles downstream instead, where it could wipe out all the wildlife safe from the sensitive noses of Westminster’s pampered elite.
It’s a great embarrassment and scandal to Britain that even in the 21st Century, capitalist venality has made a mockery of the private ownership of the companies that manage our waterways. British rivers and beaches, particularly in England, are full of shit. The last government, desperate to hang on to the swivel-eyed right-wing vote, abandoned the last vestiges of common sense and went full on climate change denial. As a result, Britain’s once kingfisher-dotted water meadows are now choked with human excrement, old Ford Cortinas and dead badgers.
And odd end then to the natural environment of a country that invented looking at the natural world. Alongside falling, trains, time and rocks, Britain invented natural history. Most famously, of course, in the guise of Charles Darwin who lowered the cachet of being a chimpanzee by discovering that they were unfortunately related to humans.
Darwin himself owed much to those who came before him, particularly Gilbert White who, it might be considered, was the modern world’s first ecologist.
Gilbert White was born on July 18, 1720, in his grandfather’s vicarage at Selborne, Hampshire. His grandfather, also named Gilbert White, was the vicar of Selborne at the time. Gilbert’s parents were John, a trained barrister, and Anne Holt. He was the eldest of eight surviving siblings. The family briefly lived in Compton, Surrey, before moving to ‘The Wakes’ in 1728, which would be Gilbert’s home for the rest of his life.
Gilbert White received his education at Oriel College, Oxford, in December 1739. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1743 and was elected a fellow of the college in March 1744. By October 1746, he had achieved his Master of Arts degree. In those days one could obtain a degree in a generalized education, meaning that White studied the classics, languages, the arts and theology.
In 1746, White received his deacon’s orders and was fully ordained by 1749. He served in various curacies throughout Hampshire and Wiltshire, including the nearby parishes of Newton Valence and Farringdon, and Selborne itself on four different occasions. During 1752/53, he was appointed Junior Proctor at Oxford and also served as Dean of Oriel. By 1757, he had taken on the role of non-resident perpetual curate at Moreton Pinkney in Northamptonshire. After his father’s passing in 1758, White returned to the family home, The Wakes, in Selborne, which he inherited in 1763. In 1784, he once again became the curate of Selborne, a position he held until his death.
But it was his work as a naturalist and ecologist for which he became more famous.
In 1789, his brother published a collection of White’s works under the title of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. The book is a compilation of White’s detailed observations and letters, primarily addressed to fellow naturalists Thomas Pennant and Daines Barrington. It is divided into two main sections: natural history and antiquities
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The natural history section consists of 110 letters that meticulously document the flora, fauna, and seasonal changes in and around Selborne, Hampshire. White’s keen observations and descriptive writing provide insights into the behavior and habitats of various species, making it an early contribution to the field of ecology and phenology.
The antiquities section explores the historical and archaeological aspects of Selborne, offering a glimpse into the village’s past. White’s work is notable for its charming and accessible style, which has captivated readers for centuries. The book has been continuously in print since its publication and is celebrated for its portrayal of pre-industrial England and its pioneering approach to studying nature.
White’s meticulous observations and engaging writing style set a new standard for the study of nature. His work emphasized the importance of observing animals in their natural habitats and documenting their behaviors, which was a departure from the more common practice of focusing solely on the physical characteristics of dead specimens.
One of the most notable figures influenced by White was Charles Darwin, who admired White’s detailed observations and approach to studying nature. Darwin’s own work on evolution and natural selection was informed by the kind of careful, long-term observation that White championed. Additionally, White’s influence extended to other prominent naturalists, such as David Attenborough, who has cited White as an inspiration for his own work in natural history.
White’s book also contributed to the development of ecology and phenology, the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena. His detailed records of plant and animal life cycles provided valuable data that has been used by scientists for centuries.
It’s long been held, probably with no particular accuracy, that The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne is the English language’s fourth most published book behind the Bible, the works of Shakespeare and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
What was notable about White’s works, alongside his value as an observer of nature, was his wonderfully evocative writing style. His education in poetry was clearly reflected in the expressive way in which he described animal behavior.
The white-throat uses odd jerks and gesticulations over the tops of hedges and bushes…
or:
Woodpeckers fly volatu undosu [in an undulating manner], opening and closing their wings at every stroke, and so are always rising and falling in curves..
It’s a writing style that Dylan Thomas would recognize.
His legacy is as much to the English language as it is to natural history. The first use of the exclamation ‘golly!’ comes from a journal entry of 1775. Gilbert White was the first person to use the letter ‘x’ to represent a kiss on a letter of 1763.
Gilbert White died in 1793 and is buried in the churchyard of St. Mary’s in Selborne, where a stained-glass window depicting St Francis of Assisi, associated with patronage of animals and the environment, is dedicated to him.
The Wakes is now home to the Gilbert White Museum and The Selborne Society was founded in 1895 in his memory. It purchased land at Perivale in West London to create the first bird sanctuary in Britain, known as Perivale Wood.
White's thrush (Zoothera aurea) is named after him.
Flora Thompson, the novelist who wrote Lark Rise to Candleford, said of White:
It is easy to imagine him, this very first of English nature writers, the most sober and modest, yet happiest of men.