A Classical. Naturalist The classical comparison is very interesting. Warde
Fowler reversed the role of Gilbert. White. He was a classical scholar first and a lover of birds second ; but it was perhaps his love of birds and natural history in general that made him above all else a Vergilian. Vergil was thinking of his own preferences when he wrote :
" Fortunatue et ille deos qui novit agrestes."
Even his famous pentameters beginning sic vos non vobis consist of truly rural similes. He loved the country—not as Horace loved it, as a place to drink wine in or as a literary arcadia—but for its very self ; and the hinterland, even of his great patriotic epic was the Italian farm ; and he could copy Greek pastorals with success because he copied from the heart. He really envied the farmer, as few of us can.
"O fortunatos nimium, sun ei bona norint,
Agricolas."
That sigh was felt as well as expressed ; and in a less degree Warde Fowler loved the Parks and Kingham better than The High.
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