White of Selborne
If it were not for the National Trust many of the old buildings which we now value either for their architecture or for their associations, or for both, would long since have disappeared. If there were no National Trust what would the chances be at this moment, for example, of preserving Gilbert White's house at Selborne, the Wakes ? • This has now come into the market and an appeal has been put out on behalf of the Gilbert White Memorial Fund by Sir Harry Brittain, Lord Selborne, the Duke of Wellington, Dr. W. S. Scott, and others. The stun of £12,000 is needed to purchase the Wakes and the property that goes with it, and £12,500 is also required to enable the National Trust to restore it to its original condition and to keep it in good repair. Thus the memory of the " father " of English natural history may fittingly be honoured. The National Trust already owns some 240 acres of land adjoining, a stretch of countryside much mentioned in the " Natural History." Tho Wakes itself, is, in nucleus, a modest early eighteenth century dwelling of stone with brick dressing. White's grandmother and later White himself made some enlargements. These are seemly enough, but the red brick additions made in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are not. If the necessary money is found the National Trust will demolish these accre- tions and so leave the house much as it was when White lived in it. A Gilbert White museum will then be formed around Dr. W. S. Scott's collection of letters and books and the " antiquities of Selborne." Even in these days of increasing specialisation " naturalists " have by no means died out. To them, and to the numerous lovers of Gilbert. White's writings, the project must be an attractive one. The appeal deserves to be successful.
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