The Natural History of Selborne

by Gilbert White

Year
1789
Field
Biology
Licence
Public domain (Project Gutenberg, US)
Source
gutenberg
Length
about 85,236 words in 123 sections

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Opening preview

The first paragraphs of "INVITATION TO SELBORNE.". Read the full section

See, Selborne spreads her boldest beauties round The varied valley, and the mountain ground, Wildly majestic ! What is all the pride, Of flats, with loads of ornaments supplied ?— Unpleasing, tasteless, impotent expense, Compared with Nature’s rude magnificenee.

Arise, my stranger, to these wild scenes haste; The unfinish’d farm awaits your forming taste: Plan the pavilion, airy, light, and true; Through the high arch call in the length’ning view; Expand the forest sloping up the hill; Swell to a lake the scant, penurious rill; Extend the vista; raise the castle mound In antique taste, with turrets ivy-crown’d: O’er the gay lawn the flow’ry shrub dispread, Or with the blending garden mix the mead; Bid China’s pale, fantastic fence delight; Or with the mimic statue trap the sight.

Oft on some evening, sunny, soft, and still, The Muse shall lead thee to the beech-grown hill, To spend in tea the cool, refreshing hour, Where nods in air the pensile, nest-like bower; Or where the hermit hangs the straw-clad cell, Emerging gently from the leafy dell, By fancy plann’d; as once th’ inventive maid Met the hoar sage amid the secret shade: Romantic spot ! from whence in prospect lies Whate’er of landscape charms our feasting eyes’— The pointed spire, the hall, the pasture plain, The russet fallow, or the golden grain, The breezy lake that sheds a gleaming light, Till all the fading picture fail the sight.

Contents

  1. Part 1 · 8 words
  2. INVITATION TO SELBORNE. · 616 words
  3. SELBORNE HANGER. · 309 words
  4. ON THE RAINBOW. · 171 words
  5. A HARVEST SCENE. · 152 words
  6. ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY, WARM WEATHER. · OCCASIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS. · 281 words
  7. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE · 15 words
  8. ADVERTISEMENT · 451 words
  9. GIL. WHITE. · 4 words
  10. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE · 5 words
  11. Letter I · 970 words
  12. Letter II · 665 words
  13. Letter III · 467 words
  14. Letter IV · 721 words
  15. Letter V · 1,393 words
  16. Letter VI · 1,216 words
  17. Letter VII · 929 words
  18. Letter VIII · 860 words
  19. Letter IX · 687 words
  20. Letter X · 1,000 words
  21. Letter XI · 769 words
  22. Letter XII · 1,049 words
  23. Letter XIII · 1,057 words
  24. Letter XIV · 418 words
  25. Letter XV · 570 words
  26. Letter XVI · 914 words
  27. Letter XVII · 1,271 words
  28. Letter XVIII · 777 words
  29. Letter XIX · 247 words
  30. Letter XX · 767 words
  31. Letter XXI · 662 words
  32. Letter XXII · 972 words
  33. Letter XXIII · 674 words
  34. Letter XXIV · 623 words
  35. VIRG. GEORG. · 498 words
  36. Letter XXV · 672 words
  37. Letter XXVI · 1,098 words
  38. Letter XXVII · 536 words
  39. Letter XXVIII · 642 words
  40. Letter XXIX · 561 words
  41. Letter XXX · 355 words
  42. Letter XXXI · 425 words
  43. Letter XXXII · 318 words
  44. Letter XXXIII · 616 words
  45. Letter XXXIV · 600 words
  46. Letter XXXV · 207 words
  47. Letter XXXVI · 332 words
  48. Letter XXXVII · 287 words
  49. Letter XXXVIII · 452 words
  50. Letter XXXIX · 799 words
  51. Letter XL · 1,289 words
  52. Letter XLI · 671 words
  53. Letter XLII · 436 words
  54. Letter XLIII · 372 words
  55. Letter XLIV · 1,106 words
  56. Letter I · 847 words
  57. Letter II · 917 words
  58. Letter III · 596 words
  59. Letter IV · 483 words
  60. Letter V · 777 words
  61. Letter VI · 612 words
  62. Letter VII · 1,037 words
  63. Letter VIII · 905 words
  64. Letter IX · 481 words
  65. MILTON. · 769 words
  66. Letter X · 711 words
  67. Letter XI · 492 words
  68. Letter XII · 252 words
  69. Letter XIII · 496 words
  70. Letter XIV · 858 words
  71. Letter XV · 1,123 words
  72. Letter XVI · 1,693 words
  73. Letter XVII · 1,446 words
  74. Letter XVIII · 1,623 words
  75. Letter XIX · 579 words
  76. Letter XX · 1,333 words
  77. Letter XXI · 2,490 words
  78. Letter XXII · 620 words
  79. Letter XXIII · 818 words
  80. Letter XXIV · 450 words
  81. Letter XXV · 429 words
  82. Letter XXVI · 952 words
  83. Letter XXVII · 393 words
  84. Letter XXVIII · 679 words
  85. Letter XXIX · 911 words
  86. Letter XXX · 561 words
  87. Letter XXXI · 318 words
  88. Letter XXXII · 250 words
  89. Letter XXXIII · 283 words
  90. Letter XXXIV · 415 words
  91. Letter XXXV · 473 words
  92. Letter XXXVI · 537 words
  93. Letter XXXVII · 1,300 words
  94. Letter XXXVIII · 1,380 words
  95. Letter XXXIX · 324 words
  96. Letter XL · 576 words
  97. Letter XLI · 919 words
  98. Letter XLII · 805 words
  99. Letter XLIII · 1,186 words
  100. Letter XLIV · 470 words
  101. Letter XLV · 1,086 words
  102. Letter XLVI · 1,081 words
  103. Letter XLVII · 612 words
  104. Letter XLVIII · 515 words
  105. Letter XLIX · 707 words
  106. Letter L · 426 words
  107. Letter LI · 231 words
  108. Letter LII · 331 words
  109. Letter LIII · 989 words
  110. Letter LIV · 708 words
  111. Letter LV · 583 words
  112. Letter LVI · 690 words
  113. Letter LVII · 639 words
  114. Letter LVIII · 743 words
  115. Letter LIX · 479 words
  116. Letter LX · 716 words
  117. Letter LXI · 1,183 words
  118. Letter LXII · 1,310 words
  119. Letter LXIII · 898 words
  120. Letter LXIV · 642 words
  121. Letter LXV · 347 words
  122. Letter LXVI · 785 words
  123. GIL. WHITE. · 4 words
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