The Natural History of Selborne (1789)

I love this book and White's house in Selborne. This volume only cost threepence.

Natural History starts here.

One of the earliest nature books by a village priest in England who was an amateur naturalist. It seems that in those days a lot of such work was done by amateur gentlemen, and I believe they laid the foundations for more professional scientific studies later on. However their view of conservation was slightly different to ours. Whenever a farmer would bring news of some new and rare species that he had seen, the holy and learned vicar's usual response seemed to be, "Go and shoot a couple for me so I can study them"! But I suppose that's how we now find ourselves with natural history museums full of stuffed specimens of rare and often extinct species which the present generation would otherwise not be able to see. ( )