Add MS 35138

THIRTY LETTERS of the Rev. Gilbert White to Thomas Pennant, containing the original form of most of the first part of the Natural History of Selborne (which comprises 44 letters to Pennant and 65 to Daines Barrington, cf. Add. MS. 31,852); 10 Aug. 1767-8 July, 1773. The majority of the letters are originals with Pennant's endorsements, but some appear to be autograph drafts or copies with preliminary corrections by the author for the edition and also suggestions, in pencil, by another hand, which were mostly not adopted. The order of the topics and in some cases the date of the letters are altered in the book, and among the omissions are four whole letters (ff. 37, 44, 51, 52) and a large part of a fifth (f. 56), the reason being either that the subject is the Zoology of Gibraltar or that it is repeated in the letters to Barrington. At f. 54 is a letter to Pennant from Rev. John White, Gilbert's brother, who lived at Gibraltar, dated Selborne, 16 Mar. 1773. Paper; ff. 57. Folio.