Gilbert White – Ecology and literary tourism

Literary tourists are attracted to properties where writers lived and to the landscapes which provided the settings (Busby & Klug, 2001). Such tourism is about author-centred or text-centred activity and is not a new phenomenon (Busby, 2022). The name of Gilbert White is known to many for one publication – The Natural History of Selborne, first published in 1789. A German edition appeared in 1792, and from the 1830s it became fashionable, in fact, an established classic, with “new editions coming out virtually every year” (Mabey, 2006, p. 217). The work is epistolary, taking the form of letters to Thomas Pennant and Daines Barrington. As an example, from 30 March 1771, White describes a particular insect in detail, “it being very minute, scarce discernible to the naked eye; of a bright scarlet colour, and of the genus Acarus” (White, 1937, p. 97). He was “looking at nature in a living, dynamic way that was being neglected by the leading scientists, then preoccupied with classification” (Perrin, 2015, p. xxx); White illustrated the value of close observation.

Gilbert White was not the first British naturalist; others, such as Hooke, Ray, Willoughby, and Lister, were influential in their day, yet their works “are seldom read” (Johnson, 1981, p. 25). When many observations used less precise methods, White’s “were original… and minutely accurate, we dare not deny him the honours of a pioneer” (Johnson, 1981, p. 25). Perhaps the fourth most frequently published book in the English language (Mabey, 2006, p. 6), The Natural History of Selborne established “the myth of Parson White” (Mabey, 2006, p. 7) and laid his claim to be the first ecologist. Amongst others, literary figures such as Coleridge, Edward Thomas, Virginia Woolf, W.H. Auden, and Sylvia Townsend Warner were influenced by The Natural History. “Darwin praised it as one of the chief reasons for his interest in biology” (Mabey, 2006, p. 6). Indeed, continued interest is evidenced by the 2025 appearance of Jenny Uglow’s A Year With Gilbert White – The First Great Nature Writer, by the prestigious publisher Faber & Faber.

The Wakes, in Selborne, Hampshire, was the house where Gilbert White was born and lived for almost all of his seventy-three years. An appeal was made in 1953 to convert the property into a Gilbert White Museum, which duly opened in 1955 (Historic England, 2025). Selborne Common and The Hanger, referred to in The Natural History, have been owned by the National Trust since 1932 and, therefore, have landscape protection. The first two lines of White’s poem The Invitation To Selborne advise:

See, Selborne spreads her boldest beauties round
The varied valley, and the mountain ground…

There are authors’ houses (such as Thomas Hardy’s Max Gate), and there are literary museums established in former writers’ houses, such as Gilbert White’s The Wakes. Baleiro (2023) suggests that literary museums emphasise the preservation and communication of literature to promote knowledge of its role in society. In the case of Gilbert White’s house, this is of paramount importance with environmental communication. Furthermore, and perhaps unusually, The Wakes permits both author-centred and text-centred visitor activity, given that the property and grounds are the principal location for The Natural History of Selborne. The concept of authenticity is also particularly salient at The Wakes because many objects have a direct connection to Gilbert White, besides the importance of the authenticity of the setting (Busby, 2018). The writer’s home is, perhaps, the most intimate literary site possible because it offers an authentic link between the author and his or her output (MacLeod, 2020).

There is no doubt that literary houses reflect the work of authors of a number of genres, yet few are as important as Gilbert White’s in the current environmental climate. Incidentally, Baleiro (2023, p. 3306) views literary museums, themselves, as being “close to the biography literary genre” which suggests the properties have a life of their own. This view is certainly illustrated by The Wakes.

Another example of close author–tourist engagement is the desire to visit the author’s burial place, as “most directly connected to the author” (Watson, 2006, p. 26), arguably a key component of literary pilgrimage (Robinson & Andersen, 2004; Watson, 2009). At Selborne, Gilbert White is buried only a short distance from the house in which he lived for so long. This type of experience may provide a “dialogue with the dead author” (Watson, 2006, p. 38). These “tangible signatures of the author’s presence” still attract the attention of tourists (Robinson & Andersen, 2004, p.20) and it has been demonstrated by Herbert’s (2001) findings, resulting in 68% of respondents visiting the burial place of Jane Austen.

The Natural History of Selborne has been and continues to be an influential work, from a naturalist who lived most of his life in one place, and who studied the same small locations over a great many years. To this end, The Wakes lends itself to analysis of the forms of literary tourism that might apply. Undoubtedly, Butler’s (1986) first form is illustrated, with aspects of homage to an actual location, including the level of physical protection afforded to the property and some of the surrounding landscape. Any visitor can imagine life in Gilbert White’s time. Whilst Butler (1986) referred to fiction in his second form, there are clearly places of significance in the written work which can be viewed. His third form, whereby areas appeal to other literary figures, is more limited – in fact, it cannot be said to apply; Jane Austen lived at Chawton, not so far, but there is nothing on the scale of Concord, Massachusetts (Busby, 2025). Concord is compared for being the home of Henry David Thoreau, most famous today for Walden, his account of living with nature and making detailed observations of what he saw, though not in the longitudinal sense that White did.

Butler’s fourth form, whereby the literature gains popularity because the area becomes a tourist destination in its own right, is also not applicable. Other forms, such as travel writing and film-induced literary tourism, cannot be said to apply, although it can be argued that nostalgia does have a place because the Great Oak, planted in 1730, is still extant – akin to Byron’s oak at Newstead Abbey (Busby & Shetliffe, 2013). Many features of the garden that White was familiar with also still exist (Gilbert White’s House and Garden, 2025). However, the work and house of Gilbert White are as important to the environmental movement as much as to literary tourism. Critically, the two elements are juxtaposed more than, perhaps, for any other author. In this context, it is surprising that visitor numbers were just 21,000 in 2024, according to Kimberley James, the Collections and Marketing Manager.

How to cite this entry: Busby, G. (2026). Gilbert White – Ecology and literary tourism. In R. Baleiro, G. Capecchi & J. Arcos-Pumarola (Eds.), E-Dictionary of Literary Tourism. University for Foreigners of Perugia. https://doi.org/10.34623/zdg2-hn59.