Gilbert White

Gilbert White, curate of Selborne in Hampshire, kept a daily Naturalist's Journal from 1768 until his death in 1793, recording weather, first swallows, flowering dates and the habits of earthworms. Held at the British Library and published in full, the journals show observation slowly turning into argument, and fed his letters to Thomas Pennant and Daines Barrington that became The Natural History of Selborne.