folding frontis, 8 plates (1 hand-col), 3 vignettes, Cont. full, diced calf, blind stamped borders, rebacked, raised bands to spine, corners restored; marbled edges. Some spotting to a few of the plates. Vg. New (3rd) edition. Mitford's 4to edition. Includes 12 fine engravings, including the folding frontis-piece, 8 full page plates (one hand-coloured) and 3 vignettes in the text. Gilbert White (1720 – 1793) is widely regarded as the father of ecology. He was a pioneering naturalist and forerunner of all modern natural historians, and author of one of the most published and popular books in the English language, ‘The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne’ (first published in 1789). Since that time it has never been out of print, is reported to be one of the most published books in the English language. Charles Darwin claimed that he ‘stood on the shoulders’ of White, and came on ‘a pilgrimage to Selborne’ as a young man in June 1857. Numerous great English writers and naturalists have been influenced by Gilbert White, such as the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who called White’s ‘Natural History of Selborne’ a ‘sweet delightful book’. [Martin, p. 103] [25869]