A barrel full of .......

On our way back home we called in at the Gilbert White Museum at Selborne. A great place.

Gilbert White’s “The Natural History of Selborne” published in 1789 (the year of the French Revolution) is the first natural history book, and the Reverend White has been described as the first environmentalist. The book has never been out of print. A lot of editions over 230 years.

His garden is huge - 30 acres. And there is a lot to see. Including ......

Gilbert built a little mound and atop it he placed a large barrel, in which he could sit. And it span around, so the whole garden could be viewed from the spinning barrel. This old port barrel is not the original. But it works.

The Museum is not only about Gilbert White. The Oates collection is also here - naturalist Frank Oates and his travels through the Americas and Africa in the nineteenth century; and Captain Lawrence Oates, who travelled with Captain Scott on his doomed expedition to the Antarctic. And is famous for that quote, his last words - “I am just going outside, and I may be some time”.