January-March 2024
To mark the 100th anniversary of Herbert Ponting’s film The Great White Silence Gilbert White’s House and Garden’s will be putting on a display in the Discovery Room celebrating Ponting’s life and work.
Herbert Ponting & The Great White Silence
- 16th January 2024 10:30 am - 1st April 2024 4:30 pm
- 10:30 am
- Gilbert Whites House
Gilbert Whites House
Gilbert White was aged 7 or 8 when the White family moved from the Vicarage on Selborne’s Plestor, to this house, called ‘The Wakes’ (named after the Wake family who had lived here previously). At that time the property would have been no more than a ‘two up, two down’ but over the subsequent years lots of extensions and additions have been made, creating the long sizeable house you see today.
The rooms have been restored following descriptions in White’s own correspondence and include a chair he used at Oriel College, Oxford (loaned from the College), items of contemporary furniture, family portraits and bed hangings embroidered for him by his aunts.
On display is the original manuscript of his book, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, which was purchased with generous help from English Heritage and others.
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