“It has been my misfortune never to have had any neighbours whose studies have led them towards the pursuit of natural knowledge; so that, for want of a companion to quicken my industry and sharpen my attention, I have made but slender progress in a kind of information to which I have been attached from my childhood.”
– from the Rev. Gilbert White’s The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, Letter X, April 4, 1767
I very much empathise with the good reverend.
