I love the outdoors and watching natural history documentaries yet I had never heard of Gilbert White who is often dubbed as the father of ecology. I recently visited his house-turned-museum, in the idyllic village of Selborne in Hampshire where I learnt about this fascinating man. Gilbert White was a man with many hats - a curate, naturalist and author. His most famous work , The Natural History of Selborne, was published in 1789 and was the first English language book of its kind. In fact, it has never been out of print since. Gilbert White observed animals in the wild which was highly unusual at the time as most scientists dissected specimens in the comfort of their own study. Through Gilbert's observations, he identified that what was thought of as one species of bird, was actually three separate species. Nowadays, you can visit the garden where Gilbert made all his important discoveries. The grounds were ever so tranquil and full of colour. They are so lovely t