Jane Austen was becoming a literary celebrity through her novels of human relationships shortly after "parson-naturalist" Gilbert White had published The Natural History of Selborne where he lived.  In their writings Jane and Gilbert represented parallel explorations of the human and natural worlds. They shared the same social circles, particularly since Gilbert sometimes preached at Chawton, but like eddying leaves in a stream, somehow they never met. The Knight family which had adopted Jane's brother Edward (and hence a source of wealth) had a copy of Gilbert's book while her younger brother James dedicated a lengthy poem to Selborne. Gilbert's world with displays encouraging childrens' curiosity and some representative garden plantings is a quick 7-minute 4-mile drive from Chawton.

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