Daines Barrington.

About Daines Barrington

Daines Barrington, FRS, FSA was an English lawyer, antiquary and naturalist. He was one of the correspondents to whom Gilbert White wrote extensively on natural history topics. Barrington served as a Vice President of the Royal Society and wrote on a range of topics related to the natural sciences including early ideas and scientific experimentation on the learning of songs by young birds. He designed a standard format for the collection of information about weather, the flowering of plants, the singing of birds and other annual changes that was also used by Gilbert White. He was a proponent of the theory that the Arctic region is free of sea ice, and influenced several polar expeditions, including the 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole. He also wrote on child geniuses including Mozart, who at the age of nine had visited England.