Gilbert White: Inside the Hampshire home of the pioneering ecologist
Watch: A special report by ITV News Meridian's Stacey Poole
Gilbert White is hailed as a pioneering ecologist who influenced everyone from Charles Darwin to Sir David Attenborough, but he is not known to everyone.
He lived quietly in the Hampshire village of Selborne for all of his life, writing his world famous book The Natural History of Selborne from observations he made locally.
Many feel his contribution to society has been overlooked, as he shaped much of our relationship with the natural world.
This year marks his 300th anniversary, and so ITV News Meridian has been to visit his former home that has now become a museum, to see why the area was so special to him.
Following White's 18th century notes, those maintaining the 25 acres of garden try to replicate how it looked back then.
Gardener Keith Oakley says: "Now the garden as we see it today is partly original, some of the feature have always been here and some of it has been reconstructed using his notes and some of the picture evidence we've got of the paintings that were done in the garden in the 18th century."
His notes reveal just how pioneering he was and why he's regarded by many as England's first ecologist. He introduced the potato to the area and exotic fruits that were just being discovered.
"He was really obsessional about growing melons. It was quite fashionable in 18th century horticulture to grow things that were out of season or couldn't normally be grown in the English climate. He kept records of how he borrowed dung from his neighbours by the cartload which he used in hotbeds."
Gilbert White was all about compassion and supporting the local community, and more than 200 years after his death, his estate is still continuing his work, to make people stop more often and appreciate the world around them.
This report will also feature on this Sunday's episode of All Around Britain, at 11.55am.