Letters to Barrington from the parson-naturalist Gilbert White form a large part of White's 1789 book "The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne"; Barrington's half of the correspondence is not included. Barrington established the format of the "Naturalist's Journal" for "keeping a daily register of observations on the weather, plants, birds, insects, &c" based on Benjamin Stillingfleet for collating information from across England. This format printed by Gilbert White's brother Benjamin was used from around 1769 to serve the study of the natural history of Selbourne. Very few of his log books are extant but Barrington has been considered as a pioneer of the study of phenology.