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THE

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

PART I.

IN A SERIES OF LETTERS ADDRESSED TO
THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

LETTER I.

THE parish of Selborne lies in the extreme eastern corner of the county of Hampshire, bordering on the county of Sussex, and not far from the county of Surrey; is about fifty miles south-west of London, in latitude 51, and near midway between the towns of Alton and Petersfield. Being very large and extensive, it abuts on twelve parishes, two of which are in Sussex, viz. Trotton and Rogate. If you begin from the south, and proceed westward, the adjacent parishes are Emshot, Newton Valence, Faringdon, Harteley-Mauduit, Great Ward-le-ham, Kingsley, Hedleigh, Bramshot, Trotton, Rogate, Lysse, and Greatham.

The soils of this district are almost

B

as various and diversified as the views and aspects. The high part to the south-west consists of a vast hill of chalk, rising three hundred feet above the village; and is divided into a sheep down, the high wood, and a long hanging wood, called the Hanger. The covert of this eminence is altogether beech, the most lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its smooth rind, or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful pendulous boughs. The down, or sheep-walk, is a pleasing park-like spot, of about one mile by half that space, jutting out on the verge of the hill country, where it begins to break down into the plains, and commanding a very engaging view, being an assemblage of hill, dale, woodlands, heath, and water. The prospect is bounded to the south-east and east by the vast range of mountains called the Sussex Downs, by Guild-down near Guildford, and by the Downs round Dorking, and Ryegate in Surrey, to the northeast; which altogether, with the country beyond Alton, and Farnham, form a noble and extensive outline.

At the foot of this hill, one stage or step from the uplands, lies the village, which consists of one single straggling street, three-quarters of a mile in length, in a sheltered vale, and running parallel with the Hanger. The houses are divided from the hill by a vein of stiff clay (good wheat land), yet stand on a rock of white stone, little in appearance removed from chalk; but seems so far from being calcareous, that it endures extreme heat. Yet that the freestone still preserves somewhat that is analogous to chalk is plain from the beeches, which descend as low as those rocks extend, and no further, and thrive

as well on them, where the ground is steep, as on the chalks.1

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The cart-way of the village divides, in a remarkable manner, two very incongruous soils. To the southwest a rank clay, which requires the labour of years

1 The hill itself is chalk with flints. The latter abound on the top of the hill in sufficient quantities to mend the roads. The rock in the village is the Malm rock, belonging to the upper greensand formation. The geological features of the district are very distinct and regular. Beginning with Selborne Hill, which is of the upper chalk with flints, we have then in succession the lower chalk without flints, which is frequently burnt for lime; then the upper greensand which shows itself in the Malm rock above mentioned; the gault is obvious on the Empshott road, and is followed by the lower greensand, which extends into Wolmer Forest, where the Wealden succeeds it.-T. B.

to render it mellow; while the gardens to the northeast, and small enclosures behind, consist of a warm, forward crumbling mould, called black malm, which seems highly saturated with vegetable and animal manure; and these may perhaps have been the original site of the town; while the woods and coverts might have extended down to the opposite bank.

At each end of the village, which runs from southeast to north-west, arises a small rivulet; that at the north-west end frequently fails; but the other is a fine perennial spring, little influenced by drought or wet seasons, called Well-head.1 This breaks out of some high grounds adjoining to Nore Hill, a noble chalk promontory, remarkable for sending forth two streams into two different seas. The one to the south becomes a branch of the Arun, running to Arundel, and so falling into the British Channel; the other to the north. The Selborne stream makes one branch of the Wey; and, meeting the Blackdown stream at Hedleigh, and the Alton and Farnham stream at Titford-bridge, swells into a considerable river, navigable at Godalming; from whence it passes to Guildford, and so into the Thames at Weybridge; and thus at the Nore into the German Ocean.

Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, and, when sunk to that depth, seldom fail, but

1 This spring produced, September 14, 1781, after a severe hot summer, and preceding dry spring and winter, nine gallons of water in a minute, which is five hundred and forty in an hour, and twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty, or two hundred and sixteen hogsheads, in twenty-four hours, or one natural day. At this time many of the wells failed, and all the ponds in the vales were dry.

produce a fine limpid water, soft to the taste, and much commended by those who drink the pure element, but which does not lather well with soap.

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To the north-west, north, and east of the village, is a range of fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a white malm, a sort of rotten, or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the frost and rain, moulders to pieces, and becomes manure to itself. 1

Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of white land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture nor for the plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep into the freestone, and have their poles and

1 This soil produces good wheat and clover.

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