while the trees on the freestone grow large, but are what workmen call shakey, and so brittle as often to fall to pieces in sawing. Beyond the sandy loam the soil becomes an hungry lean sand, till it mingles with the forest; and will produce little without the assistance of lime and turnips.* * The late Mr. Bennett, who visited Selborne and examined its geological features, has given a detailed account of them in his edition of this work. It appears from him, that the parish of Selborne is situated in the lower part of the chalk-formation, exhibiting, successively, the beds termed by geologists the chalk, the upper green-sand, the gault, and the lower green-sand."The chalk constitutes the mass of the Selborne hill, which is covered, towards the village, by the Hanger. Next is the upper greensand, consisting here of the free-stone, or fire-stone of the text. In the upper surface of this rock deep fissures have been formed for the discharge of the springs from Nore Hill, and from the hill to the north of the village. The rocky lanes, spoken of in Letter V., also belong to this stratum. This formation is the subsoil of the whole of the village and of the malm lands. Its upper part is of a rubbly character, constituting, in cultivation, the white malm, celebrated for its excellent wheat. Below the rock of the upper green-sand is the gault, generally presenting a uniform level of the most fertile character. Within Selborne it exists only as a perfect flat; but to the north, in the forest of the Holt, it rises into hills. This formation is distinguished for its fine oak woods. Last of the Selborne strata is the lower green-sand, which rises, immediately east of the gault, into ridges of various elevation, and having usually a direction not very dissimilar from that of the Hanger. On the verge of this, the soil, though unpromising, has been partly brought into cultivation; but beyond, cultivation quickly ceases, and the lean hungry waste of Wolmer Forest succeeds, covered almost entirely by heath." The above is an abstract of Mr. Bennett's note on this chapter.-L. J. LETTER II. IN the court of Norton farm-house, a manor farm to the north-west of the village, on the white malms, stood, within these twenty years, a broad-leafed elm, or wych hazel,* ulmus folio latissimo scabro of Ray, which, though it had lost a considerable leading bough in the great storm in the year 1703, equal to a moderate tree, yet, when felled, contained eight loads of timber; and being too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the butt, where it measured near eight feet in the diameter. This elm I mention, to show to what a bulk planted elms may attain; as this tree must certainly have been such, from its situation. * In the centre of the village, and near the church, According to the late researches of Spach, in a paper in the "Annales des Sciences," (New Ser. vol. xv. p. 359,) the elms of Europe may all be reduced to two species; and those of England are only varieties of one, and are thus distinguished: a. vulgaris. U. suberosa and montana of " English Botany." B. parvifolia. U. campestris of Eng. Bot. γ. lævis. U. glabra of Eng. Bot. d. macrophylla. U. major of Eng. Bot. Mr. Loudon, in his "Arboretum Britannicum," reduces our English elms to two species; viz. Ulmus campestris (including suberosa and major); and Ulmus montana (including glabra). With each of these a host of sub-varieties are enumerated, the produce of our nursery-gardens.-J. S. H. This last opinion is adopted by Mr. Selby, in his History of British Forest Trees, where he has figured some of the principal varieties.-L. J. is a square piece of ground, surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called the Plestor. In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a vast oak,* with a short squat body, and huge horizontal arms extending almost to the extremity of the area. This venerable tree, surrounded with stone steps, and seats above them, was the delight of old and young, and a place of much resort in summer evenings; * As all trees, in our temperate climates, add a zone of wood annually to their trunk, it is easy to calculate their age, provided we can obtain a good section near the bottom. And by comparing the size of certain trees, whose ages have been thus ascertained, with that of others, we may obtain an approximation to the ages of the latter without the necessity of mutilating them. In this way De-Candolle has calculated that some of the finest oaks of Europe (and these are of British growth) are not less than from 1000 to 1300 years old. But the yew appears to attain to a still greater age; and it is calculated that there are some in England between 2000 and 3000 years old. As each new layer is deposited between the old wood and the bark, and as the new wood does not adhere to the places where the old may have been laid bare, but merely coats over them, any deeply-cut inscription on the trunk of a tree is preserved within it, and serves as a record of the time when it was cut, provided we know the number of layers that have been deposited over it. A curious instance is recorded in the "Gardener's Chronicle" for 1841 of an inscription to the following effect, which was discovered on splitting up a piece of oak :— THIS TREE LOVNG TIME OF TOW TOVRS WITNES BEARE THAT GO WALK HEARE The true reading of which, it is suggested, may be, Of two lovers' vows that did walk here.-J. S. H. where the former sat in grave debate, while the latter frolicked and danced before them. Long might it have stood, had not the amazing tempest in 1703 overturned it at once, to the infinite regret of the inhabitants and the vicar, who bestowed several pounds in setting it in its place again: but all his care could not avail; the tree sprouted for a time, then withered and died. This oak I mention, to show to what a bulk planted oaks also may arrive; and planted this tree must certainly have been, as appears from what is known concerning the antiquities of the village. On the Blackmoor estate there is a small wood called Losel's, of a few acres, that was lately furnished with a set of oaks of a peculiar growth and great value; they were tall and taper like firs, but standing near together, had very small heads,-only a little brush, without any large limbs. About twenty years ago the bridge at the Toy, near Hampton Court, being much decayed, some trees were wanted for the repairs that were fifty feet long without bough, and would measure twelve inches diameter at the little end. Twenty such trees did a purveyor find in this little wood, with this advantage, that many of them answered the description at sixty feet. These trees were sold for £20 a-piece. In the centre of this grove there stood an oak, which, though shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens had fixed their residence for such a series of years, that the oak was distinguished by the title of the Raven Tree. Many were the attempts of the neighbouring youths to get at this eyry: the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was ambitious of surmounting the arduous task. But when they arrived at the swelling, it jutted out so in their way, and was so far beyond their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, and acknowledged the undertaking to be too hazardous. So the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of February, when those birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall; but still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest; and, though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground. LETTER III. THE fossil shells of this district, and sorts of stone, such as have fallen within my observation, must not be passed over in silence. And, first, I must mention, as a great curiosity, a specimen that was ploughed up in the chalky fields, near the side of the Down, and given to me for the singularity of its appearance, which, to an incurious eye, seems like a petrified fish of about four inches long, the cardo passing for a |