A TRIP TO SELBORME. 273 



tea, and retired early. I waked with the gray morning, and as it was the 

 height of harvest, every one in the village was astir even then; and the tramp 

 of horses and the grating of waggon wheels soon ushered in the day. I arose 

 shortly after and sauntered into the church-yard and church, which being in 

 a course of repair, was luckily open, and there read with a melancholy interest 

 the mural slab by the altar to the memory of the Rev. Gilbert White, most 

 erroneously stated in a late number of the "Leisure Hour," not to have been 

 a clergyman, where, not only is there this evidence to the contrary, but an 

 entry in the Register to a marriage and christening, bearing his name, very 

 shortly before his death, (three weeks, I think, only.) The church stands 

 on the verge of a chasm, at least thirty feet iu depth, I should think^ but 

 unseen from within, by reason of a hedge. 



After breakfast, we devoted the forenoon to a walk to '^Nore Hill," the 

 next stage of Down and Hanger, where, near the summit, we found sheep 

 browsing on the short grass, or lying in picturesque groups beneath the beeches, 

 through whose stems we obtained delightful glances at the far prospect stretching 

 away for many a mile beneath us. We then turned the hill and I think, 

 although I have seen many views, I never, in the whole course of my 

 experience, beheld such a beautiful prospect as met our eyes; my friend sat 

 down under an umbrella, it being severely hot, and was quite entranced 

 in silent admiration; the variety, the extent, the magnificent sweeps of hill 

 and dale, hanger and chalk down, defy description; and embellished as the 

 landscape was, by the harvest, cut, uncut, and in course of being borne off the 

 fields, a more lovely and at once sublime scene-^ — sublime in the grander 

 features of rural beauty, could not well be imagined. 



These Hangers, which form such a charming feature in this sweet scenery, 

 are, as it were, a succession of steps in the country, and bear away to the 

 right in graceful gradations, until they are lost in the gray mist of distance, 

 and so softly does that distance define their swells and outlines, that it seems 

 as though you could put your hand upon them as upon a beautiful model; 

 the eye, when a little closed, takes in so much. Laying here for a long time, 

 we retraced our steps till we came upon the open Down, towards the back 

 of the Hanger, forming in fact part of the old forest, which runs along the 

 top and further side of the hill, forming the Hanger, and has all the attri- 

 butes of a wild chase, interspersed with brakes, furze, heath, and scattered 

 trees, none apparently of very old growth, those probably having been cut 

 from time to time. 



We then crossed this hill, whose green sides were enlivened by groups of 

 cattle, and came upon two beautiful seats, commanding, I should imagine, a 

 magnificent prospect; one the residence of — Snow, Esq., the owner of the 

 other I do not remember; this is Newton, or Newton Valance, and if the 

 road be pursued, would lead down the hill from behind, at the Alton or 

 north-west end of the Selborne Hanger; but we contented ourselves with 

 going down another easy descent in the bosom of the Hanger itself, whose 



