14 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
experience in measuring the water is but of short date, I am not 
qualified to give the mean quantity.* I only know that 
Inch. Hund. 
From May 1, 1779, to the end of the year there fell — oo. EE ae 
Jan. 1, 1780, to Jan. 1, 1781 ar Bae aoe Sx wo 27a 
Jan. 1, 1781, to Jan. 1, 1782 ee ase ook ae v63). S007 
Jan. 1, 1782, to Jan. 1, 1783 aes oe ei _ <= 50) or 
Jan. 1, 1783, to Jan. 1, 1784 aes ae ae ay va 7m 
Jan. 1, 1784, to Jan. 1, 1785 owe Rae “53 Sie sas 33.900 
Jan. 1, 1785, to Jan. 1, 1786 sai es oie sie a (OT oe 
Jan. 1, 1786, to Jan. 1, 1787 a “os 39 57t 
The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oakhanger, with the 
single farms, and many scattered houses along the verge of the forest, 
contain upwards of six hundred and seventy inhabitants. See delow. 
We abound with poor ; many of whom are sober and industrious, 
and live comfortably in good stone or brick cottages, which are 
glazed, and have chambers above stairs: mud buildings we have 
none. Besides the employment from husbandry, the men work in 
hop-gardens, of which we have many ; and fell and bark timber. 
In the spring and summer the women weed the corn; and enjoy a 
second harvest in September by hop-picking. Formerly, in the 
dead months they availed themselves greatly by spinning wool, for 
making of barragons, a genteel corded stuff, much in vogue at 
that time for summer wear ; and chiefly manufactured at Alton, a 
neighbouring town, by some of the people called Quakers : but from 
circumstances this tradeisatanend.{ The inhabitants enjoy a good 
share of health and longevity ; and the parish swarms with children. 
* A very intelligent gentleman? assures me (and he speaks from upwards of forty years 
experience), that the mean rain of any place cannot be ascertained till a person has 
wneasured it fora very long period. ‘‘If I had only measured the rain,” says he, “‘ for 
the four first years, from 1740 to 1743, I should have said the mean rain at Lyndon was 
16} inches for the year; if from 1740 to 1750, 183 inches. ‘The mean rain before 1763 was 
203 inches, from 1763 and since 253 inches, from 1770 to 1780, 26 inches. If only 1773, 
1774, and 1775, had been measured, Lyndon mean rain would have been called 32 inches.” 
+ Mr. Bennet has given a continuation of the register of the rain-gauge up to 1793. 
Some of the years show a greater quantity than any of the previous ones, except 1782. 
Three of them considerably above 40, the last 48°56. 
t Since the passage above was written, I am happy in being able to say that the 
spinning employment is a little revived, to the no small comfort of the industrious house- 
wife. 
T The intelligent gentleman, referred to in the author’s note to this letter, was Thomas 
Barker, of an ancient and respectable family in the county of Rutland, brother-in-law to 
Mr. White. 
The vignettes at commencement and conclusion of the letter represent those hollow 
lanes so quaintly alluded to in its first paragraph. 
A STATE OF THE PARISH OF SELBORNE, TAKEN OCTOBER 4, 1783. 
The number of tenements or families, 136. 
The number of inhabitants in the street is 313 | Total 676; near five inhabitants to each 
In the rest of the parish ra a 363 tenement. 
In the time of the Rev. Gilbert White, Vicar, who died in 1727-8, the number of 
inhabitants was computed at about soo. 
