14 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



but I, who have suffered all my life long by that evil 

 power, call her the Daemon of Procrastination ; and 

 wish that Fuseli, the grotesque painter in London, 

 who excells in drawing witches, daemons, incubus's, 

 and incantations, was employed in deHneating this 

 ugly hag, which fascinates in some measure the most 

 determined and resolute of men." 



In White's letters to members of his family we 

 occasionally get glimpses of village life as it appeared 

 in the old-world days of the eighteenth century. There 

 were no good roads to Selborne, and during the winter 

 months the village was almost inaccessible except on 

 foot or horseback. Under date of March 15, 1756, it 

 is noted in T/ie Garden Kalendar as an event worth 

 chronicling : " Brought a four-wheel'd post-chaise to 

 ye door at this early time of year." John Mulso, 

 when he visited his friend at Selborne, regularly asked 

 for a guide to meet him *'at the cross-roads," remark- 

 ing that the village was as difficult of access as Rosa- 

 mond's Bower. One winter a little diversion was 

 created by the quartering in the village of the " 26 

 High-landers." "These sans-breeches men," says 

 White, " made an odd appearance in the village, where, 

 though they had nothing in the world to do, have yet 

 behaved in a very quiet and inoffensive manner, and 

 were never known to steal even a turnip or a cabbage, 

 though they lived much on vegetables, and were aston- 

 ished at the * dearness of Southern provisions.' " The 

 honesty of the soldiers seems to have been the more 

 notable in contrast with the doings of some of the 

 Selborne labourers. It appears from one of White's 

 letters to Molly, that, in consequence of a bad harvest, 

 " the poor took to stealing the farmers' corn by night ; 

 the losers offered rewards, but in vain." The poor 



