THE 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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 fifty-one, and near mid-way 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, Hadleigh, 

 Bramshot, Trotton, Rogate, LyrTe, and Greatham. The soils of this 

 district are almost as various and diversified as the views and 

 aspects. The high part of 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 

 beec^ the most lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its 

 smooth rind or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful pendulous 

 boughs. 1 The down, or sheepwalk, is a pleasing park-like spot, 

 of about one mile by half that space, jutting out on the verge of 

 the hill-country, where \fc begins to break down into the plains, 

 and commanding a very engaging view, being an assemblage of 

 hill, dale, wood-lands, 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-clown near Guildford, and by the 



