SELBORNE AND WHITE 



of stone, which are rugged, broken, abrupt, and 

 shapeless." 



It is rather different with the village of Selborne, 

 I fear. Some of the newer cottages are not good 

 to look at. There are neighbouring villages in this 

 very English bit of English scenery which compare 

 well with Selborne. Empshott, near by, is a Birket 

 Foster village, if there is one in England, and 

 there are others remoter from the highways than 

 Empshott, where beauty goes on mellowing and 

 mellowing ; spots in which thought of stir and strife 

 and progress seems absurd. Not that it is all George 

 Morland cottage and Birket Foster lane around 

 Selborne. The country has its wild, rude places, 

 such as Woolmer Forest, once the home of crane 

 and wild boar, in whose bogs grow the yellow 

 asphodel and the round-leaved sundew. On a 

 winter night the road from Greatham and Liphook 

 seems to lie in a stern and solemn land. 



Selborne, through the variety of its soil, or sub- 

 soil, is a good district for the wildflower hunter, and 

 many species have been added to Gilbert White's 

 own list. About thirty years ago a curious and rare 

 plant was added to the Selborne list, the violet 

 helleborine. This plant was overlooked by White, 

 or it established itself close to the hanger after his 

 time. I found several plants of it at Selborne in 

 July, 1900. It is so remarkable that one can hardly 

 imagine White overlooking it. Some of these fas- 

 tidious plants occupy new homes in the most un- 

 accountable way. But it is very hard to induce 



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