XV111 A SHORT BIOGEAPHT OF 



But as now neither lover nor student am I, 

 (I 'm a Christian, I hope, but I wish not to die,) 

 So nor books, nor a mistress, nor zeal have inspired 

 My muse to commend what she ne'er has admired. 



Yet as mind gives a comfort to deserts and dens, 

 Makes a turnpike of bogs, and a garden of glens ; 

 So affection, kind chemist ! I feel, can convert 

 To the sweetest of sweets what I thought to be dirt. 



Be then welcome, dear Selborne, as welcome can be, 

 As the primrose of May, or the hawthorn to me ; 

 For 'tis there (may they ever be blest from above !> 

 Dwell a daughter and son, and the children I love." * 



As Selborne is approached from Alton, the beauty of its 

 valley is seen as it bursts suddenly into view, and affords a 

 prospect of great rural beauty. A foot-bridge is thrown 

 across a deep ravine of rocky bank, at the bottom of 

 which a little streamlet runs over a road, which is at once 

 its channel and the carriage-way to the village. Erom 

 this spot the precipitous beechen hangers may be seen, so 

 often referred to by Mr. White ; the white tower of the 

 village church ; the snug parsonage, and the pretty cottages, 

 sprinkled over the landscape. 



Earm-houses, with their barns and straw-yards, hop-lands, 

 and corn-fields, and what is seldom seen in these degenerate 

 days, a may-pole, add to the beauty of the scenery. 



And here I may be allowed to quote a passage or two 

 from an article which appeared some years ago in the JN"ew 

 Monthly Magazine, on the village of Selborne, written by 

 one who appears to have visited it out of pure love for the 

 memory of Mr. "White, and from the pleasure he had derived 

 from his writings. 



" The traveller who would ' view fair Selborne aright,' 

 should humour the caprices of our fickle climate, and visit 



* [These lines were written by Mr. Gabriel Tahourdin.] 



