14 TILLAGE OF SELEORNE. 



sheep-walk, is a pleasing park-like spot, of about one mile 

 by half that space, jutting out on the verge of the hill- 

 country, where it begins to break down into the plains, and 

 commanding a very engaging view, being an assemblage of 

 hill, dale, woodlands, heath, and water. The prospect is 

 bounded to the south-east and east by the vast range of 

 mountains, called the Sussex Downs ; by Gruild-down, near 

 Guildford, and by the Downs round Dorking, and Ryegate 

 in Surrey, to the north-east; which altogether, with the 

 country beyond Alton, and Farnham, form a noble and 

 extensive outline. 



At the foot of this hill, one stage, or step from the uplands, 

 lies the village, which consists of one single straggling street, 

 three quarters of a mile in length, in a sheltered vale and 

 running parallel with the Hanger. The houses are divided 

 from the hill by a vein of stiff clay, (good wheat land,) yet 

 stand on a rock of white stone, little in appearance removed 

 from chalk ; but seems so far from being calcareous, that it 

 endures extreme heat. Yet, that the freestone still pre- 

 serves somewhat that is analogous to chalk, is plain, from 

 the beeches, which descend as low as those rocks extend, 

 and no farther, and thrive as well on them, where the ground 

 is steep, as on the chalks. 



The cart-way of the village divides, in a remarkable 



are certainly more elegant and graceful : the former, I think, has been termed 

 by Gilpin, the " Venus " of British trees. The plane and horse-chestnut will 

 outvie it in a dense and deep rich foliage, while the oak will far outstrip all in 

 an imposing and venerable aspect. The beech was formerly much more 

 planted than at present. It was admirably suited for the landscape gardening 

 of the last century ; and the wood was of more value, being much in request 

 for various parts of machinery, which the extensive use of iron has now super- 

 seded. W. J. 



We quite agree with Mr. White in his praise of the beech tree. When 

 we consider the beauty of its velvet green leaves, as they first burst forth in 

 the spring, and its glowing russet foliage in the autumn, and then look at 

 its silvery bark, and bold projecting roots, both here and there covered with 

 verdant mosses, it is impossible not to allow it to be " the most lovely of all 

 forest trees." Those who have seen the Burnham beeches, the noble beech 

 trees in Windsor Great Park and its adjoining forest, and those in a forest 

 between Henley-on-Thames and Petsworth, will not be inclined to concur 

 with Sir William Jardine, in preferring the ash, birch, and Huntingdon 

 willow, to it. What are more graceful than the pendulous branches of the 

 beech, covered with hoar frost in winter ? ED. 



