THE 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



LETTER I 



THE parish of Selborne lies in the extreme eastern cor- 

 ner 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. Be- 

 ing very large and extensive, it abuts on twelve parishes, two 

 of which are in Sussex, viz., Trotton and Rogate. If you be- 

 gin 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, Lyffe, 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 beech, 

 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 it 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 



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