WHITE'S SELBORNE ix 



Forest, which even then were dangerous in winter, are now 

 entirely closed to traffic, and impassable, as also are those on 

 the other side of the village leading to Liss and Petersfield. 

 These, the aboriginal paths, gradually sank into the soil, the 

 rains and freshets seeking them for their channels, and the 

 frosts undermining them year by year. The bindweed and 

 other trailing plants set foot upon their banks ; gradually 

 they became enclosed by vegetation, and in their cloistered 

 gloom rare plants and innumerable forms of wild life sought 

 seclusion. 



A short distance from Selborne is Wolmer Forest, a fre- 

 quent haunt of the naturalist, a wild region, seven miles in 

 length by two and a half in width, abounding with bogs, 

 fern, and heath, and containing three considerable meres or 

 ponds, the home of many curious plants and insects, and 

 a chosen harbor of wild fowl. The retreat of duck and teal, 

 dabchicks and water-hens, snipe, pheasants, and foxes, it 

 afforded the Selborne curate "much entertainment as a 

 sportsman and naturalist." During White's time this area 

 the name of which is misleading, for the " forest " was more 

 like a fen consisted entirely of sand, without a standing 

 tree in its whole extent, but studded with extensive marshes 

 and meres. This anciently formed part of the Anderida Silva 

 of the Romans, extending from Kent, across Sussex, into the 

 borders of Hampshire. It has been Crown property from a 

 date before the Conquest, and was one of the favorite hunt- 

 ing-grounds of the Plantagenet kings. Recently, the Guild- 

 ford Natural History Society has advanced a proposal to 

 the Department of Woods and Forests that Wolmer be 

 reserved as a sanctuary for wild birds, in which they, their 

 nests, and eggs may remain unmolested throughout the year. 

 Latterly the waters of Wolmer have shrunk, and much of its 

 former wastes are now covered with plantations of pine and 

 oak. 



This region, with the immediate environment of Selborne 

 village, together with an occasional excursion to points some- 

 what more remote, was his principal field of observation. 

 The Sussex Chalk Downs he also visited annually for upwards 

 of thirty years, viewing their shapely figured aspect with fresh 



