EOADS TO SELBORNE 25 



this lane to be, he used it sometimes, as appears 

 from some of his private letters, even in winter. 

 In truth, the traveller in his day had but little 

 choice of a better route. He might, indeed, turn off 

 the main road before reaching Alton, at Farnham, 

 and take that towards Petersfield ; then, skirting 

 Wolmer Forest, he would find himself approaching 

 Selborne through the hamlfet of Oakhanger, whence, 

 leaving the sandy forest ground, he could reach 

 Selborne through the second "rocky hollow lane." 

 This lane had, indeed, as Gilbert White records,^ 

 benefited from the bequest of a sum of £200 by 

 his grandfather, which " was carefully and judiciously 

 laid out in the summer of the year 1730 by his son 

 John White, who made a solid and firm causey from 

 Rood-green, all down Honey-lane, to a farm called 

 Oakwoods, where the sandy soil begins." 



This, however, was rather a roundabout way to 

 Selborne, and probably the remaining lane, which 

 seems to have been more generally used, w^as the 

 most practicable route to the village. Following the 

 Southampton road past Alton to East Tisted, the 

 traveller turned from it at that village, at the 

 Horse and Jockey Inn, and entered Selborne through 

 a rough country road, which, though not so long as 

 the Harteley lane, had nevertheless the disadvantage 

 of a steep and stony hill to be descended. 



There was, and indeed is, a fourth road, or rather 



* Vide "Tho Antiquities of Selborne," Letter VI. 



