2 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



and the waters of Wolmer Pond gleam in the distance. 

 In wet seasons, the soil of the zigzag being chalk, the 

 path is so slippery as to be almost dangerous. In 

 early summer the dog-rose puts forth its delicate 

 blossoms, and the long stems of honeysuckle scramble 

 over the bushes. Later on the autumnal gentian, or 

 fellwort, may be found. 



Down below, a little further along the ridge of the 

 hill, may be seen, through a gap made by some winter 

 storm in the dense forest of beech-trees, the house in 

 which White lived. There it nestles in the valley, 

 beneath the shadow of the " beech-grown hill " ; 

 altered, indeed, by the hand of restoration, and en- 

 larged considerably beyond its former dimensions, 

 but yet, in part at least, just as the old naturalist 

 left it. The wing which contained his study and 

 bedroom remains untouched. The old staircase is 

 still there. You may see the room in which he slept, 

 with a heavy beam running across the ceiling, and 

 the windows looking out on the Hanger. Outside 

 on the lawn stands White's sun-dial, while the brick 

 pathway four bricks wide still runs out into the 

 meadow beyond. This pathway formerly led to a 

 summer-house, which unfortunately was allowed to 

 go to ruin, and no trace of it now remains. Not far 

 off, among the long grass of the meadow, the leaves 

 of the wild tulip may at the right season be found, 

 but it is many years since a flower has been seen. In 

 the summer of 1780 a pair of honey-buzzards built 

 their nest upon a tall slender beech near the middle 

 of the Hanger, and from the summer-house below 

 White could watch them at their work. Here, too, 

 the fern-owls or goatsuckers glided about in the even- 

 ing twilight ; and one summer a pair of hoopoes 



