SELBORNE. 



country to a wood or copse on a steep slope, is the only portion of 

 Selborne Hill that is seen, except the terminating slope eastwards, 

 the upper part of which, the Hanger approaches but does not 

 altogether reach, and on the intermediate part there appears a few 

 scattered trees, which tell more distinctly against the sky than 

 one would expect from their distance. The treeless portion of 

 the surface is variegated with low brush-wood, and scattered grass, 

 and cattle runs, and winding paths ; but when seen from the road 

 these are indistinct, and merely take off the tameness which a 

 uniform surface would give to it. 



The more distant hill is Nore Hill, and its character contrasts 

 well with that of Selborne Hill. Like that, it is wooded, but the 

 wood is of a different character. Selborne Hanger is one unbroken 

 mass of the most luxuriant foliage, in which, at a distance, no 

 division of parts or distinction of tree from tree can be observed. 

 The trees on Nore Hill, on the other hand, are clumpy, broken 

 into distinct masses even where thickest, and melting away into 

 scattered individual trees or bushes of smaller dimensions. On 

 a sunny evening the light must tell beautifully on those hills, 

 from the position in which they stand. Selborne Hill must then be 

 in that indescribable shade of purplish green which is shown by 

 the shadow upon very rich places; the eastern part and the 

 same side of the clumps upon Nore Hill must partake of the 

 gray ; and then the sun beating brightly upon the naked part 

 of Nore Hill westward, streaming in through the openings be- 

 tween, and touching a point here and a point there with mellowed 

 light, till the whole fades away into the subdued tint of the 

 eastern part, must present a chiar' oscuro at which an artist who 

 can feel the natural grouping of lights in a landscape would be 

 perfectly delighted. Such is the first, or, as we may call it, the 

 " Pisgah" view that the pilgrim thitherward obtains of Selborne. 



After this foretaste of the anticipated beauties of Selborne, 

 slight though it be, one whose principal object is the further ex- 

 ploring of it can have little inducement to linger long at Alton ; 

 yet Alton is a very pretty place, pleasantly situated on a hill 

 sloping southward, clean, snug, and comfortable, with a fine 

 little stream in the bottom of the valley, and pleasant grounds on 

 the opposite bank. Indeed there is a grouping about the general 

 scenery in this part of the country which, whatever may be its 

 more individual character, prevents it from monotony. The fields 

 are open, and the woods are clustered and placed in the situations 



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