SELBORNE IX 



pulse ; and, though White has conferred more general celebrity 

 on Selborne than perhaps any other man ever conferred upon 

 any other village, yet his doing so must be considered as partak- 

 ing much of the nature of discharging a debt of gratitude. This 

 reciprocity of advantage between S.elborne and White is a subject 

 well worthy the attention of all who wish to promote the know- 

 ledge of nature, and those arts, and those amiable feelings of which 

 the study of nature is so sure a foundation. Gilbert White did 

 not possess that acuteness of critical discernment which he 

 might have acquired had he been formally drawn into the vortex 

 of science at this time, and there are many points upon which 

 he shows a very strong leaning towards superstitions which are 

 now exploded ; but still, in every thing that came fully within the 

 scope of his own observation, the words of White are the express 

 image of nature ; and, without the slightest straining after lofty 

 figures or sounding phrases, his " Natural History of Selborne" 

 is one of the most genuinely eloquent books in the English lan- 

 guage. 



1-r mediately over the part of the vicarage which is seen, there 

 appears, as already hinted, a little park finely sprinkled with 

 pretty large and very thriving trees, tastefully arranged in small 

 clusters, and giving depth and breadth to the rich grassy turf 

 between them. This beautiful piece of ground, which extends 

 upwards to the foot of the Hanger, was in the occupation of 

 White. The garden of his late residence abuts upon it by a "haha," 

 or sunk fence, alluded to by him ; but this is not perceived from 

 the windows or the garden, so that the house has all the appear- 

 ance of facing a park which e> tends to the Hanger. 



The Hanger, of which a small portion only is shown in the 

 sketch, is one of the richest masses of foliage that can well be 

 imagined, and has a very considerable effect upon the air at Sel- 

 borne. The dry rock on which the town is situated, and the 

 fields of white malmy clay, would make the >ammer air at Sel- 

 borne intolerably hot, were it not that tl>e IK- r *er sends down 

 its cooling breeze, breathing freshness and t ealth over the 

 heated part of the surface, in the same ma Krr as the sea-breeze 

 fans the burning shores of tropical countries. The op,>o^te side 

 of the village answers in this respect to the call of the Hanger ; 

 for the Temple Hanger, and the hanging woods, on the lext harm 

 of the " Liths" as one looks to them from the vil 1 <ge, fur- 

 nish their complement of cool air for the mitigation oi the heat 



