DESCRIPTION OF SELBORNE. 3 



At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to north- 

 west, arises a small rivulet : that at the north-west end frequently 

 fails, but the other is a fine perennial spring, little influenced by 

 drought or wet seasons, called Well-head.* This breaks out of 

 some high grounds joining to Nore-hill, a noble chalk promontory, 

 remarkable for sending forth two streams into two different seas. 

 The one to the south becomes a branch of the Arun, running to 

 Arundel, and so falling into the British Channel; the other to the 

 north. The Selborne stream makes one branch of the Wey; and 

 meeting the Black-down stream at Hedleigh, and the Alton and 

 Farnham stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a considerable river, 

 navigable at Godalming ; from whence it passes to Guildford, and 

 so into the Thames at Weybridge ; and thus at the Nore into the 

 German Ocean. 



Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, and 

 when sunk to that depth seldom fail, but produce a fine limpid 

 water, soft to the taste, and much commended by those who 

 drink the pure element, but which does not lather well with soap. 



To the north-west, north and east of the village, is a range of 

 fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a white malm, a sort 

 of rotten or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the frost 

 and rain, moulders to pieces, and becomes manure to itself.f 



Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of white 

 land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture nor for the 

 plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep into the freestone, 

 and have their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at hand. 

 This white soil produces the brightest hops. 



As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer-forest, at the 

 juncture of the clays and sand the soil becomes a wet, sandy 

 loam, remarkable for timber, and infamous for roads. The oaks 

 of Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the estimation of pur- 

 veyors, and have furnished much naval timber, while the trees 

 on the freestone grow large, but are what workmen call shakey, 

 and so brittle as often to fall to pieces in sawing. Beyond the 

 sandy loam the soil becomes a hungry lean sand, till it mingles 

 with the forest ; and will produce little without the assistance of 

 lime and turnips. 



* This spring produced, September 14, 1/81, after a severe hot summer, and a preceding dry 

 spring and winter, nine gallons of uater in a minute, which is five hundred and forty in an hour, 

 and twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty, or two hundred and sixteen hogsheads, in twenty- 

 tour hours, or one natural day. At this time many of the wells failed, and all the ponds in the 

 vales were dry. 



t This soil produces good wheat and clover. 



B 2 



