NATURAL HISTORY 



storm in the year 1703, equal to a moderate tree, yet, 

 when felled, contained eight loads of timber; and, being 

 too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet 

 above the butt, where it measured near eight feet in 

 the diameter. This elm I mention to show to what a 

 bulk planted elms may attain ; as this tree must cer- 

 tainly have been such from its situation. 



In the centre of the village, and near the church, is 

 a square piece of ground surrounded by houses, and 

 vulgarly called The Plestor. In the midst of this spot 

 stood, in old times, a vast oak, with a short squat 

 body, and huge horizontal arms extending almost to 

 the extremity of the area. This venerable tree, sur- 

 rounded with stone steps, and seats above them, was 



names of Hogmer and Cranmer, and the large and almost united ponds 

 at Oakhanger. 



To the cultivator this division of the parish is at present almost use- 

 less. It is probable that scarcely any of it has been brought into occu- 

 pation for many ages ; and it will be long before much of it can be so far 

 reclaimed as to be at all available for farming purposes. 



In the dreariness of the Forest there is a variation from the character 

 of the scenery of the adjacent strata that may interest for a while. There 

 is also a boldness, occasionally, in the form of the ridges, and an abruptness 

 in their terminations, that imparts somewhat of a mountain air to the view. 

 But it is chiefly as an adjunct to the other features of the Selborne pros- 

 pects that it avails ; and in its masses, and its heights, and its waters, it 

 forms a fine termination to most of the more extensive of them. 



A general idea of the surface of the country may be formed from thus 

 passing in review the several portions of which it consists, and \\lii< li 

 succeed each other with perfect regularity. Some idea will also be 

 obtained of the delightful scenery of the neighbourhood in which the 

 author dwelt throughout his life; a scenery infinitely varied according 

 to the extent of the country included in each view, the number of the 

 strata embraced by it, and the relative proportion of each. The combi- 

 nation, in the more extensive of them, of the broad arable Hat of the 

 upper lands and their angularly edged terraces and hangers, with the rich 

 meadows and oak woods of the bottom, and the wide and bold wastes 

 and shining waters of the Forest, is above all delightful. 



Some such views Mr. Harvey has represented in an account of 

 Selborne and its Vicinity which is now in preparation for the press, 

 and which will be principally devoted to the description and delineation 

 of the more interesting scenes and objects of the district ; and to the 

 imparting of other local information relating to the neighbourhood in 

 which Gilbert White lived and died. E. T. B. 



