THE 



M 



ANTIQUITIES 



OF 



SELBORNE. 



LETTER I. 



IT is reasonable to suppose that in remote ages this 

 woody and mountainous district was inhabited only by 

 bears and wolves. Whether the Britons ever thought 

 it worthy their attention, is not in our power to deter- 

 mine 1 : but we may safely conclude, from circumstances, 



1 It is curious that Gilbert White should not have felt himself assured 

 as to the residence of Britons within the parish of Selborne. Setting 

 aside the historical fact that the favourite resorts of the ancient Britons 

 were the natural fastnesses of the forests and the morasses, whence it 

 might have been inferred that this wooded and rugged district would 

 have been regarded as peculiarly adapted to the known habits of that 

 people ; setting aside also various minor evidences that might be adduced : 

 setting these aside, as probabilities merely, (although on smaller proba- 

 bilities greater theories have sometimes been raised), Wolmer Forest 

 affords evidence the most visible and most tangible of its having been of 

 importance in the days of the earliest known inhabitants of England. The 

 observer has but to place himself on the northern side of Wolmer Pond, 

 looking towards the south; and on his right hand, and on his left, and in 

 front of him; barrows will be visible. Two of these works rise above the 

 level of Wall Down : one is on the top of the down immediately across the 

 pond : several others are on the elevations in the direction of Greatham. 

 These are remarkable objects in the circuit of the horizon : and on the 

 expanse of the Forest there are many others. Several of them have, from 

 lime to time, been opened, and have been found to contain, as usual, in 



L L 2 



