CHAPTER IX 



The Selborne atmosphere Unhealthy faces Selborne common 

 Character of scenery Wheatham Hill Hampshire village 

 churches Gilbert White's strictures Churches big and little 

 The peasants' religious feeling Charm of old village churches 

 Seeking Priors Dean Privett church Blackmoor church 

 Churchyards Change in gravestones Beauty of old grave- 

 stones Bed alga on gravestones Yew trees in churchyards 

 British dragon-tree Farringdon village and yew Crowhurst 

 yew Hurstbourne Priors yew How yew trees are injured. 



IT is a pleasure to be at Selborne ; nevertheless I 

 find I always like Selborne best when I am out of 

 it, especially when I arn rambling about that bit of 

 beautiful country on the border of which it lies. 

 The memory of Gilbert White; the old church with 

 its low, square tower and its famous yew tree ; above 

 all, the constant sight of the Hanger clothed in its 

 beechen woods green, or bronze and red-gold, or 

 purple-brown in leafless winter all these things do 

 not prevent a sense of lassitude, of ill-being, which 

 I experience in the village when I am too long in it, 

 and which vanishes when I quit it, and seem to breathe 

 a better air. This is no mere fancy, nor something 

 peculiar to myself; the natives, too, are subject to this 

 secret trouble, and are, some of them, conscious of it. 

 Round about Selborne you will find those who were 

 born and bred in the village, who say they were never 



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