2 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



Harteley Mauduit, Great Ward le ham, Kingsley, Hadleigh, 

 Bramshot, Trotton, Rogate, Lysse, and Greatham. The 

 soils of this district are almost as various and diversified 

 as the views and aspects. The high part of the south-west 

 consists of a vast hill of chalk, rising three hundred feet 

 above the village, and is divided into a sheep-down, the 

 high wood and a long hanging wood, called The Hanger. 

 The covert of this eminence is altogether beech, the most 

 lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its smooth 

 rind or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful pendulous 

 boughs. The down, or sheep-walk, is a pleasing park-like 

 spot, of about one mile by half that space, jutting out on 

 the verge of the hill-country, where it begins to break down 

 into the plains, and commanding a very engaging view, 

 being an assemblage of hill, dale, woodlands, heath, and 

 water. The prospect is bounded to the south-east and east 

 by the vast range of mountains called the Sussex Downs, 

 by Guild-down near Gnildford, and By the Downs round 

 Dorking, and Ryegate in Surrey, to the north-east, which 

 altogether, with the country beyond Alton and Farnham, 

 form a noble and extensive outline. 



At the foot of this hill, one stage or step from the 

 uplands, lies the village, which consists of one single 

 straggling street, three-quarters of a mile in length, in a 

 sheltered vale, and running parallel with The Hanger. The 

 houses are divided from the hill by a vein of stiff clay (good 



from William de Valentin, half-brother to Henry III., who held the manor in 

 1273' (Moody). Hartley Mauditt or Maudytt is also, according to Bell, the 

 ' ordinary orthography,' and in Domesday Book the name of the then lord of 

 the manor is spelt Maldoit and Malduith. " The name Hartley or Harteley, 

 which occurs in several other places to the north of Selborne, forms one of many 

 indications of the extensive ancient forest of the district, extending eastward and 

 including those of Alice Holt and Wolmer." (Bell, ed. p. 2 note.) 



Worldham was spelt Werildeham in Domesday Book, and Bell could not find 

 any warranty for Gilbert White's rendering of the name. The etymology is, he 

 says, very doubtful, but he hazards the suggestion that " the Saxon name Werilde- 

 ham had reference to the longevity of the inhabitants, and that Wer-ylde ham 

 may be literally translated 'The old men's village.' The common pronunciation 

 amongst the peasantry of the district is ' \Vordleham.'" (Bell, I.e.) 



Hedleigh is Headley, and Lysse the Liss of the present day. [R. B. S.] 



