INTRODUCTION xix 



is even now somewhat out of the world. In Gilbert White's 

 time it was a remote country village, off the high-road, and 

 only approachable by " hollow lanes," in winter often choked 

 by snow-drifts, or unapproachable through floods, and by 

 no means an accessible place at any time. Th present 

 road through the village was then a " cart-way," with deep 

 ruts. Mr. Henry Maxwell of Selborne, who has helped me 

 so much in the elucidation of the development of the 

 history of the village, though by no means yet a patriarch, 

 can still remember when the " cart- way " ran through it from 

 end to end, and the farmers' gigs and market-vehicles were 

 built to a gauge, to accommodate them to the ruts which 

 were such a feature of the Hampshire roads and lanes of 

 fifty years ago. Selborne has changed with the times, 

 almost as much as other parts of rural England have 

 changed, and the Selborne of to-day is not the Selborne 

 of Gilbert White. In the days when Blyth and Bennett 

 and Jardine wrote, there was not much difference in the 

 appearance of the village from the days of our author, 

 but the last fifty years have wrought considerable changes, 

 and it is by no means easy to reconstruct Selborne as it 

 was in Gilbert's time. Many old houses still remain, the 

 " Hanger " still dominates the village, and many of the 

 general features are the same, but few people can recognise 

 the places as Gilbert White wrote of them a hundred and 

 fifty years ago. 



"The Wakes," Gilbert White's old house, still stands in 

 the village street. His brew-house is there his stables 

 the study in which he wrote the " Letters " to Pennant and 

 to the Hon. Daines Harrington his bedroom his kitchen 

 (since Professor Bell's time utilised as a library) and the 

 room in which he breathed his last. His "great parlour " was 

 turned by Professor Bell into a dining-room, and a portion 

 of it cut off to form a passage to the new wing which the 

 Professor built. The old house was unfitted for modern 

 requirements, and successive owners have added to it. 



