NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 31 



denominations ; where they preen and solace, and rest 

 themselves, till towards sunset, when they issue forth in 

 little parties (for in their natural state they are all birds of 

 the night) to feed in the brooks and meadows ; returning 

 again with the dawn of the morning. Had this lake an 

 arm or two more, and were it planted round with thick 

 covert (for now it is perfectly naked), it might make a 

 valuable decoy. 



Yet neither its extent, nor the clearness of its water, 

 nor the resort of various and curious fowls, nor its 

 picturesque groups of cattle, can render this meer so 

 remarkable as the great quantity of coins that were 

 found in its bed about forty years ago. But, as such dis- 

 coveries more properly belong to the antiquities of this 

 place, I shall suppress all particulars for the present, till 

 I enter professedly on my series of letters respecting the 

 more remote history of this village and district. 1 



1 See vol. ii. "Antiquities of Selborne"; also Lord Selborne's Appendix to 

 Bell's edition (vol. ii. pp. 378-394), on "The Roman - British Antiquities of 

 Selborne." [R. B. S.] 



