</ /.b 



'^ 



A^T' of Selborne 7 



stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a considerable river, 

 /O navigable at Godalming ; from whence it passes toGuild- 

 ^ ford, and so into the Thames at Weybridge ; and thus at 

 the Nore into the German Ocean. 



Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, 

 and when sunk to that depth seldom fail ; but produce a 

 fine limpid water, soft to the taste, and much commended 

 by those who drink the pure element, but which does not 

 lather well with soap. 



To the north-west, north and east of the village, is a 

 range of fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a 

 7v/i//e ma/m, a sort of rotten or rubble stone, which, when 

 turned up to the frost and rain, moulders to pieces, and 

 becomes manure to itself.^ 



Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of 

 white land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture 

 nor for the plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep 

 into the freestone, and have their poles and wood for 

 charcoal growing just at hand. This white soil produces 

 the brightest hops. 



As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer-forest, 

 at the juncture of the clays and sand the soil becomes a 

 wet, sandy loam, remarkable for timber, and infamous for 

 roads. The oaks of Temple and Blackmoor stand high 

 in the estimation of purveyors, and have furnished much 

 naval timber ; while the trees on the freestone grow large, 

 but are what workmen call shakey, and so brittle as often 

 to fall to pieces in sawing. Beyond the sandy loam the 

 soil becomes an hungry lean sand, till it mingles with the 

 forest ; and will produce little without the assistance of 

 lime and turnips. 



LETTER II 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



In the court of Norton-farmhouse, a manor farm to 

 the north-west of the village, on the white malms, stood 

 within these twenty years a broad-leaved elm, or wych 

 ^ This soil produces good wheat and clover. 



