of Selborne 13 



the joints of their freestone walls : this embellishment 

 carries an odd appearance, and has occasioned strangers 

 sometimes to ask us pleasantly, " whether we fastened 

 our walls together with tenpenny nails." 



LETTER V 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



Among the singularities of this place the two rocky 

 hollow lanes, the one to Alton, and the other to the 

 forest, deserve our attention. These roads, running 

 through the malm lands, are, by the traffic of ages, and 

 the fretting of water, worn down through the first 

 stratum of our freestone, and partly through the second ; 

 so that they look more like water-courses than roads ; and 

 are bedded with naked rag for furlongs together. In 

 many places they are reduced sixteen or eighteen feet 

 beneath the level of the fields ; and after floods, and in 

 frosts, exhibit very grotesque and wild appearances, from 

 the tangled roots that are twisted among the strata, and 

 from the torrents rushing down their broken sides ; and 

 especially when those cascades are frozen into icicles, 

 hanging in all the fanciful shapes of frost-work. These 

 rugged gloomy scenes affright the ladies when they peep 

 down into them from the paths above, and make timid 

 horsemen shudder while they ride along them ; but 

 delight the naturalist with their various botany, and 

 particularly with their curious filices with which they 

 abound. 



The manor of Selborne, was it strictly looked after, 

 with all its kindly aspects, and all its sloping coverts, 

 would swarm with game ; even now hares, partridges and 

 pheasants abound ; and in old days woodcocks were as 

 plentiful. There are few quails, because they more affect 

 open fields than enclosures ; after harvest some few 

 landrails are seen. 



The parish of Selborne, by taking in so much of the 

 forest, is a vast district. Those who tread the bounds 



