of Selborne 209 



LETTER XLV 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne. 



..." Muglre videbis 

 Sub pedibus tcrram, et descendere montibus ornos." 



When I was a boy I used to read, with astonishment 

 and impHcit assent, accounts in Baker^s Chro7iicle of 

 walking hills and travelling mountains. John Philips, in 

 his Cyder, alludes to the credit that was given to such 

 stories with a delicate but quaint vein of humour peculiar 

 to the author of the Splendid Shilling. 



" I nor advise, nor reprehend the choice 

 Of Marcley Hill : the apple no where finds 

 A kinder mould : yet 'tis unsafe to trust 

 Deceitful ground : who knows but that once more 

 This mount may journey, and his present site 

 Forsaken, to thy neighbour's bounds transfer 

 Thy goodly plants, afTording matter strange 

 For law debates ! " 



But, when I came to consider better, I began to 

 suspect that though our hills may never have journeyed 

 that far, yet the ends of many of them have slipped and 

 fallen away at distant periods, leaving the cliffs bare and 

 abrupt. This seems to have been the case with Nore and 

 Whetham hills ; and especially with the ridge between 

 Harteley-park and Ward le ham, where the ground has 

 slid into vast swellings and furrows ; and lies still in such 

 romantic confusion as cannot be accounted for from any 

 other cause. A strange event that happened not long 

 since, justifies our suspicions ; which, though it befell 

 not within the limits of this parish, yet as it was within 

 the hundred of Selborne, and as the circumstances were 

 singular, may fairly claim a place in a work of this 

 nature. 



The months of January and February, in the year 



o 



