64 



NATURAL HISTORY 



*' This mount may journey, and his present site 

 *' Forsaken, to thy neighbour's bounds transfer 

 , " Thy goodly plants, affording matter strange 

 " For law debates !" 



But, when I came to consider better, I 

 began to suspect that though our hills may 

 never have journeyed far, yet that 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 sus- 

 picions ; which, though it befel 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 month of January and February, in 

 the year 1774, were remarkable for great 



