6 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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

 in the freestone, and have their poles and wood for charcoal 

 growing just at hand. The 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 shaky, and so brittle as often to fall 

 to pieces in sawing. Beyond the sandy loam the soil 

 becomes a hungry lean sand, till it mingles with the forest ; 

 and will produce little without the assistance of lime and 

 turnips. 



LETTER II. 



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

 north-west of the village, on the white malrns, stood within 

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

 Ulmus folio latissimo scabro of Ray, which, though it had 

 lost a considerable leading bough in the great storm in the 

 year 1703, equal to a moderate tree, yet, when felled, 

 contained eight loads of timber ; and, being too bulky for a 

 carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the butt, where it 

 measured near eight feet in the diameter. This elm I 

 mention to show to what a bulk planted elms may attain ; as 

 this tree must certainly have been such from its situation. 

 In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a 



