14 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



date, I am not qualified to give the mean quantity.* 

 only know that 



From May 1, 1779, to the end of the year there fell 

 Jan. 1, 1780, to Jan. 1, 1781 

 Jan. 1, 1781, to Jan. 1, 1782 

 Jan. 1, 1782, to Jan. 1, 1783 

 Jan. 1, 1783, to Jan. 1, 1784 

 Jan. 1, 1784, to Jan. 1, 1785 

 Jan. 1, 1785, to Jan. 1, 1786 

 Jan. 1, 1786, to Jan. 1, 1787 



The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oakhanger, 

 with the single farms, and many scattered houses along the 

 verge of the forest, contain upwards of six hundred and 

 seventy inhabitants. 



We abound with poor; many of whom are sober and 

 industrious, and live comfortably in good stone or brick 

 cottages, which are glazed, and have chambers above stairs ; 

 mud buildings we have none. Besides the employment 

 from husbandry, the men work in hop-gardens, of which we 

 have many ; and fell and bark timber. In the spring and 

 summer the women weed the corn; and enjoy a second 

 harvest in September by hop-picking. Formerly, in the 

 dead months they availed themselves greatly by spinning 



* A very intelligent gentleman assures me (and he speaks from 

 upwards of forty years' experience), that the mean rain of any place 

 cannot be ascertained till a person has measured it for a very long 

 period. " If I had only measured the rain," says he, " for the four 

 first years, from 1740 to 1743, I should have said the mean rain at 

 Lyndon was 16| inches for the year ; if from 1740 to 1750, 18J inches. 

 The mean rain before 1763 was 20^ inches, from 1763 and since 25^ 

 inches, from 1770 to 1780, 26 inches. If only 1773, 1774, and 1775 

 had been measured, Lyndon mean rain would have been called 32 

 inches." 



