4 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



Hedleigh, and the Alton and Farnham stream at Tilford-bridge, swells 

 into a considerable river, navigable at Godalming; from whence it 

 passes to Guilford, and so into the Thames at Weybridge ; and thus at 

 the Nore into the German Ocean. 



Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, and when 

 sunk to that depth seldom fail ; but produce a fine limpid water, soft to 

 the taste, and much commended by those who drink the pure element, 

 but which does not lather well with soap. 



To the north-west, north and east of the village, is a range of fair 

 enclosures, consisting of what is called a white malm, a sort of rotten 

 or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the frost and rain, moulders 

 to pieces, and becomes manure to itself.* 



Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of white land, 

 neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture 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. 



LETTEE II. 



TO THE SAME. 



IN the court of Norton farm-house, a manor farm to the north-west 

 of the village, on the white malms, 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, f 



* This soil produces good wheat and clover. 



f Mr. White seems to have adopted no plan or rule in arranging the subjects 

 of these letters. They are taken up as they occur or have been observed. This 

 may have its advantages, as recording the observations when freshly made, or 

 before the memory had failed, but a correspondence or journal kept in this way 

 would almost require for the sake of convenience to have the subjects brought 

 more together. Thus there are frequent observations afterwards upon the 



