2 NATURAL HISTORY 



field. Being very large and extensive, it abuts on twelve 

 parishes, two of which are in Sussex, viz. Trotton and 

 Rogate. If you begin from the south and proceed west- 

 ward, the adjacent parishes are Emshot, Newton Valence, 

 Faringdon, Harteley Mauduit, 1 Great Ward le ham, 2 Kings- 

 ley, Hedleigh, Bramshot, Trotton, Rogate, Lysse, and 

 Greatham. The soils of this district are almost as various 

 and diversified as the views and aspects. The high part to 

 the south-west consists of a vast hill of chalk, rising 300 ft. 

 above the village ; and is divided into a sheep down, the 

 high wood, and a long hanging wood called ,The Hanger. 

 / The covert of this eminence is altogether beech, the most 

 lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its smooth 

 rind or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful pendulous 

 boughs. The down, or sheep-walk, is a pleasing park-like 

 spot, of about one mile by half that space, jutting out on the 

 verge of the hill country, where it begins to break down 

 into the plains, and commanding a very engaging view, 

 being an assemblage of hill, dale, woodlands, heath, and 

 water. The prospect is bounded to the south-east and 

 east by the vast range of mountains called the Sussex 

 Downs, by Guild Down near Guildford, and by the Downs 

 round Dorking and Ryegate in Surrey, to the north-east ; 

 which, altogether, with the country beyond Alton and Farn- 

 ham, form a noble and extensive outline. 



1 Mr. Bennett, in a foot-note to this passage, which appeared in his 

 edition of the present work, published in 1837, states that in the paro- 

 chial registers the orthography is Harteley Maudytt. Mauduit, used 

 by Gilbert White, is, however, a more usual reading of Malduith, the 

 name of the earliest Norman lord, which was used subsequently to the 

 Conquest as an adjunct to the Saxon appellation, for the purpose of dis- 

 tinguishing this Harteley from the other Hartleys in the same county to 

 the north of it. ED. 



2 The orthography in the text, though formal in appearance, was 

 deliberately adopted by the author, who, in his first edition, inserted all 

 deviations from it as errata ; it is, consequently, preserved throughout. 

 Wordlam, according to Mr. Bennett, is a pronunciation not unfrequently 

 used in the neighbourhood : but Worldham is the more ordinary name. 

 And in this case he suspects that the vulgar are right ; Werildeham, 

 the oldest name which he could find for it, belonging to an era prior to 

 the erection in England of Norman castles. ED. 



