OF SELBORNE. 187 



in his " Wisdom of God in the Works of the Creation" with 

 the utmost satisfaction, and thinks them equal to any thing 

 he had seen in the finest parts of Europe. 



For my own part, I think there is somewhat peculiarly 

 sweet and amusing in the shapely figured aspect of chalk 

 hills, in preference to those of stone, which are rugged, 

 broken, abrupt, and shapeless. 



Perhaps I may be singular in my opinion, and not so 

 happy as to convey to you the same idea; but I never con- 

 template these mountains without thinking I perceive 

 somewhat analogous to growth in their gentle swellings 

 and smooth fungus-like protuberances, their fluted sides, 

 and regular hollows and slopes, that carry at once the air of 

 vegetative dilatation and expansion. Or was there ever a 

 time when these immense masses of calcareous matter were 

 thrown into fermentation by some adventitious moisture ; 

 were raised and leavened into such shapes by some plastic 

 power; and so made to swell and heave their broad backs 

 into the sky so much above the less animated clay of the 

 wild below ? 



By what I can guess from the admeasurements of the 

 hills that have been taken round my house, I should sup- 

 pose that these hills surmount the wild, at an average, at 

 about the rate of five hundred feet. 



One thing is very remarkable as to the sheep: from the 

 westward till you get to the river Adur all the flocks have 

 horns, and smooth white faces, and white legs ; and a horn- 

 less sheep is rarely to be seen : but as soon as you pass that 

 river eastward, and mount Seeding Hill, all the flocks at once 

 become hornless, or, as they call them, poll sheep ; and 

 have moreover black faces, with a white tuft of wool on 

 their foreheads, and speckled and spotted legs : so that you 

 would think that the flocks of Laban were pasturing on 

 one side of the stream, and the variegated breed of his son- 

 in-law Jacob were cantoned along on the other. And this 

 diversity holds good respectively on each side from tho 

 valley of Bramber and Beeding to the eastward, and west- 

 ward all the whole length of the downs. If you talk with 

 the shepherds on this subject, they tell you that the case 



