THE 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER I. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 



The parish of Selborne lies in the extreme eastern comer of the 

 county of Hampshire, bordering on the county of Sussex, and not 

 far from the county of Surrey ; is about iifty miles south-west of 

 London, in latitude 51, and near midway between the towns of 

 Alton and Petersfield. 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 westward the 

 adjacent parishes are Emshot, Newton Valence,'^ Faringdon, Harteley 

 Mauduit, Great Ward le ham,^ Kingsley, 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 three 

 hundred feet 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 it's smooth rind or bark, 

 it's 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 



1 "Newton Valence derives its adjunct from William de Valentin, half-brother 

 to Henry IH., who held the manor in 1273." — Moody. The name in Domesday 

 Book is spelt Newentone. — Bell. 



^ [ White spells the name thus on theoretical grounds. Worldham is the present 

 form.] 



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