OF SELBORNE 3 



tory, remarkable for sending forth two streams into two different 

 seas. The one to the south becomes a branch of the Aran, 

 running to Arundel, and so falling into the British channel : the 

 other to the north,i the Selbome stream, makes one branch of 

 the Wey ; and, meeting the Black-dorvn stream at Hedleigh, and 

 the Alton and Famham stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a con- 

 siderable river, navigable at Godalming ; ^ from whence it passes 

 to Guildford, and so into the Thames at Wei/bridge; 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 into the freestone, 

 and have their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at hand. 

 This 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 shakey, and so 

 brittle as often to fall to pieces in sawing. Beyond the sandy 



1 [In orig. there is a full stop at north.'] 



' [ Artificially navigable, by canal. The distance of the Holt from water-carriage 

 is now still further reduced.] 



S[The usual depth of the porous upper greensand, which rests upon an imper- 

 vious stratum, the gault.] 



^[The upper greensand, which includes the "white land" mentioned below. 

 " Malm," or marl, denotes a clayey bed, the sandstones being locally known as 

 "firestones," or "freestones," and the limestones as "ragstones" The upper 

 greensand is the hop-country of Hampshire.] 



' This soil produces good wheat and clover. 



' [ Junction of the gault and lower greensand. Temple farm stands on the upper 

 greensand, close to the gault, Blackmoor on the lower greensand. The "hungry 

 lean sand" marks the upper measures of the lower greensand (Folkestone Beds), 

 which are marked in the south-eastern counties by the prevalence of heaths and 

 commons.] 



