THE 

 NATURAL HISTORY 



OF 



SELBORNE 



LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THOMAS PENNANT, 

 ESQUIRE ♦ 



LETTER I 



The parish of Selborne lies in the extreme eastern 

 corner of the county of Hampshire, bordering on the 

 county of Sussex, and not far from the county of Surrey ; 

 is about fifty miles south-west of London, in latitude 51, 

 and near midway between the towns of Alton and Peters- 

 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 

 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 



* Thomas Pennant was a naturalist six years younger than 

 Gilbert "White. He was born at Downing, in Flintshire, in 1726, 

 and died in 1798, Uke White, in the house in which he had been 

 born. His love of Natural History made him a traveller at home 

 and abroad. He counted Buflon among his friends. He had 

 written many books before the date of the publication of White's 

 Selborne. Pennant's British Zoology, his History of Quadrupeds and 

 Arctic Zoology had a high reputation. He wrote also a Tour in 

 Wales and a History of London. 



55— A* 9 



