OF SELBORNE 11 



mould, called black malm, which seems highly saturated 

 with vegetable and animal manure ; and these may 

 perhaps have been the original site of the town ; while the 

 wood and coverts might extend down to the opposite bank. 



At each end of the village, which runs from south-east 

 to north-west, arises a small rivulet : that at the north- 

 west end frequently fails ; but the other is a fine perennial 

 spring little influenced by drought or wet seasons, called 

 Well-head.* This breaks out of some high grounds 

 joining to Nore Hill, a noble chalk promontory, remark- 

 able for sending forth two streams into two different seas. , 

 The one to the south becomes a branch of the Arun, 

 running to Arundel, and so falling into the British 

 Channel : the other to the north. The Selborne stream 

 makes one branch of the Wey ; and meeting the Black- 

 down stream at Hedleigh, and the Alton and Farnham 

 stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a considerable river, 

 navigable at Godalming ; from whence it passes to Guild- 

 ford, and so into the Thames at Weybridge ; 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 \5rell 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 .f 



* This spring produced, September 14, 1781, after a severe hot 

 summer, and a preceding dry spring and winter, nine gallons of 

 water in a minute, which is five hundred and forty in an hour, and 

 twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty, or two hundred and six- 

 teen hogsheads, in twenty-four hours, or one natural day. At this 

 time many of the wells failed, and all the ponds in the vales were dry. 



t This soil produces good wheat and clover. 



