NOVEMBER 231 



now to the other end of the Plestor, we enter the 

 churchyard and stop to admire the fine yew, said to be 

 second in size only to one other in England. Compared 

 with the date when it was a slender stripling, White's 

 time seems modern indeed. A pair of nuthatches 

 has adapted one of the holes in its venerable trunk to 

 nesting purposes. No doubt White often stood in its 

 shade to watch the swifts darting into their holes in 

 the church tower, or the white-owl bringing mice to 

 her young ones under the eaves. His grave within the 

 church is unmarked except by his initials, and date, 

 26th June, 1793. 



We now turn our steps towards the Hanger, that 

 " vast hill of chalk rising three hundred feet above the 

 village.'' The beeches with which it is covered are 

 tall and slender, owing to their growing so closely 

 together. It was here that a boy climbed one of them 

 " though standing on so steep and dizzy a situation " 

 to plunder the honey-buzzards' nest. A large part of 

 the wood has been cleared from the top of the hanger, 

 the trees having apparently fallen before some south- 

 west gale. The little summer-house where White and 

 his friends used to come to take tea on fine summer 

 evenings, when on one occasion a nightjar, perching 

 on the roof to " churr," caused the whole structure to 

 vibrate, must have been somewhere hereabouts, perhaps 

 at the spot where the trees have been removed to allow 

 us to catch sight of the village below. From this point 



